Poland’s Ministry of Sports and Tourism (MSiT) will lend financial backing to the creation of a multi-sport arena in Szczecin.

Targetted for inclusion on the MSiT’s long-term investment development programme, the facility will feature a 7,300-seat indoor events centre, outbuildings and adjacent fields, courts and parkland. Responding to a request made in a March visit to the ministry by Mayor Piotr Krzystek, the MSiT will set the level of its contribution to the project in the first quarter of next year.

The mayor announced the decision at a November press conference summing up his third year in office, noting the role played by MP Konstanty Oświęcimski, a representative from Szczecin, in securing the funding commitment. Inclusion in the MSiT programme, which runs through the year 2012, will help in completing the financial plan for the complex. Acquisition of the construction permit and the tender process already are underway.

Located on Szafera Street, in the northern section of the city, the arena will seat more than 7,000 spectators and better enable Szczecin to host world-class sporting events.  The 19,000m/sq centre will also comprise office, service and recreation buildings. Coupled with a nearby athletics track and a soon-to-be-completed aquatic centre, the new arena will provide venues for a full range of sporting events, training facilities for local athletes and recreational amenities for city residents.

The arena project calls for construction of the mail events centre, which will feature locker room and training facilities and a transformer to provide energy for the complex. The office and support facilities will feature ticket counters, conference spaces, a press center and a restaurant, as well as health and fitness rooms, a gymnasium and storage facilities.  The grounds of the complex will offer space for recreation in a park-like setting, with three sport fields, courts for volleyball, basketball and tennis, a table tennis area, a skate park, and bicycle and walking paths.