About the Stadion Cracovia Stadion Cracovia is nowadays more commonly known as the Jana Pawla II stadium – the John Paul II stadium after the previous Pope who was born in the city (and rumoured to be a Cracovia fan. It is very similar to a number of stadiums in Poland with one single semi-covered stand, and three sides of open air seating. Since the stadium originally opened in 1912 there have been few changes, apart from the conversion to all seater. With the redevelopment of the Wisla Stadion across the park still not finalised, the club have submitted ambitious plans for their own redeveloped arena – as you can see below.
Who plays there? The Cracovia is home to the team of the same name – the oldest club side in Poland. They can trace their roots back to 1894 although the current club were officially formed in June 1906. The club were one of the few travelling ambassadors for the club, travelling far and wide to play friendlies against clubs in Budapest, Vienna, Paris and even London.
In the early 1920’s Polish football began in earnest with the first ever national championship. Cracovia won this in 1921 to gain another “first”. In 1928 they won the title again, by this time known as the Polish National Championship. They won it again in 1932 but less than two years later they managed to get themselves relegated.
After the end of the war, the two teams fro Krakow surprisingly led the war in post war Polish football. In 1948 the club won the championship for the last time after holding off a strong challenge from Wisla Krakow. Since then they have floated between the top two divisions, falling further behind city rivals Wisla. In fact they have even fallen as low as the fourth division at some points during the past 20 years. It does seem today that some consistency has returned to the club after successive top half table finishes, the last one in 2007 being in 4th place.
How to get there The stadium is located on the western fringes of the old town, alongside the busy Al Focha road. From Rynek it should take no more than 10 minutes to walk to the stadium. Alternatively catch buses 109 or 134 that terminate at the stadium. The stadium is located across the park from bitter local rivals Wisla Krakow, which does lead to problems on occasions when both teams are at home on the same day.
For a better overview of football in the city then go to Footiemap.com.
Getting a ticket Tickets can be purchased from the ticket windows around the ground on a matchday. The most expensive seats in the covered main stand cost 200Zloty. For a seat in the uncovered part of the stand you will pay between 100 and 125Zloty. For a place in the uncovered stand opposite then a ticket here will cost 90Zloty. See the stadium map below for more details.
Tickets can be purchased in advanced from Sklep Kibica in ul Wielicka 101 from 9am to 6.30pm Monday to Friday. With an average attendance of less than 4,000 you should have no difficulty getting a ticket for most games.
WISLA KRAKOW - STADION WISLY - 25,500 CAPACITY
About the Stadion Wisly The Wisla stadium has been home to Wisla Krakow since May 1953 when a 35,000 capacity stadium opened its doors, replacing the smaller Oleandy arena was finally closed. The new stadium was a converted speedway track, with simple mud mounds placed behind the goals and two simple stands along the side of the pitch.
Very few changes took place with the stadium until the arrival of Polish millionaire Boguslaw Cupial in the late 1990’s. He started a slow but thorough redevelopment of the stadium that saw each side being rebuilt to form the smart stadium we see today. However, plans have been drawn up for a more ambitious redevelopment that will see a new 35,500 seater stadium rise from the ashes of the current stadium. It was first thought that the new stadium could be built to hold 40,000 and host both clubs from Krakow but opposition from both sets of fans saw this idea soon dropped. Today the stadium has gone through a 50% development with the pitched turned through 90 degrees and new side stands complete with roofs added. The traditional main stand is still being used but the crumbling open air terrace has now been condemned. Work will only progress when funding (see below) has been secured.
Currently the stadium is on the reserve list for 2012 – at the moment only 8 cities have been included in this list, with Gdansk, Warsaw, Poznan and Chorzaw being chosen for Poland. However, the Polish FA have petitioned UEFA to increase the venues to 5 each for Ukraine and Poland, and if accepted (as it was in Euro2004 in Portugal) Krakow would become the final venue. The redeveloped stadium would look like:-
Who plays there? The Wisly is home to one of Poland’s greatest ever teams, and certainly one of the most famous – Wisla Krakow. However, for long periods of their history they were known as Wisla Towarzystwo Sportowe, only changing their name back to the much more pronounceable Wisla in 1997. The “White Stars” joined the first ever Polish Championships in the 1920’s, winning the title in 1927 and 1928. During the next decade they could not add to this title count but did finish runners up on three occasions as well as winning the Polish Cup for the first time.
It took until after the end of the Second World War for the team to start to dominate again, winning the league in 1949 and 1950 before they went into a period of decline that even saw them relegated on a number of occasions. They reached the top division again in the mid 1970’s and captured a single title in 1978 which allowed them to enter the European Cup for the first time. In a remarkable run they reached the quarter finals where they lost surprisingly to eventual finalists Malmo.
The turning point in the clubs history came in 2000 when they were runners up in the league and the cup. The club hurt from this double defeat and increased their level of effort the following season, winning the league at a canter. Since 2001 they have not finished out of the top two, winning the title for three consecutive years in 2003, 2004 and 2005.
Unfortunately they have not yet been able to translate domestic honours into European success. On four occasions the club have been knocked out of the qualifying rounds of the Champions league – although in 2005 they took Panathinaikos to extra time in the final round before losing 5-4.
How to get there The Wisly Stadion is located on the north side of the Blonia open grounds, and about a kilometre away from rivals Cracovia. It is no more than a 15 minute walk from the old town – simply head westwards down Szewska from Rynek and then turn left into Krupnicza. This road will then become ul Reymonta and the stadium is on the left hand side immediately after the park. Tram lines 15 and 18 terminate just to the south of the stadium.
For a better overview of football in the city then go to Footiemap.com.
Getting a ticket Tickets can be purchased in advanced but only from the ticket windows at either end of the stadium. On match day the queues for tickets can be long and so unless you arrive an hour or so before hand it is prudent to get your pre match day. Tickets start from 30Zloty in the open stands to 120Zloty in the covered main stand.
Getting around The centre of Krakow is compact – full of narrow cobbled streets and wide open squares and plazas where walking is definitely the best option. Trams and buses run outwards from the edges of the old town daily from 5am to 11pm. Tickets can be purchased from newsstands and some stops with automatic ticket machines. A single ticket for either bus or tram is 2.50Zloty, a day travel pass is 10.40Zloty.
The recently renamed airport is located nine miles west of the city centre. Unusually for an airport, there is a free shuttle bus that runs every 30 minutes or so during peak hours to Krakow’s main train station. A taxi would set you back no more than 50Zloty and should take 20 minutes to make the same journey.
The airport is becoming a new favourite with airlines flying from the UK and currently it is served by Easyjet from Belfast, Bristol, Liverpool, London Luton and Newcastle. Ryanair fly here from London Stansted, East Midlands, Liverpool and Glasgow Prestwick. Sky Europe have started flying here daily from Birmingham International and Manchester, and of course British Airways fly here as well from London Gatwick.
About the Stadion Cracovia 
Who plays there?
Tickets can be purchased in advanced from Sklep Kibica in ul Wielicka 101 from 9am to 6.30pm Monday to Friday. With an average attendance of less than 4,000 you should have no difficulty getting a ticket for most games.
About the Stadion Wisly
