Amid a chorus of criticism over preparations for the 2011 Ice Hockey Championship, due to start in Bratislava and Košice on April 29, good news has come from the latter, where preparation of its ice-hockey stadium was finalised this week and a training hall adjacent to the Steel Arena, the Košice venue of for the championship, was opened.
The Steel Arena training hall was officially inaugurated on March 28. Preparations started at the end of April 2009 and construction began in November 2009, at a cost of €3.74 million. The hall was completed in December 2010 and acceptance procedures took place in February 2011. The dimensions of the ice rink correspond to those used overseas, in the NHL, and are thus considerably smaller than the actual competition area in the Steel Arena.
“The transition between the main and the training hall is already appreciated by the teams which have had a look at the Steel Arena,” Igor Nemeček, the director-general of the organising committee of the 2011 World Championship, said, as reported by the Korzár daily. “I believe that after the World Championship it will be highly appreciated. There are high-quality changing rooms; in addition, players will be near the two hotels where they are staying. We set a pretty high standard, and countries that organise the World Championship after Slovakia will have a really hard job [matching this].”
Source: Korzár
Compiled by Dušan Dudík from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
