Gürsel Aksel Stadium


Gürsel Aksel Sports and Healthy Life Center, colloquially known as Gürsel Aksel Stadium is an football stadium, located in Üçkuyular, Göztepe neighbourhood of Konak district of Izmir, Turkey. The stadium is the home ground of Izmir-based sports club Göztepe S.K..
The stadium is commemorated after Gürsel Aksel who served entirely to club during his professional career, officially dubbed as "the great captain" by the club.

History

Göztepe S.K. announced their agreement with TOKI, governmental housing agency of Turkey, for constraction of stadium on 22 February 2017. Groundbreaking of stadium was 9 September 2017. Stadium is planned to be built total of 12 thousand m2. Initial projected capacity of stadium was announced as 20,035. In July 2019, projected capacity was increased up to 25,035. In 2020, the construction cost of the stadium was reported by Anadolu Agency as 218,900,000.00 ₺.
The first ever season tickets of the stadium were released on 8 November 2019, covering second halve of 2019–20 Süper Lig season.
The stadium was opened on 26 January 2020, Monday, at 16:00 local time, at the week 19 game of 2019–20 Süper Lig season, between Göztepe and Beşiktaş J.K.. The game ended 2-1 in favour of Göztepe S.K. On 25th minute of the game, Halil Akbunar scored the first goal ever scored in Gürsel Aksel Stadium. 17,855 spectators attended the opening game.

Facilities

Final layout of Gürsel Aksel Stadium lies on 34.651 m2 of building area with a total construction presence of 94.541 m2. There is the official sports museum of Göztepe S.K., exhibition halls, food courts and a parking garage located inside and underground of the stadium. On the roof of stadium, there is a 650 metres long walking track built.

Transportation

As of 2020 information, stadium is accessible via ESHOT bus services with related connections of bus numbers 5, 6, 7, 24, 25 and 480 from Balçova, Narlıdere districts and Kavacık and Oyunlar Köyü neighbourhoods, bus number 486 from Oyak Sitesi neighbourhood, bus numbers 17, 650, 671, 690 and 873 from surrounding high ways, bus number 510 from Gaziemir district, bus number 202 from Adnan Menderes Airport.