Sports centers throughout Serbia and the National Stadium with a building permit – 2025 RETROSPECTIVE, investments in SPORTS

We waited and waited and here it is: a happy New Year... fifty-something? Maybe even something later, but certainly worth forgetting, because in our memory we have buried those years in some pits in which our teams, both men’s and women’s, were left without a single major sports medal. Because we are a historical force among sports teams! However, that is exactly what the summer of 2025 was for us, and if, on the other hand, it did not stand out among the others in some way, then it was not for the fact that the “white eagles” experienced the Albanian Golgotha again - and they first spooked gentlemen in Vienna - this time, well, due to the black eagle from the Albanian jersey. We trusted in the basketball players, and as before when we announced them as champions of Europe in advance - because objectively the best, said our subjects - they had not ascended to the Olympic gardens, but, again, they did not disappoint us: sometimes an opportunity has to be wasted, it is especially difficult when the best shooting guard is injured and the opponent are the Finns, who, after all, as calm and composed shooters, had just been accepted into the North Atlantic NATO from the fenced-off Baltic. Jokic can’t do it alone, although there is no one better than him in the world - alas, the North Americans also denied the calm and composed King Somboled the MVP title.

But this is actually a text - about investments. Sports cannot run without fuel, that is, money – so Bangladesh, a country of 170 million Bangladeshis, has not won a single Olympic medal, and it’s a country marked by a green revolution - moreover, where there is money, there are also those that eKapija readers love to love or hate the most: buildings, and among them, the especially (dis)liked:

1. Sports and recreational complex in Rakovica

The plan for the construction of a sports and recreational complex on the territory of the Resnik and Knezevac settlements instead of the previously planned economic zones is taking final shape. In the area between the railway line, Sretena Popovica and 13. oktobra streets and the Belgrade bypass, on a total of about 6 hectares, the mandatory construction of indoor swimming pools is planned, and it is also possible to build indoor soccer, volleyball, basketball, handball, racket (tennis-paddle) courts, as well as a gym, fitness center, spa center...



The plan also includes outdoor swimming pools and children’s pools with a slide, a bicycle path and outdoor sports fields.

And then, vox dei: All we need is a sports center... And factories?

In a healthy body, people in Rakovica used to say - back when there was a lake in Kijevo - a healthy mind.

2. Bor to get a new stadium

FK Bor entered the annals of soccer history with a record defeat in the final of the Marshal Tito Cup (0:7 to Red Star, in 1968, which is why the miners, angry with Belgrade, did not join the Belgrade students), and they will have the opportunity to improve, once, at their new stadium (on the condition that the potential sponsor from the country which is much indebted to a famous Bor resident from Bajina Basta, Bora Milutinovic, switches from sponsoring a Belgrade club to a local one): instead of the existing city stadium, a new, small one is planned, with at least 4,000 seats, but according to UEFA standards.

A tender has been announced for the designer, with the condition: stands must be on all four sides of the pitch – a good thing, because the lack of an eastern stand should lead to exclusion from professional leagues, and in the craggy mountains of Montenegro, it is said that soccer in Podgorica has regressed because of this failure, for example.

3. Zlatibor Sports Center

This is where Bata Djora, the first Serbian defender and patriarch of modern Serbian coaches, is from, which is perhaps why they are planning 13 soccer fields on Zlatibor. The project is in the phase of developing a preliminary design for the urban design, and this modern complex will be located in the immediate vicinity of the gondola, under the Tornik Hotel, and will provide exclusive conditions for up to 17 sports teams to work simultaneously. It should also contain five basketball courts, six for padel, a multi-purpose sports hall, as well as accommodation for athletes and professional teams.

4. Vracar Sports Center

It is not a mountain, and it is even the lowest part of the Vracar hill - this is where the people of Vracar will probably soon be able to swim and jump (although, given that this is the Sad Boulevard, which was opened in 1940 and is not yet completed, one should be careful). The City of Belgrade, through the Secretariat for Investments, following a tender procedure, awarded contracts to companies for the construction of a sports complex in Vracar. The total value of the contract is 3.29 billion dinars, or about EUR 28.1 million.

5. It’s not “Djordje,” no dice

For almost three years, the media has been talking/writing about the reconstruction of the largest stadium in Novi Sad, and a tender was announced, only for reason to prevail and attempts to turn this century-old shack, built back when FK Makabi existed in the city and subjected to a multitude of aesthetically extremely unsuccessful additions (what about that legendary cottage in the south?) into something new and shiny, to die down. A new “Karadjordje” will be built, apparently for about fifteen thousand fans, with the intention of playing the first match of the European Championship for players under 21 there in June next year. There are no construction workers yet – perhaps they are waiting for them to be transferred from Surcin in groups, like an infantry division attacking, and the experience of editing a site like this teaches us that, given the circumstances of our current construction activities, such a rapid construction is all but mission impossible.

6. Reconstruction of the stadium in Pancevo

The traditional Pancevo club is Dinamo, but recently the local FK Zeleznicar, nicknamed Zeljo, because Zelo is not cool, has become a traditionally pleasant exception to the Serbian league reality. That is why the city closest to Belgrade (after Zemun) is allocating a little more than a million euros to build additional stands and canopies. These are all small numbers, but it should be said that the Mladost stadium has seats on the east. When another 812 seats are added, the total capacity will be 3,021 seats.

7. Permit for the National Stadium

Here we are already talking about 52,000 soccer fans, as the canceled Milojko would say.

The Ministry of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure has issued a building permit for the construction of the National Soccer Stadium in Surcin, with a floor structure of SB+GF+7, a height of 51.50 m and a capacity of 52,000 spectators. Namely, it has become a habit of our permit issuers to approach this job after the members of the commission and the manual workers have already gone out on the field...

The stadium will therefore have 7 floors (?), as well as 3,323 parking spaces, as well as 49 parking spaces for buses, which, considering the capacity of the new railway under construction of around 2,500 passengers per hour, raises the question of whether 52,000 people in that plain will not have the same unfortunate experience as at the infamous Red Hot Chili Peppers concert, but still, that is just urban planning, and we mostly think about that after the fact.

The estimated value of the works is: 53,891,893,282.98 dinars excluding VAT, or around EUR 460 million.

8. New pools at Marijenhof

Marijenhof, yes, that’s what it’s called, like Marijin Dvor in Sarajevo, that part of Bezanijsko brdo opposite SRC 11. april, which the Belgrade water polo mayor intends to significantly expand. The Serbian government has passed a decision establishing public interest in the expropriation of real estate for the purpose of building a sports complex with indoor pools in the area between Studentska Street, Tosin Bunar Street and the E75 highway (in the meantime: motorway). And so that water polo players can swim through the Belgrade chaos as easily as possible, Mayor Sapic has planned to build half a dozen roundabouts around the future complex.

The project, however, is older in birth than the idea of the Aquatic Center in Surcin, and as it goes with politicians’ ideas and laws: Lex posterior derogat legi priori - the outcome of this draft hydrotechnical idea will have to wait a little longer.



9. Vrsac: Indoor City Pools Hall and reconstruction of the City Stadium

The City of Vrsac has received a building permit for the construction of the Indoor City Pools Hall - in Sterija’s language and the local dialect that resembles southern dialects: an indoor pool - next to the Millennium Center and the reconstruction of the City Stadium complex. In addition to a swimming pool for high-performance sports measuring 25 x 35 meters and a depth for two-meter-tall visitors, a children’s pool is also planned. The conditions have also been created for the renovation of the City Stadium complex with covered stands. Thus, top-notch sports content will be completed in one place, which leans on the City Park, and in the immediate vicinity are the Vrsac Mountains, which athletes gladly use for their training.

10. One million euros for the stadium in Sombor

The winners of the Sombor city competition for the reconstruction of part of the stadium were awarded a contract worth 118.5 million dinars and they are to install a new first-class athletics track made of tartan, supported by an appropriate solid base, so that in the town of the passionate runner Laza Kostic, some new planetary stars, like Jokic, can grow up, between dream and reality.

We invite you to see which investments marked the year 2025 in the areas of REAL ESTATE, TRADE CENTERS, TRANSPORT, AGRICULTURE AND FOOD INDUSTRY, TOURISM, INDUSTRY AND MINING and UTILITY INFRASTRUCTURE AND ENERGY.

M. Radonjic

2025 retrospective

investments in sports

investments in sports facilities

SRC Rakovica

sports center Rakovica

new stadium Bor

Sports Center Zlatibor

Sports Center Vračar

Sports Center Južni bulevar

new Karađorđe stadium

Mladost Stadium Pančevo

FK Železničar Pančevo

National Stadium

new pools New Belgrade

New Pools Bežanijska kosa

Marijenhof

expansion SRC 11 april

indoor pools Vršac

City Stadium Sombor