The Will they or won't they, Ukraine-Poland 2012?

This dirty laundry is quite common. No surprise there. I do not think this should be the problem. What WOULD be a huge embarassment is if at the cost of extreme effort, Ukraine does pull of the tournament only to have terrible marks on it due to the corners being cut to save money or bad quality pitches or something like that.

Lviv is a worry, but Donetsk and Dnipropetrovsk are ok (Donetsk have built a new stadium and Dnipropetrovsk are finishing theirs up later this year).

The demolition of the Troitskiy Shopping Center has finally been ordered to clear up Olympiyskiy's evacuation routes in Kyiv. A German company has been hired for reconstruction of that flagship of ukrainian stadiums.

Stadiums are probably the least threatening of Ukraine's worries (but it is the most threatening of Poland's worries)

They looked! Then they reached in and grabbed a couple bucks, if you know what I mean. How else did Ukraine win the bid ahead of Croatia, Hungary and Italy.

Stadiums are one thing, (And believe me, if time runs out Lviv doesn't have to build a brand new stadium, they can remodel 'Druzhba') infrastructure is another. I can't wait till some western European gets into a packed 1990s LAZ troleybus and then can't find a hotel room to sleep in. Fun fun...

I've recently read a report on the preparations, and it doens't look promising.

On the one hand, I'm pretty sure stadiums will get built. Two are already done (Donetsk and Dnipropetrivsk). And Kyiv will get done one way or another. So, even if Lviv doesn't pan out, you got Kharkiv and Odessa read to step in, re-construction of both of which are already underway (pretty much new construction in Odessa).

On the other hand, infrastructure is just decrepit. Number one - roads and railways are a mess. The concept of a real highway is basically non-existant - it's not even in the same league that we are used to in U.S. or other European countries. Railraods take a long time - you just can't travel to Donetsk for a day game, if you're statioined in Lviv.

Now, onto airports. By far, the worst part of my trip to Odessa three years ago was the airport. There's like 10 flights in-and-out each day (compared to that much in 20 minutes at JFK), and the airport clearly shows that. It seems there's been no investment in aviation in 20 years. The terminal looks as a mix of run-down rail station and homeless shelter - just downright terrible. Kyiv is the only one of these with accepitable airport facilties.

Finally, the worst area - hotels. The report stated that only Odessa today has adequate number of 4- and 5- star rooms (for Odessa, which would only potentially host opening round matches, that number is 1,300, same as for Kharkiv and Dnipropetrivsk. for Lviv, Donetsk and Kyiv, who would do parts of the knockout rounds - it's higher - I htink al lthe way up to 2,000 for Kyiv). Kyiv is probably going to get there. The other 4 - forget aobut it. Can you imagine Donetsk (which currently has ~200 acceptable rooms) building that many hotels? And, most importantly, what the hell is Donetsk going to do with those rooms afterwards? Can you imagine a family of four saying "Let's go to donetsk for our summer holiday??!!" This isn't Olympics, where you can build barracks and later convert them to dorms - these are real hotels you gotta build, with all the amenities. I just don't see how they'll get there.

Nevertheless, I think ultimately they'll squeeze something out, it will be staged in Poland-Ukraine, but apart from the actual matches, visitors will compare the tournament in unfavorable light to Austria-Switzerland-Portugal. Hopefully, the local girls will make up for the infrastructure shortcomings

Just like anywhere else in Eastern Europe the process is moving slow. But when it comes to crunch time everything will get done. I don't think the highways will be built, but I read that their thinking about implementing high speed trains. I wonder what the statistics were of people traveling by car/train from Austria to Switzerland this summer?

One more thing, that shopping mall in Kyiv still hasn't been fully taken down. They made news about it starting to get demolished the day before Platini visited, and since then nothing more has been done. I'm sure UEFA doesn't appreciate being con'd like that, lol.

Who needs the infrastructure when you can have genital herpes?

Two words - business travel.

After all, Donetsk is one of the largest (if not THE largest) industrial center of Ukraine. My father, in Soviet times, used to commute from Kyiv to Donetsk 3-4 times a year as he had a couple of "objects" there.

Well, I am not sure this is going to be a problem when Euro2012 comes. I remember the experiences of the 1980 Olympic Games. All of a sudden, police became soft and unassuming, communist slogans either disappeared or were obstructed, Fanta filled the stores, caviar, once again, became available, the best products hit the shelves...

They day the lovable bear flew away on the air balloons, it was like someone turned off that magic switch...

LOL, damn that's messed up

Not if they have to deal with thousands of you! It is in their best business interests to take a month-long hiatus from their racquet, so millions of unsuspecting foreigners keep coming to Ukraine past-EURO2012 to fill GAI's pockets

Yeah, but they know damn well that once those tourists come for 2012 and see Ukraine for themselves they'll never come back. Hence they'll have to take every opportunity they can get while they're still there.

Tourists will absolutely fall in love with Dnipropetrovsk. Kyiv is self explanatory. I've never been to Lvov, so if I go I definitely want to check out the town.

When are they supposed to renevate Lvov's stadium? Haven't heard anything about it

Are you serious?? I'm guessing you've been there but I can't see how you could say that about Dnepr. The building architecture yes, but all the beautiful hills and natural scenary in Dnepr is ideal and very conveniently located near the city center. The new stadium is only blocks away from the center of the city square as well, and right next to beautiful park Chkalova and close to the Rinok to see some unusual things I'm sure they'll fix the boulevards on some of the streets to make it look even more beautiful like in the heyday of the USSR.
I don't know about Poland's citites, but I can see Lvov and Dnepr being crowd favorites cause of the perfect mix of big city life but at the same time less crowded and quieter.

Haha,

But remember that there will be lots of people that don't get into the game because the arena only holds about 30,000. I think the location of the stadium next to the hot spot of the city and probably set up a fan zone on the banks of the Dnepr will be siiiick!