The Silesian Stadium (; Polish: ) is a sport stadium located on the premises of Silesian Park in Chorzów, Poland. The stadium has a fully covered capacity of 54,378, after refurbishment completed in October 2017. The stadium hosted many Poland national football team matches and for many decades was Poland's national stadium. After the National Stadium in Warsaw was completed, the Silesian Stadium lost that role. The stadium was not in operation between 2009 and 2017 due to its ongoing reconstruction.

Silesian Stadium is a UEFA Category 4 stadium and hosts the annual Kamila Skolimowska Memorial, a Diamond League meeting. The stadium hosted the athletics events of the 2023 European Games and is set to host the 2028 European Athletics Championships.

History In 1950, as a part of an ambitious project to build Silesian Park, plans for Silesian Stadium were drawn up by Julian Brzuchowski. Construction began in 1951, and the stadium opened in 1956. The stadium was inaugurated on 22 July 1956 with a match against East Germany.

In 1993, the stadium officially was branded as Polish national stadium, due to the state of the venue in Warsaw. The stadium regularly hosted football matches, as well as concerts and other events.

Modernization

Beginning in 2009, the stadium underwent modernization in order to be a host stadium for UEFA Euro 2012 tournament. The rebuild included the construction of a 43,000 square metre roof, new stands, lighting, video screens and an improved sound system. The new roof collapsed in 2011 significantly delaying the project, which was finally completed in 2017.

The speedway track has been replaced with a traditional track that will allow Chorzów to host international athletics events.

Though originally planned to be completed by autumn 2011 for 415 million złoty, the finishing touches were only completed in 2017 costing around 650 million złoty.

The venue was also shortlisted as the Polish candidate for UEFA Euro 2020.

Events Football Poland national football team

Before renovation No. Date Match Result Turnout 1 22 July 1956 – 0–2 90,000 2 20 October 1957 – 2–1 93,000 3 11 May 1958 – Ireland 2–2 80,000 4 14 September 1958 – 1–3 90,000 5 28 June 1959 – 2–4 71,469 6 8 November 1959 – 6–2 22,000 7 26 June 1960 – 4–0 25,000 8 25 June 1961 – 1–1 57,000 9 5 November 1961 – 5–0 12,000 10 10 October 1962 – 0–2 31,496 11 2 June 1963 – 1–1 40,000 12 23 May 1965 – 1–1 67,462 13 3 May 1966 – 1–1 95,000 14 5 July 1966 – 0–1 70,000 15 21 May 1967 – 3–1 57,050 16 24 April 1968 – 8–0 17,000 17 30 October 1968 – Ireland 1–0 18,000 18 7 September 1969 – 2–1 85,000 19 14 October 1970 – 3–0 8,507 20 6 June 1973 – 2–0 73,714 21 26 September 1973 – 3–0 70,181 22 10 September 1975 – 4–1 70,409 23 24,March 1976 – 1–2 60,000 24 21 September 1977 – 4–1 80,000 25 29 October 1977 – 1–1 80,000 26 4 April 1979 – 1–1 60,000 27 2 May 1979 – 2–0 71,298 28 26 September 1979 – 1–1 63,938 29 6 June 1980 – 1–1 45,000 30 2 May 1981 – 1–0 74,000 31 2 September 1981 – 0–2 70,000 32 22 May 1983 – 1–1 69,044 33 11 September 1985 – 0–0 68,978 34 16 November 1985 – 1–0 20,000 35 19 October 1988 – 1–0 35,000 36 11 October 1989 – 0–0 32,423 37 25 October 1989 – 0–2 12,000 38 29 May 1993 – 1–1 65,000 39 2 April 1997 – 0–0 32,000 40 31 May 1997 – 0–2 32,000 41 27 May 1998 – 3–1 7,000 42 31 March 1999 – 0–1 28,860 43 1 September 2001 – 3–0 42,500 44 6 October 2001 – 1–1 20,900 45 29 March 2003 – 0–0 42,200 46 10 September 2003 – 0–2 18,500 47 8 September 2004 – 1–2 38,000 48 3 September 2005 – 3–2 40,000 49 31 May 2006 – 1–2 40,000 50 11 October 2006 – 2–1 38,199 51 17 November 2007 – 2–0 41,450 52 1 June 2008 – 1–1 35,000 53 11 October 2008 – Czechia 2–1 38,293 54 5 September 2009 – 1–1 38,914 55 14 October 2009 – 0–1 4,500

After renovation No. Date Match Result Turnout 1 27 March 2018 – South Korea 3–2 53,129 2 11 October 2018 – 2–3 48,783 3 14 October 2018 – 0–1 41,692 4 11 November 2020 – 2–0 05 18 November 2020 – 1–2 06 29 March 2022 – 2–0 54,078 7 6 June 2025 – 2–0 36,3578 7 September 2025 – 3–1 50,8979 9 October 2025 – 1–0 30,412

All-time results

Team Played Won Drawn Lost 64 29 18 17 104 64 +40

Club football Numerous Ekstraklasa matches have been played - mostly by the local team Ruch Chorzów, especially for the Great Silesian Derby matches against neighbours Górnik Zabrze due to extra interest from the fans. As it used to be the only national stadium with such a large capacity in the country for numerous years, Polish Cup matches have been frequently hosted there too, especially the final matches.

Youth football KS Stadion Śląski Chorzów is a youth football academy club, specializing in youth development.

Speedway The football pitch at the Silesia Stadium used to be surrounded by a long Motorcycle speedway track. The first World Final held at the stadium in 1973, was run in front of the largest crowd in world speedway history. English speedway 'golden boy' Peter Collins won the 1976 World Final at Silesian.

Ivan Mauger won the 1979 World Final at the stadium. Silesian also hosted the Final of the 1974 Speedway World Team Cup, won by England, as well as the Final of both the 1978 and 1981 World Pairs Championships.

The stadium hosted the final round of the Individual Speedway European Championship on 21 September 2024.

Track and field

In 1967, the Silesian Stadium hosted the Polish Athletics Championships. In 1969, during an athletics tournament between Poland, East Germany and Soviet Union, Nadezhda Chizhova became the first woman in history to break the 20 metre barrier in shot put, setting the world record at 20.09m. In 2010, an official bid to organize the World Athletics Championships in Chorzów was submitted, however, the city lost to Beijing in the selection process.

Between 9–12 June 2018, the 11th Polish Summer Special Olympics Games took place at the Silesian Stadium. On 22 August 2018, the stadium was chosen to host the Kamila Skolimowska Memorial, which attracted 41,200 spectators.

In May 2021, Silesian Stadium hosted the 2021 World Athletics Relays and European Team Championships Super League.

Concerts and other events Silesian Stadium has hosted large music concerts in its history by many artists and groups including The Rolling Stones, Metallica, Guns N' Roses, AC/DC, U2, Pearl Jam, Linkin Park, Iron Maiden, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Genesis, The Police, Behemoth, Rammstein, Slipknot, Machine Head.

In 2009, it was the venue of performances by Monster Jam, and again in 2018.

See also Chorzów Silesian Park List of football stadiums in Poland Lists of stadiums

Notes

References

Gazeta Wyborcza "Pół wieku Stadionu Śląskiego" Część 1, 26 czerwca 2006, page: 1, 2, 3, 4 "Pół wieku Stadionu Śląskiego" Część 3, 10 lipca 2006, page: 1, 2, 3, 4 "Pół wieku Stadionu Śląskiego" Część 4, 17 lipca 2006, page: 1, 2, 3, 4

External links

Stadium history