Translated material
Athens, Olympic ruins
The stadiums of the 2004 Olympic Games came into desolation. What fate awaits the Olympic objects of Sochi?
In connection with the ten-year anniversary of the Summer Olympic Games in Greece (August 13-29, 2004), journalists and the public drew attention to the unenviable state in which the sports facilities of Athens are located.
Greece, which spent 11 billion euros on the Olympics, is not able to use the site expensive to maintain, for example, for such rare sports as softball and beach volleyball. Some sports arenas are used, but not for their intended purpose, several small sites are rented. Athens are not the only example of the sad heritage of games. Montreal - after the 1976 games - returned debts over the next 30 years. Read more about the Olympic ruins of Athens Radio Liberty was told by the Greek journalist Socrates Gramatikopolus :
- Most Olympic objects in Athens are not used, at least for its intended purpose, many of them are in a deplorable state. For the 2004 Greek Olympiad, two stadium unusual for our country - one baseball and one softball - unusual because almost no one plays baseball in Greece. An attempt to use them failed as concert halls, since there are enough cultural sites in Athens. Several Olympic structures are located on the territory of the former Athenian airport, so they are in terrible condition. For 10 years, the Greeks have been heard by the government promises that these objects will be, that some kind of inter-city park will be built there or something else, but nothing happens.
On the other hand, there is a positive example - one of the football stadiums, the construction of which was spent 60 million euros (this is a purely football stadium, without treadmills). It is used as the home platform of the most popular football club in Greece Olympiacos, and even the country's national team plays in this stadium.
- And the main Olympic arena, where the opening and closing of games, athletic starts, how does it feel?
Most Olympic objects in Athens are not used, at least for its intended purpose, many of them are in a deplorable state
- There you can hold football matches, but neither the Greece team nor those clubs that have their own stadium are playing there. This is a huge athletic football stadium, the visual rows on which are so far from the field that there are fans in the stands or not - does not play a role. The Olympic stadium is rare, but is used as a concert platform. For example, Lady Gaga comes to us in the fall, and she will perform at this stadium.
- 35 large sports facilities were built for the 2004 Athenian games. What is the percentage of the efficiency of this construction?
- About 80 percent of objects are not used at all, or are not used at full power and most often for other purposes. For example, the Sports Palace for oriental sports martial arts is most often used as a hall for various party events. Some sports facilities are simply plundered, and the authorities are not able to control their condition in general.
- And what about the Olympic village?
-For some time the Olympic village was desolate, but then it was decided to use it for housing. Worse with the press center: he stood abandoned for a long time, but now this room is used. Not for the work of journalists.
-In general, for Greece, the fate of Olympic objects is an important socio-political problem? After all, such money swelled, the country of a poor, economic crisis in the eurozone - and in Athens there are empty concrete palaces ...
- This is really a problem for the country. In crisis times, one could at least sell them, help out some money. But the issue of sale is associated with the most complicated bureaucratic procedures, so even such a profitable piece of land as a former airport did not become the subject of trading. Olympic objects are located on the coast there, next to the beach line, that is, it would be possible to build a whole tourist city, but all ten years the authorities only report preparing investment projects, and not one of them has been completed.
- Now is there a feeling in the circles of sports journalists that it was not necessary to spend such an expensive and huge Olympics in all respects to Athens?
- Yes, such opinions often sound. Among the causes of the Greek economic crisis, they are also called such a costly Olympics, which was clearly not on the shoulder of such a small and poor country as Greece. Of course, there are positive points - tourist advertising of the country; Of course, the infrastructure of the capital is “tightened”, and the new airport was built, and two new metro lines, and the district track. These are not direct Olympic objects, but they were built with aim at the Olympics. So it is probably not worth it to be completely negative about the Olympics. On the other hand, probably, it would probably be possible to spend it more economically, ”said the Athenian journalist Socrates Gramatikopoulos.
Athenian problems are most likely to be close to the Olympic capital of the 2014-Sochi. The theme of the future Olympic objects has already disappeared from the pages of the Russian media. Almost nothing is said about this in government structures, although immediately after the liquidation of the Olympstroy state corporation, they started talking about the creation of a multifunctional center of winter sports with modern ski and sanitary-bobslane tracks, springboard and concomitant infrastructure. But all this applies to objects of the mountain cluster.
Sports palaces "Fisht", "Iceberg", "Work", the Ice Palace "Big", "Adler-Arena" and the Kerling Center "Ice Club"-the largest Olympic construction projects. More than 22 billion rubles were spent on their construction. These are the official numbers. However, experts tend to believe that the amount is underestimated by almost a third. So, 9 billion rubles were spent on the construction of the Fisht Central Stadium according to the Olympstroy estimate, but the project changed several times throughout the period, and additional funds were allocated for its revision. According to some estimates, the cost of Fishte can be a little less than 12 billion. Approximately, the same picture is drawn in relation to the Big Ice Palace: with a declared estimate of 2 and a half billion rubles, its construction cost almost 4 billion.
According to the initial plan, after the completion of the Olympiad, the Fisht Stadium, built only for the opening and closing ceremonies of the Games, had to disassemble and transfer to one of the Russian regions. They were called Krasnoyarsk, Rostov and Vladikavkaz. But it seems that this idea was abandoned due to its high cost, and the new stadium is being prepared for reconstruction for the needs of the 2018 World Cup. The Ice Palace "Big" was planned to be reprofiled into a multifunctional sports center. At this database, it was hoped to create a team of the continental hockey league. In addition, the Sports Palace was going to use for holding figure skating competitions. Two years ago, the famous coach Tatyana Tarasova tried to talk with the Russian President about the creation of the All-Russian Children and Youth Center on the basis of the "large", and it seems that Putin supported this idea. But now they forgot about her. The center will require the creation of additional infrastructure, focused on year -round content in it more than three thousand children and adolescents. To do this, in the Olympic Park, it is necessary to build schools, children's hospitals, create objects for relaxation and entertainment.
The question with housing is not clear. The town for volunteers, built by the Olympics by the structures of Oleg Deripaska, will most likely be put up for auction due to the high cost of its content. On the territory of Adler-Arena, the creation of an international ex-Arena was supposed. But the construction transferred to the balance of the Krasnodar Territory will also require a new architectural solution. In addition, the Imeret Lowland is unattractive for potential international investors due to the lack of proper service. It will be necessary to build several five -star hotels and equip objects for relaxation and entertainment from scratch.
The current summer season shows that the Olympic park is unpopular among people with serious intentions and money. There is no clarity with the Ice Arena of the “puck”, which, like the “big”, intended to give to the needs of the children and youth sports center. So far, everything comes down to the fact that the “washer” will turn into a training base during the hockey season, and the rest of the time will be idle.
The total costs of the Olympiad exceeded the scheduled value by 5 times and set the absolute Olympic “record”. The cost of the objects considered on average increased from 2007 to 2012 by almost 3 times. The scale of the removal of insider rent can be estimated at about 30-60%, the average rating for all Olympic facilities is 54.2%. The volume of overrun in sports facilities reaches two billion dollars. But the total scale of overrun during the implementation of the Sochi-2014 project amounted to almost $ 28 billion.