Kalisz Arena

The Arena Kalisz sits on ul. Prymasa Stefana Wyszyńskiego and has never been anything else. It opened in November 2006, and the architects from Biuro Projektowe Nowak & Podonowski designed it with the wooden parquet floor as the centre of the room. The structure has held its name since the day the lights went on.

What you see on the floor is the only thing that matters during a game. The parquet takes the bounce for basketball and volleyball, and it carries the weight of handball too. There is no grass here, and the dimensions suit the smaller indoor sports rather than the wide field. The fixed seating gives it a capacity of 3,164 without the need for temporary stands when a big match comes along.

The regular tenants have given the hall its rhythm. Energa MKS Kalisz and AWS Energa Szczypiorno Kalisz have played their handball matches in the ORLEN Superliga here for years, and the women’s volleyball team from Energa MKS Kalisz has used the same floor in the TAURON Liga.

It has also hosted events that pulled the whole town in. The XVIII Mecz Gwiazd Polskiej Ligi Koszykówki arrived in 2011, and the 85. Mistrzostwa Polski w Boksie brought boxing to the city in March 2014. The Puchar Polski w piłce siatkowej kobiet finalised its semi-finals and final here in April 2016, and the Turniej Szczypiorno Cup ran as an international handball tournament from 2014 to 2018. The Polish national volleyball team played in the Liga Europejska Siatkówki in August 2015, and an international handball match between Poland and Spain took place in June 2018.

When the games end, the arena clears for culture. It has hosted concerts by Lady Pank, Kombii, Perfect, Budka Suflera, sanah and IRA, alongside the Polska Noc Kabaretowa comedy festival and the Festiwal Abba Pater religious festival. The finals of the Wielka Orkiestra Świątecznej Pomocy charity event have also filled the stands when the sports calendar was quiet. It is managed by the Ośrodek Sportu, Rehabilitacji i Rekreacji w Kaliszu, and you can find more on http://www.osir.kalisz.pl.