The stadium is named after Georgios Karaiskakis, hero of the Greek Revolution of 1821 for national independence.

It was used during the 1896 Summer Olympics as a velodrome where Frenchman Paul Masson took the three track cycling gold medals.

It was renovated during the 1960s and again into a 33,334 capacity all seater stadium ready for the football competition of the 2004 Summer Olympics.

The last renovation took a record time of only 14 months, finishing just in time for the Olympic Games.

In June 2005, Karaiskaki became a movie theatre (Cine Karaiskakis) as a cinema screen that is 20 m long and 10 m wide and is featured in the stadium and is viewed between 9 and 11 p.m. (6 and 8 p.m. UTC) and later, every weekends. The movie screen featured movies including Batman Begins and others. On Saturday August 13, 2005, the cinema feature showed for the last time before closing.

After the last deal ended in 1998, Olympiacos is now using the stadium once again, on loan from 2003 and until 2052 and is traditionally labelled as the club's true home. The ticket sales average higher than any team's in recent decades for the National A Division history and are not expected to drop in the foreseeable future. The stadium is easily accessed by the Faliro station of the Athens metro.

Sales for national team matches have also been impressively higher, but this is for the most part due to Greece's success in Euro 2004

21 supporters of Olympiacos lost their lives in "Gate 7" (Θύρα 7) of the stadium, after a game between Olympiacos and AEK Athens FC (6-0), on February 08, 1981.

Names of the 21 person who died during the Gate 7 event , 8 February 1981 :

Name (age)

• Panagiotis Toumanidis / Παναγιώτης Τουμανίδης (14 )
  
• Kostas Sklavounis / Κώστας Σκλαβούνης (16 )
  
• Ilias Panagoulis / Ηλίας Παναγούλης (17 )
  
• Gerasimos Amitsis / Γεράσιμος Αμίτσης (18 )
  
• Giannis Kanellopoulos / Γιάννης Κανελλόπουλος (18 )
  
• Spyros Leonidakis / Σπύρος Λεωνιδάκης (18 )
  
• Giannis Spiliopoulos / Γιάννης Σπηλιόπουλος (19 )
  
• Nikos Filos / Νίκος Φίλος (19 )
  
• Giannis Dialynas / Γιάννης Διαλυνάς (20 )
  
• Efstratios Loupos / Ευστράτιος Λούπος (20 )
  
• Vasilis Machas / Βασίλης Μάχας (20 )
  
• Michalis Kostopoulos / Μιχάλης Κωστόπουλος (21 )
  
• Zografoula Chairatidou / Ζωγραφούλα Χαϊρατίδου (23 )
  
• Spyros Andriotis / Σπύρος Ανδριώτης (24 )
  
• Kostas Karanikolas / Κώστας Καρανικόλας (26 )
  
• Michalis Markou / Μιχάλης Μάρκου (27 )
  
• Kostas Bilas / Κώστας Μπίλας (28 )
  
• Anastasios Pitsolis / Αναστάσιος Πιτσόλης (30 )
  
• Antonis Kouroupakis / Αντώνης Κουρουπάκης (34 )
  
• Christos Hatzigeorgiou / Χρήστος Χατζηγεωργίου (34 )
  
• Dimitris Adamopoulos / Δημήτρης Αδαμόπουλος (40 )
  

For this event some seats in the stadium are painted in black color

East Side during construction

Links

• http://www.karaiskaki.gr/
• Athens 2004 website