Spyros Kyprianou arena’s upgrade has begun ahead of EuroBasket 2025 (pics)

The upgrade projects of the "Spyros Kyprianou" stadium in Limassol, which will host the biggest sports event ever held in Cyprus, the FIBA ​​EuroBasket 2025, are in full progress.

In an interview with InBusinessNews, the President of the Cyprus Basketball Federation (CBF) Andreas Mouzourides, refers to the projects that will be carried out at the stadium, stressing their importance both for Limassol and for Cyprus.

As he characteristically indicates, "FIBA EuroBasket 2025 will leave as a legacy, for Limassol and Cyprus, a fully renovated indoor stadium".

"This is an important investment, which is also being made in the context of the State’s new policy to strengthen and upgrade sports tourism in our country and to create new sources of income for our country," he further underlines.

The progress of the projects

Have the upgrade projects at the "Spyros Kyprianou" arena started in view of the organisation of FIBA ​​EuroBasket 2025?

On 31 July, the contracts between the Public Works Department and the project contractor were signed and immediately after that the works began.

All this was completed about a month earlier than expected, due to the very good work done by the Public Works Department team and the Ministry of Transport, Communications and Works.

In general, I want to emphasise that there is excellent cooperation with the Government, with the competent minister and of course the President of the Republic himself and such an undertaking could not be implemented without excellent cooperation, as it does not concern only one Federation or even only the Cyprus Sports Organisation (CSO), but it concerns the state itself, which guarantees the smooth hosting of events of this level, and the stadium is a key component of the event.

How are the stadium upgrade projects progressing and when are they expected to be completed?

Renovation work has already started in the changing rooms, the parquet and other areas since the beginning of August. The studies scheduled for some other parts of the stadium and the orders of all the materials that will come from abroad are being completed, while work is being carried out in other parts of the stadium.

The most time-consuming parts were the pre-study, the process of creating the documents, the tenders and now that these have been completed, the project has taken its course and is entering a faster pace.

The agreement provides for delivery of the project in early July 2025. Both the Public Works team and the team of the project contractor (A&A Apostolides Contractors & Developers) are very experienced and this helps the process a lot.

The Cyprus Basketball Federation has an advisory role where requested, so that the provisions of the FIBA ​​EuroBasket 2025 manual are followed and where necessary the CSO is of course also involved, as it is the owner of the stadium.

I want to emphasise that all the bodies involved feel the delivery of the stadium to the deadlines and the quality required it is a national matter for concerning the country’s reputation.

The cost and the works to be done

What is the cost of upgrading the stadium?

The cost of the upgrade is expected to reach €14.5 million. All these details are on the e-procurement public tenders’ platform since the tender was announced by the Department of Public Works.

At this point I would like to mention that, the stadium is already 20 years old, it is the largest indoor stadium in Cyprus with five floors, but the necessary renovation works to modernise it, are many and significant. The needs were different in 2000, when the stadium was designed, and different in 2024.

In Cyprus we often see sports facilities falling far behind in terms of modern needs and fortunately, FIBA ​​EuroBasket 2025 will leave as a legacy, for Limassol and Cyprus, a fully renovated indoor stadium, which will have a new life of several decades.

And I also want to emphasise that the renovated "Spyros Kyprianou" can, and should, be used for other major events, whether sporting or otherwise, in the coming years.

This, after all, also happens abroad, where facilities are used for years, for various large events.

This is an important investment, which is made in the context of the State’s new policy to strengthen and upgrade sports tourism in our country and to create new sources of income for our country.

After all, it is the government's intention to start a series of upgrades in other indoor facilities as well.

What works will be done so that the stadium can host such animportant event as FIBA ​​EuroBasket 2025?

The projects that will be carried out over the coming year at "Spyros Kyprianou", concern the upgrading of lighting, electricity, air conditioning, ventilation and sound system of the stadium, the installation of new cabling systems, technology, internet, etc., the total renovation of the teams' locker rooms, and also partial renovation of all the halls and changing rooms that will be used for the event.

Regarding the bleachers, new bleachers will be installed, which, while the provisions were in place, had never been installed until today, as well as the addition of some mobile bleachers. Also, additional emergency, safety and accessibility exits will be created, in accordance with the updated legislation.

At the same time, a CCTV system will be installed which did not exist and is mandatory under the new legislation, new parquet and equipment will be installed, such as baskets, scoreboards and time boards, video screens will be installed, carpets will be renovated and external landscaping will be carried out where necessary, park and ride points created, and many other smaller scale works carried out in various parts of the stadium.

All the works that will be done on the stadium, with the exception of some small mobile stands, will remain as a legacy even after the event is over.

As you can imagine, the budget for the renovation is large, but at the same time, the work to be done on the stadium is equally large and important.

And the best time to do a stadium renovation of this level is for an international event that, according to the studies of major international houses, will channel a large amount back into the country's economy.

The importance of the event and the tickets

What is the significance of the event for our country?

Organising the FIBA ​​EuroBasket is a very demanding, tough and time-consuming process, let alone for a small country like ours. I remind you that we are the smallest country that has undertaken an organisation of this level.
However, organisationally, everything is progressing based on the initial planning and the staffing of the partners of the Organising Committee was done by people that are very experienced in their field.

What about match tickets? Is there interest from the public?

As far as tickets are concerned, with instructions from FIBA, the process of selling tickets to the public has also started, one year before the start of the event.
The reason is that attendance records have been observed in all the previous major basketball events worldwide, with the most recent example being the Olympic Games where one million tickets were allocated for basketball and that is why they want to start this process early.
We are sure that the tickets will move to the levels we have calculated, as the interest of the people in events of this level is huge.

Tickets are available exclusively from the more.com platform . Corporate packages are available separately to companies that would like to have a presence at EuroBasket, either for their staff or for their customers.

The number of tickets for an event of this level is small, compared to other countries with larger stadiums, and they are expected to sell out quite early in some categories.

For corporate match tickets, as well as VIP Hospitality options, interested parties can contact info@cyp.eb2025.com for more information and availability.

Also read: FIBA EuroBasket 2025 ticket prices announced

(Source: InBusinessNews)