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| Peace and Friendship Stadium in Faliro, Piraeus. |
Olympiacos play their home matches at Peace and Friendship Stadium, located in Piraeus, on the Athens southwest coastland. The Peace and Friendship Stadium opened in 1985 and has been Olympiacos regular home arena since 1991. Te Greek name of the arena is "Στάδιο Ειρήνης και Φιλίας", transliterated as "Stadio Eirinis kai Filias", thus it is widely known as "SEF", the acronym of its name in Greek. It is built on the seafront and opposite to the Karaiskakis Stadium, which is the home ground of Olympiacos F.C.
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| Peace and Friendship Stadium and surrounding area. |
It is one of the biggest indoor arenas in Europe with a permanent seating capacity of 14,850, but due to its open space around the basketball court it can host up to 17,000 people. The arena was renovated before the 2004 Athens Olympic Games, to host the volleyball Olympic tournament, and currently the seating capacity has been reduced to 12,171 for Olympiacos games. It is the biggest multisport arena in Greece and besides basketball it can host athletics, gymnastics, volleyball, handball, ice skating and other sports, as well as concerts, conventions and exhibitions.
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| The arena and the Acropolis of Athens in the background. |
The Peace and Friendship Stadium is among the most legendary arenas of European basketball, because of Olympiacos success in Euroleague. During the mid-1990s, it became the most difficult arena for the opponents to win at; following Olympiacos rise to the top level in European basketball, the arena was regularly full crowded, making Olympiacos look invincible in it. "SEF" is also closely related to the national basketball team of Greece, since it hosted the 1987 Eurobasket and, in front of 17,000 fans, Greece won there its first gold medal in the competition, beating the Soviet Union by 103-101 in the final. Before moving to the Peace and Friendship Stadium, Olympiacos spent most of their history playing their home games at Papastrateio Indoor Hall.
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| Inside view during Olympiacos' match. |
