Government Okays Construction of Multi-purpose Olympic Arena

Bratislava, November 13 (TASR) - The state will provide €20 million for the construction of a multi-purpose Olympic arena set to expand the existing Olympic training centre in Samorin (Trnava region), the government decided at its session on Wednesday. The contribution will be paid by the end of the year under the contract for supporting a national sports project concluded between the Tourism and Sport Ministry and a company called Olympic Arena, founded by the Slovak Olympic and Sports Committee. The aim is to build the arena near the multi-purpose X-Bionic Sphere sports facility. It should meet the highest standards of FIBA (basketball), FIVB (volleyball), IHF (handball), ITF (tennis) and IFF (floorball) in order to allow for the organisation of international sporting events in synergy with X-Bionic Sphere. "The Olympic Arena will have an overall capacity of 5,000 spectators," added the Sport Ministry. The construction project is expected to cost €31 million, due to be co-financed by the owner of X-Bionic and the state. The allocation of the resources was announced in late October by SNS chair Andrej Danko, head of the Olympic and Sports Committee Anton Siekel and Tourism and Sports Minister Dusan Keketi (an SNS nominee). The project forms part of sports infrastructure that might serve for organising a Summer Olympic Games in the 2036-2040 period, provided that Hungary submits a bid to host the Games. mf/df