1 Liga
ArselorMittal Park, Sosnowiec
I still remember the day I went to see an old Zaglebie stadium. I totally loved it but they desperately needed a new one as it was barely functional. And finally the inaugural game of the new arena was announced. I was curious and wanted to go to see an opening game against the local rivals.
There is a direct tram from downtown Katowice but I decided to take a walk from the center of Sosnowiec. It took me about 45 minutes on foot. I have not seen much of Sosnowiec before and I gotta tell you that it's not pretty.
The new ArcelorMittal Arena is a part of the whole new sports complex that will have various facilities including a new hockey arena. And all that will be located a the big park. A commonplace practice for these events is to open new stadiums even when some works are still being done. That was the case here. The entire area around the ground is just basically a construction site. All the paths and access roads to the ground were still being built and you had to walk in a mud and sand to approach the ground. That was also the reason why there were no away fans - it would have been impossible to police the crowds properly in such conditions with no real roads and no proper illumination.
It was just the opening night so naturally there was a lot of confusion going on by the stewards and the staff about the facilities. I entered through the wrong gate and quickly realized there was no way to go to my ticket seat. I also could not go back through the turnstile and all the stewards were busy dealing with the constant stream of fans in the new stadium that was obviously sold out. So I just stood at the concourse hoping that nobody would bother me. In fact, standing was an only option as the weather turned to wet snow and rain. Funny thing that Sosnowiec finally got their covered stadium but it turned out right during the first game, that it's not fit for this purpose. The "walls" of the stadium are very mesh-like and have openings so the seats were wet. I survived an awful rainy game at the old Zaglebie stadium and it was just like going back in time as everybody wet all over again.
All the Zaglebie fans were obviously present for such a big occasion. Of course, all their friends from other teams decided to visit. There were lots of people with Legia scarves and you could see various banners of other friendly teams such as Radomiak Radom, BKS Stal Bielsko-Biala, Czuwaj Przemysl. And that's how I found out that Zaglebie are also friends with Slavia Prague. Zaglebie fans had a real good time at such a big game, presented some tifo, had some pyroshow going on. I don't really remember much of the game, it was quite a boring one. But I'm really happy for the home team when they were able to snatch a win in the opening game against local rivals.
Overall I had very mixed feeling about the new ground. I definitely loved the old one. The new stadium may be modern but it felt nothing special and I'm not sure I will rush back there any time soon.
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