Skënderbeu Stadium: A Welcoming Venue in Korçë
Skënderbeu Stadium is in the city of Korçë, at Gjergj Kastrioti road, 7001. It belongs to the local team of KF Skënderbeu. The stadium includes a small covered stand, 105×68 meters (344×223 ft.) football pitch made of natural grass, and an athletic track.
Facts from the pre-90s era
Skënderbeu Stadium opened in 1957. The local team achieved its first victory in the new stadium that same year, 1-0 against Partizani. Back then, the stadium was part of a very modest sports complex. Until 1989, Skënderbeu Stadium hosted the league games of the home teams, often in lower-tier divisions.
After 1989, maintenance staff abandoned the sports facilities around the stadium. The venue itself remained in a state of despair for about two decades. In 2008, sports-related entities made the first post-communist renovative intervention in the stadium.
Renovation in 2010
The most significant renovation work happened in 2010. It included the expansion and covering of the main stand, the installation of plastic seats across all sectors, and the mounting of four floodlight towers for matches at night. By completion, the stadium reached a seated capacity of 12,373 people and a UEFA 3-star category. On 13 November 2010, the venue opened to host the first game played at night, the Skënderbeu 3-2 Dinamo Tirana. The new infrastructure helped KF Skënderbeu secure qualification into the UEFA Europa League 2015-2016 group stage.
Towards the future
On July 2016, the local team was penalized by UEFA with ten years off its competitions due to involvement in bet-fixing affairs. That decision discouraged further short-term investments. However, in 2017, a mega project was designed to establish a new Olympic park in the area, including the stadium. It resulted in the building of multiple sports facilities in the following years. The concepts impacting the stadium have yet to conclude.
* Skënderbeu Stadium features in our top 10 Albanian stadiums *
