© EuroFootball.com
"Tauras" from Tauragė finally returns home - this Sunday the people of Tauragė will face an impressive celebration of the completely renovated "Vytautas" stadium as well as the first "Tauras" A League match at home after a long break. On the eve, Saturday, the people of Kupiškėnai will boast with the renovated stadium - Olympic champion Virginijus Alekna will also arrive for the opening of the renovated hometown stadium.
Important event for Tauragė's sport
The long-awaited reconstruction of the "Vytautas" stadium in Tauragė was finally completed this autumn. A new 2400-seat grandstand with auxiliary rooms and a roof has been installed in the stadium, which will cover about 500 seats. The old stadium grandstand with 600 seats has been relocated, so after the reconstruction, the stadium will accommodate 3000 spectators. In the future, lighting is also planned to be installed in the stadium.
The reconstruction of the stadium, belonging to the Tauragė city municipality, cost about 3.5 million litas, with a large part of the funds used from European Union funds allocated for the reconstruction of Vytautas street, located near the stadium.
"Our municipality's specialists managed to convince the funders that the 'Vytautas' stadium is necessary for the city and is a part of this project. The opening of the stadium is an important event for all of Tauragė's sports. Nevertheless, it is the most important sports facility in the city, where not only football matches, but also other sports competitions will take place," said Gediminas Sakalauskas, the head of the Tauragė Sports Center.
The stadium opening will take place on Sunday, September 18th. Before the celebration, there will be basketball, athletics, and other sports competitions, the official part will begin at 12 o'clock, featuring sports representatives walking in, performances by the Tauragė aeroclub and Fire choir.
During the event, the charitable project "Golden Heart" by LNK TV will take place. The celebration will be crowned by the A League football match between Tauragė's "Tauras" and "Šiauliai" teams at 15:00. Entrance to the event is free.
The dream of the "Tauras" club has come true
The opening of the stadium is especially rejoiced by the Tauragė "Tauras" club, which had to play their home matches in Klaipėda or Gargždai since last September. According to the representatives of "Tauras", returning to their stadium was the biggest dream of the club.
"It is very important for us to return to our home. It can be said that football is returning to Tauragė. This is a celebration for the city residents and we are very happy that the love for football will be shown in Tauragė. The new stadium is a good incentive for youth to grow and strive for football excellence, to connect the future with sports," said Laura Zaleckienė, the commercial director of "Tauras".
She explained that in order to meet licensing requirements, a small stand was installed in the stadium three years ago, later player changing rooms were built. However, the people of Tauragė simultaneously nurtured the hope of having a new stadium.
"We are very grateful to the municipality, which found ways to carry out the reconstruction. The 'Tauras' club also participated in the project planning, the municipality negotiated the project with infrastructure specialists from the Lithuanian Football Federation. We hope that the stadium will meet UEFA category 2 and that it will be possible to play the first UEFA tournament qualification matches there," said L.Zaleckienė.
Starting from now, the "Tauragė" team will also have an additional impetus to fight for the top places, as they have recently been rapidly earning points in the A league after a slow start and are no longer far behind the top five. The team was recently reinforced by a well-known name among football fans - Lithuanian national team candidate, defender Vytautas Lukša, who returned from Ukraine.
"We were tired of traveling to play and train in other cities. Now we will play more at home, with our own walls and our own spectators, which will be an additional stimulus for us to rise," said "Tauras" coach Gediminas Jarmalavičius.
Setting up a training stadium, base, and preparing the reserve
The renovated Tauragė stadium is just one of many long-term football projects being implemented in Tauragė. The "Tauras" club is also carrying out the reconstruction of the old city stadium, where a standard-sized artificial turf pitch donated by the LFF is planned to be installed.
"The municipality handed over the stadium to us with a 99-year lease agreement. When we finish the project, in addition to the artificial turf pitch, there will be a 500-seat grandstand in the stadium, a car parking lot, additional training fields. We already see that the stadium will be occupied practically all day - not only the main team of "Tauras" will train there, but also the reserves, youth teams, and sports school teams," said L.Zaleckienė.
In October, the "Tauras" club set up a small-sized hall with used artificial turf, donated to Tauragė by the LFF. Club representatives said that during the winter, the training hall was occupied until 11 o'clock in the evening. In the building of former military units, which the municipality also handed over to "Tauras", the club administration will be located, and in the long run - a small hotel, a cafe, a sauna, a pool are planned.
In September, "Tauras" also started its football academy project - a sports class was formed with the help of a local school, whose football training schedule is adjusted to the school timetable. "Children will first attend training, then will be taken by bus to classes, and after them - back to training. We hope that this will be the future shift of the 'Tauras' club," hoped L.Zaleckienė.
Olympic champion will visit the stadium
Another sports celebration will take place on Saturday in Kupiškė, where the opening of the renovated city stadium is planned. The new grandstands with 1000 seats, administrative building, running tracks, basketball and tennis courts, discus throwing sector have been installed in the Kupiškė stadium.
During the stadium opening, there will be Lithuanian seniors (50 years and older) futsal championship round, basketball, tennis, and athletics competitions. It is planned that the twice Olympic champion Virgilijus Alekna, who comes from Kupiškis district, will also attend the opening of the stadium. The official part of the stadium opening program will begin at 13:00.
According to Zigmas Paulauskas, the director of Kupiškė Physical Education and Sports Center, the new stadium will be a boost for the district's football.
"We dream of hosting the Lithuanian Football Federation Cup final in this stadium. Our football field is really of good quality, it has a modern watering system. So far, the city football team plays only in the Utena County Championship, but I hope that with a new stadium, they will rise higher. Football is popular in Kupiškė, with the support of the LFF and KKSD, small universal artificial turf pitches have been installed here and are always full of children," said the head of Kupiškė KKSC.
The football career in Kupiškė began for Gediminas Paulauskas, a long-time defender of Panevėžys "Ekranas" and the Lithuanian national team, who now plays for Glivice "Piast" in Poland.
