Bucharest City Hall to spend EUR 23 mln on revamping city's main skating rink

Bucharest City Hall wants to revamp and upgrade the Flamaropol skating rink in Romania’s capital with some EUR 23.4 million, the deadline for design and work being 2 years. According to an announcement published on e-licitatie.ro, the municipality wants to contract, through open bid, a company to handle both the design and construction work for the skating rink, as well as for the adjoining spaces used in sports activities. Earlier this year in February, news emerged that Bucharest’s main skating rink Flamaropol would not be re-opened as planned, and the authorities were in talks with businessman Ion Tiriac to build a new skating rink elsewhere, until the existing one will be demolished and rebuilt. Back then,authorities said the Mihai Flamaropol ice skating rink in Bucharest, which closed down a year ago because of its utilities debt, would no longer re-open as planned, mainly because it was too expensive to keep it running for a short period of time. Once re-opened, the skating rink would have had a short life span this season, as it would have been almost impossible to keep the ice from melting at above 17 degrees Celsius, according to municipality sources, quoted by Mediafax newswire. The skating season was also due to end soon – the artistic skating activity ends in March, and for ice hockey, in April. The skating rink, located close to the National Arena, and owned by the Bucharest City Hall, has EUR 300,000 in utilities debt. It is however functional and only a short revision at the ice making equipment would be needed before re-opening the rink. The City Hall ‘inherited’ the skating rink and its debt, mostly on electricity and water, from the Youth and Sports Ministry. Back when the ministry decided to shut it down, the skating rink was managed by the Romanian Hockey Federation. Ever since the Mihai Flamaropol ice skating rink was closed, athletes from the seven artistic skating clubs in Bucharest have been training on ice skating rinks inside shopping malls. Closing down the only professional skating rink in Bucharest left over 150 professional skaters and 500 ice hockey players unable to train elsewhere than in shopping malls, or by commuting to Brasov, which has two skating rinks up to competitive standards. editor@romania-insider.com