EuroCup 2012: Sweden vs. France

EuroCup seems to be all that is happening around here right now.  We have all been very impressed with how well the city has been managing the tournament and really find it a bit surreal as suddenly we see and hear English constantly.  The dark side of all of this is the astronomical cost of the tournament for Ukraine financially.  The country spent more than $10 billion to get ready for the games (new airports, high speed trains, stadiums, road construction, etc...) yet with a paltry amount of visitors who have actually come to any of the Ukrainian host cities (today's estimate is about 80,000), that means the country shelled out over $125,000 for each fan who came to see the games.  One does not need to look far to see where corruption has played a part in much of this, with the consequences for the country's economic future likely to be dire.
Well, enough gloom and doom.... For now we are enjoying the fun of the tournament.....

In the FanZone on Kreshatik.  The main street of central Kyiv has been closed to cars for the entire tournament.  We like to head down there to watch games on the giant screen and to people watch!

Gio finds it a bit overwhelming but gets into the spirit eventually.  And it is great to be in a place where he is not the loudest person around!

Last night I finally got to enter the stadium I have been watching being built for the last 20 months (at a cost of an estimated $900 million, not the mere $700 million I had written in an earlier post).  We went to watch Sweden play France.  Even though Sweden was already out of the tournament the stadium was most certainly pro-Sweden.  Not only were there a lot of Swedes, the locals were also cheering loudly for them (they also share the same uniform colors so it is actually difficult to tell the Swedish fans from the Ukrainian ones!).  The Ukrainian team was playing England in another city in Ukraine at the same time as this match.  If Ukraine won and France lost, then Ukraine could advance to the quarterfinals.  Hence the loud cheering for Sweden.  Paolo and I were also hoping for a Swedish victory.  Many of our friends here are Swedes, and the star player on the team is one of the stars on Paolo's beloved AC Milan team.  So, we left Gio happy as a clam with his beloved babysitter Lorraine (a 10th grader at his school) and strolled the 10 minute walk down the road to the giant stadium (with a capacity of 70,000).  Here are some images of our evening....

Strolling down Red Army Street to the stadium....

French fans.  Sorry, fellows!!

Stadium is on left one more block down from here.  Not sure what they are going to do with such a giant stadium in the middle of the city once this tournament finishes.  Madonna is coming in August, but will they really be able to fill 70,000 seats for her...or anyone??

Police were everywhere...on bikes, with dogs and on horseback.  

Yep.  Even for the Sweden vs. France game.  

First round of security (3 more to go).

There it is.  $900 million.  

The entrance and exit where surprisingly smooth and quick. Here they were checking our bags.  

My ticket!

We are in Ukraine, after all.  There MUST be beer, and in vast quantity (love the 5 cup carrier).  Notice the percent alcohol, though.  A disappointment for most, I suppose.  

Our seats were, to put it mildly, quite high up.  And the "big screen" was tough to see.  Still, it was a lot of fun and the spirit of the crowd for Sweden was infectious. Now to cheer for Italy who play here on Sunday in the Quarterfinals!!