The stadium's official name is "AEK Arena – George Karapatakis", in honor of the father of the President of AEK, Mr Andros Karapatakis.[3][4]
History
AEK Arena was built on land owned by the GSZ Stadium. AEK Larnaca and GSZ have agreed to build a stadium on this land.[5] The stadium is owned by AEK Larnaca, and was built by its own cost.[5] The responsibility of the construction was assigned to Balltown Holdings (Public) Ltd, which was founded for this purpose by AEK.[5]
The construction of the stadium was planned to be done in two phases. The first phase began on 7 September 2015.[6][7] Initially, only 3 of the 4 stands would be built.[5] However, in the course of the implementation of the project, a mandate was given to build the fourth stand.[8][9]
The stadium was inaugurated on Monday 17 October 2016 with the match between AEK and Aris for the 7th matchday of the 2016–17 Cypriot First Division. AEK won the match with 4–0 score. The first goal which achieved in AEK Arena was scored by Jorge Larena.[10][11][12] The official inauguration took place on 27 November 2016.[13][14]