OPAP ARENA

Athens, Greece

In September 2022, the AEK FC Greek football team and its fans marked a historic moment - after 19 years without a home ground, the club’s new state-of-the-art stadium was finally opened to great fanfare and celebration. The club, which was founded by Greek refugees from Istanbul, hosted an impressive inauguration ceremony that reflected its rich history and showcased the enthusiasm of its loyal supporters.

The AEK Arena stadium meets the highest standards for FIFA/UEFA Elite stadiums, earning a Category 4 ranking. It boasts its own club museum, as well as a Hellenic Refugees museum, with the project also including a regeneration programme for the surrounding park and urban areas.

Daplast, a leading manufacturer of stadium seating and temporary modular grandstands, was instrumental in the stadium’s design and planning. The company’s technical department studied the original grandstand technical drawings and collaborated with partners to propose the very best solution for AEK FC’s new home. The team actually travelled to Athens to visit the construction site, measuring the grandstands and ensuring that every detail was accounted for. From there, Daplast proposed various designs and colour distributions.

Daplast’s CR4 stadium seat model, which features PP and fiberglass supports, was the chosen solution. The highbackrest seat, which has been successfully installed in several La Liga stadiums, is homologated by the FIBA and designed according to FIFA recommendations for UEFA stadiums. The fiberglass supports are 100 percent rustproof and resistant to humidity and salinity, providing significant savings on maintenance costs. They come in two versions: floormounted in the lower grandstand and riser-mounted in the upper grandstand, according to each grandstand’s crosssection dimensions.

For the important installation phase, Daplast worked with Greece-based partners, Tsaoussoglou S.A. However, one of Daplast’s experienced installers was on hand at the venue to train and guide those in charge of the installation. In the end, more than 29,000 CR4 seats were installed in the grandstands, predominantly in the club’s custom-made shade of yellow.

Daplast seats are tested according to international standards EN 12727:01 for spectator seating on resistance and durability. Daplast is operating under the ISO 9001 quality assurance system and ISO 14001 Environmental Management System for manufacturing stadium seats.

With 14 seat models on the market, the Córdoba-based company have equipped many stadiums and arenas across the globe, including Real Madrid’s Santiago Bernabéu Stadium, FC Barcelona’s Camp Nou, Khalifa bin Zayed Stadium, Al Sharjah Stadium and Hong Kong Jockey Club to name a few. With installations in countries such as England, Mexico, Macau, Vietnam, New Zealand, Russia, the Netherlands, Germany, France, Austria, Lebanon, Egypt, Iran, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Turkey, Morocco, Algeria, and Argentina, Daplast is dedicated to providing the highest quality products and services to its clients.

Orléans, France

Images: Didier Depoorter, Populous