Date: 14 January 2024
Experience
Regarded as one of Poland’s most iconic examples of modernist architecture, Katowice’s Spodek Arena makes for an unlikely football venue. Generally known as ‘the UFO building’ given its likeness to a flying saucer, this indoor facility has witnessed some of the biggest moments in the city’s history and is a must-visit whether or not football is on the menu.
Breaking ground in 1964 and completed in 1971, the venue was revolutionary at the time, an engineering masterpiece that saw a wheel-shaped object suspended from the ground courtesy of an intricate system of load-bearing cables. However, as pioneering as the design may have been, the architects had paid little heed to the land it had been built on. Not long after work had begun, it didn’t take long for builders to hit seams of coal. Within weeks, rumours began circulating as to the unsteady nature of the ground.
Worried about a potential cave-in, on the eve of the opening 4,000 soldiers were press-ganged to march up and down the aisles whilst singing and clapping. These nervous recruits would determine if the arene would collapse. It did not.
With its opening green lighted, the arena did not look back. Over the following years it saw speeches by Leonid Brezhnev, Lech Walesa and Fidel Castro, as well as sellout screenings of the Godfather, Star Wars and Apocalypse Now. Musically, it welcomed Tina Turner in 1981 and Elton John in 1984, both gigs helping lift the troubled sense of gloom that hung over Poland during these politically oppressive time. Following the fall of the Iron Curtain, it continued to serve as a concert hall, and The Smashing Pumpkins were so awed by the place that they featured it on the inside cover of the album Adore.
For all that, it is sports that the arena has come to be associated with. Seen as the home of Polish volleyball, it was here that the national squad won the World Championship in 2014. Here, too, the country’s ice hockey side recorded its most famous win of all: a 6-4 victory over the USSR in 1976. To put the result into context, just two months before they had lost 16-1 to the same team.
So where does football come in all of this. Let’s zap forward to 1995 – it was then that the powers that be decided to hold an indoor tournament featuring local sides. Held during the winter break, the Spodek Super Cup was envisaged as a friendly, family-forward tournament.
The first two were successful, but things went dramatically wrong in 1998. Seeing some of the worst rioting in the history of Polish football, things span out of control after rival factions first began chucking food at each other. It didn’t take long for matters to escalate.
As battles broke out between fans of GKS Katowice, Ruch Chorzow, Gornik Zabrze, Wisla Krakow, LKS Lodz, GKS Tychy, Rakow Czestochowa, Lech Poznan and Odra Wodzislaw, the arena descended into a complete and utter bloodbath. Over 1,000 seats were ripped out and in excess of 100 fans were rushed to hospital.
With that in mind, it was no surprise that it wasn’t until 2024 that the tournament was revived – and this time featuring teams only on good terms with GKS Katowice. It was for this that I travelled.
I’ve seen the Spodek a jillion times, but never had I been inside before. Seeing it first-hand, you can imagine just how terrifying the riot must have been – it is a riddle of unmarked corridors, steep stairwells, low bannisters, dark corners and locked doors. Having seen footage of the 1998, I find it impossible to fathom that scores didn’t die.
This time around, though, it had the atmosphere of a beer festival. Pretty much all tickets had been sold, with the gaps in the stands explained by the fact that when teams weren’t involved their fans would descend to the concourse to get stuck into the beer. That’s what I kept doing as well, which explains how I managed to miss most of the tifo shows that were put on that day.
At around six-hours, this five-a-side event promised death by football. Often suffocatingly hot as well, the arena can definitely no longer be described as being state-of-the-art. But unique it certainly is, and for that alone I can’t recommend it highly enough.
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