ŁKS is a Polish sports club that is owned by Łódźcity council. They are best known for their football club, but are represented in many sports such as basketball, volleyball, tennis, athletics and in the pastice hockey. The club is based at Stadion LKS, at Al. Unii Lubelskiej 2 in the West of Łódź. The club was founded in 1908. The football section had since been sold to private investors as the city could no longer afford to support it. After years of financial hardships, the club declared bankruptcy in May 2013. and was re-founded by a partnership between fans and local investors in the fifth tier of the league pyramid. Their nickname "Rycerze Wiosny" has been given to them due to their usually strong performance in the second round of the league, after Winter break.
Facilities
In 2009 the new Atlas Arena was completed adjacent to the football stadium. It is an indoor arena and has already hosted international events in basketball, volleyball and boxing. The City council still intend to construct a brand new stadium on the site of the current football stadium. It was intended to be complete in time for UEFA Euro 2012, but now is expected to be finished in late 2013-early 2014. Although Łódź is not a Euro 2012 host city, it had been believed that a failure by Ukraine to be ready on time would lead to Poland hosting the entire tournament on its own and therefore requiring more host cities. There were four Polish host cities involved in hosting the tournament. It was envisioned the new stadium will hold approximately 34,000 seats, as required by UEFA. Due to their rivalry, Widzew Łódź have ruled out using this new stadium and instead intend to rebuild their own stadium. Support for the project was undermined by the successful re-call of the Łódź city president in early 2010. The city has also announced a public auction for their stake in the club as they can no longer afford to cover the clubs loses. Owing to financial constraints and lack of demand from LKS fans, the stadium size was scaled down to 16,500 in 2012. As part of renovations, a new 3,000 seat arena was supposed to be built to complement the existing Atlas Arena. All work was expected to cost 218 million PLN. All plans to provide the club with new facilities, however, have been abandoned as of 2013, due to financial constraints and the bankruptcy of the club in May 2013.
Rivalries
The club has a fierce rivalry with cross-town club Widzew Łódź, with the derby match between the two clubs being intense both on and off the field. See :pl:Derby Łodzi w piłce nożnej|Łódź derby
