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According to [url="http://www.in-the-game.org/?page_id=9923"]In The Game[/url] Olympiaocs averages 6500 fans this season and averaged 6400 last season. So I think it is safe to say their potential is around 6.5K



SEF arena has a capacity of 11K, it is old and it looks like this:









In the summer Olympiacos [url="http://www.talkbasket.net/news/olympiacos-to-quit-sef-pics-3276.html"]wanted to move to Hellenikon arena[/url], but there were legal issues and AEK who played there, refused to leave. Helleniko arena is about 15km away from SEF and it's harder to access for majority of Olympiacos fans than SEF. It looks like this:











So we come to my question. Why in the hell Olympiacos doesn't move to Faliro arena? It's 5kms away from SEF, easily accessible from both Piraeus and Athens and it's magnificent to look at. Especially from the outside it is probably the most aesthetically pleasing arena in entire Greece. It has a potential capacity of 8.5K and it is a pure indoors arena, no running tracks around the court or anything. It looks like this:











So use the poll to vote where should Olympiacos play.



Images were taken from [url="http://www.stadia.gr/maps/mapathens-b.html"]Greek Stadia[/url]

It's better to play in Hellenikon arena than in Faliro arena.Hellenikon arena they have over 10k needed for Euroleague.And it's nice hall. <img src='http://www.talkbasket.net/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/cool.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' />

In order to maintain a contract with Euroleague your home arena must have 10,000 seats. Faliro can be fitted to hold 10,000 for basketball, but it only has 8,500 seats and since the arena has many other uses you could not add those extra seats. So the club can't use Faliro because it's too small.



SEF has too much space from the court and even though it can hold about 2 more tiers of seats, they can't really do that because of the other uses of the arena.



By far and away Helliniko would be the best arena for them. The problem with Helliniko is that only the 8,000 lower level seats and the 500 media seats are available. The upper level's 6,000 seats have not been in use since the Olympics.



So before they could move to Helliniko they would have to put 2,000 of the upper level seats back into use (even though there are 500 media seats in the lower level that count in the capacity the 10,000 rule I believe is only for fan seating).



So in order for them to move into Helliniko they would have to do quite a bit of renovations to the seating area as well as to the rest of the arena.



SEF has everything you can imagine. Helliniko does not. It would take a big amount of money to get Helliniko up to the level of SEF and you have to wonder if the arena owners want those changes (I would guess they would) but Olympiacos would have to pay for it and it would cost millions of euros.



SEF has all the amenities of any top NBA arena, it's just that the seating area of the court was not made for basketball and is too far away. But the amenities of the arena are top notch for any league, anywhere in the world. Helliniko has a much nicer court area for viewing basketball, but it amenities pale in comparison.



Olympiacos would have to invest a ton of money into the arena to get it up to what Olympiacos fans expect to be available to them when they go to a game.



So in short, the definite best choice is Helliniko, but it would cost the club a lot of money.



I think the better question is why does AEK have such a strange arena situation? They had Galatsi Hall and even the government was going to expand it and put seats around the court and then they just left it and ever since they don't even have an arena. Pretty bizarre. Yes, they used OAKA and now Helliniko, but last year they even used Sporting Arena, which I think is one of the oldest ones in Athens.



I have heard they planned to build an arena with 3,500 seats, but that is also strange because you won't even be able to play Eurocup with less than 5,000 in a couple of years. AEK is a disgrace with the way the club has turned.

Why not improve SEF instead? Since it has all the amenities, and has been Oly's traditional home court.

[quote name='ZEUS' timestamp='1290433820' post='26405']

Why not improve SEF instead? Since it has all the amenities, and has been Oly's traditional home court.

[/quote]



The stands are too far from the court. So the home court advantage is diminished. It's not the same impact as at OAKA, Alexandrio, PAOK.

Yeah well, they could remove the running track and get things started from there. There are loads of other venues that are useful for track events and/or training of athletes. How about modifying an arena JUST for basketball and nothing else? It's not like we're in the 60's anymore <img src='http://www.talkbasket.net/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/rolleyes.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' />