Spens Sports Center

SPC Vojvodina (Serbian: Спортски и пословни центар "Војводина", Sportski i poslovni centar "Vojvodina"), commonly referred to as SPENS, is a multi-purpose venue located in Novi Sad, Vojvodina, Serbia. It operates under publicly owned company JP "Sportski i poslovni centar Vojvodina", which in addition to SPENS also has "Sajmište Sports Center" under its umbrella.

Features

Sprawling over 85,000 m², SPENS consists of main hall (capacity: 6,987 seats), 'small' hall (capacity: 1,030), ice-hockey rink (capacity: 1,623), bowling alley, shooting range, 3 training halls, swimming pool, 11 tennis courts, media center, 2 press centers, amphitheater, reception salon, conference hall, double-level garage, and 215 retail and business spaces that house banks, furniture stores, tourist agencies, jewelers, bookstores, pool halls, fitness clubs, boutiques, etc.

Its construction was completed in less than 2 years, and on 14 April 1981, SPENS opened its door for the first time, its inaugural event being the 36th World Table Tennis Championships in Novi Sad (Serbian: Stonotenisko Prvenstvo Evrope Novi Sad – SPENS, hence the unofficial name of the venue).[ dubious – discuss]

Sports

SPENS' most famous residents are basketball's KK Vojvodina Srbijagas (participating in Basketball League of Serbia) and volleyball's OK Vojvodina.

In 1987, Spens hosted basketball's European Cup Winners' Cup Final. Cibona Zagreb defeated Scavolini Pesaro 89–74.

The venue received its biggest media exposure when it hosted round-robin action of EuroBasket 2005 in group D which consisted of Spain, Latvia, Israel and host country Serbia and Montenegro. For this occasion SPENS received a major facelift that included improvements to building's technological capabilities, overhaul of its media center and addition of two video boards – one on each end of the main hall.

The arena hosted the Group C (group stage) and the Group II of the main round, which consisted of Spain, Croatia, France, Hungary, Slovenia and Iceland of the 2012 European Men's Handball Championship.

Since volleyball is very popular in Novi Sad, Serbia men's national volleyball team often plays its FIVB World League home matches in SPENS, as well as its friendly warm-up games.

Text imported from Wikipedia article "SPC Vojvodina" and modified on 23 July 2019 under the CC-BY-SA 3.0 license.