Peace and Friendship Stadium, Piraeus

The Peace and Friendship Stadium, established in 1985, serves as an indoor sports arena and is the primary home ground for Olympiacos Piraeus basketball matches. The facility boasts a highly organized entry system with allocated seating for ticket holders while also adhering to COVID-19 safety protocols. A safe pass is mandatory for entry into the stadium. The venue was witness to Greece's victory in the European Championship '87 basketball tournament, adding to its illustrious history.

The Peace and Friendship Stadium (Greek: Στάδιο Ειρήνης και Φιλίας, romanized: Stadio Eirinis kai Philias), commonly known by its acronym SEF, is a multi-purpose indoor arena that is located in Piraeus, on the coastal zone of Attica, Greece. The arena is mostly known for being the home to EuroLeague team Olympiacos, and is the central venue of the Faliro Coastal Zone Olympic Complex. It opened in 1985 and its design was inspired by Palasport di San Siro. The arena complex also contains a 942-seat amphitheater, a weight training room, a full practice facility, three auxiliary courts that house the Olympiacos youth clubs, and the Olympiacos team office. It is also used as training center for the Hellenic Amateur Athletic Association. The arena features a full training court for the senior men's team of Olympiacos, which is also used by the club's reserve team, Olympiacos B Development Team. The arena also has additional auxiliary basketball courts. The auxiliary courts are used by the youth clubs of Olympiacos. The arena is occasionally used for events like congresses, music concerts, and indoor motocross races. The Scorpions, Phil Collins, Dire Straits, Status Quo, UB40, Gloria Estefan, Deep Purple, A-HA and Placebo, are among the artists who have performed at the Peace and Friendship Stadium. Outside the main arena, in the same stadium building, there is a 942-seat amphitheater, and various other halls of a total area of 16,048 sqm, where exhibitions and congresses take place.

The Peace and Friendship arena is commonly known by its initials, SEF. It was designed by the architectural office of “Thymios Papagiannis and associates” and its construction cost 8 billion drachmas, in 1983 prices, i.e. 24 million euros. It received the Golden Prize in the world competition of 1991 held by IAKS (International Working Group for the Construction of Sports and Leisure Facilities). The Peace and Friendship Stadium is one of the most modern indoor stadiums in Europe. It was inaugurated in February 1985, at the Neo Faliro area, next to the sea. The capacity for the basketball games is 11.600 spectators. It should be pointed out that it can be evacuated in 3 minutes! Many important sport events have been held here: The European Athletics Indoor Championships, the Final of the European Champions Cup (Cibona Zagreb-Real Madrid) in 1985, the EUROBASKET of 1987, the Final of the European Cup Holders Cup (Real Madrid-Caserta) in 1989. It is a stadium with ultra modern facilities: Auxiliary halls, training halls, changing rooms, medical centers, telephone centers, electronic boards, press and radio-TV tribunes. It is conveniently placed near the bus and subway lines of Athens and Piraeus. It is situated 7 km away from the West Air Terminal, 5 km away from Piraeus Port and 7 and 8 km away respectively from the Metropolitan (ex Chandris) and Leedra Marriott Hotels. SEF was used during the 2004 Olympic Games, hosting the volleyball tournaments (qualification games and the finals). The stadium remained closed from April 2002 till the beginning of 2004, so that all necessary renovations were made by TEPNA corporations, costing a total 7.300.000 euros. SEF is the Olympiacos home since the beginning of the 90ies and the great empire of “Thrylos” was built there. The “red and whites” had to move to the gym of Korydallos for two season due to reconstruction works in the stadium and they have come back to their natural home court since the 2004-05 season. ***PH***