Construction of Riga Arena to Begin Next Month
The main site of the 2006 IIHF World Championship in Riga, Latvia will stand ready in late autumn of 2005, five to six months prior to the championship. This was reported to the IIHF in a meeting on August 4 by the Estonian building entrepreneur Merks and the Canadian arena consultants SCI, the two main bodies behind the venture.
The Riga Arena could hold up to 12,000 fans for the IIHF World Championship with seating for 10,000. The arena will feature all modern facilities with club seating, private suites, restaurants and bars.
'We are very pleased with what we were shown', said IIHF General Secretary Jan-Ake Edvinsson. 'The building in Riga will be a state-of-the-art arena with everything you need to organize a world championship. We are especially happy with the time schedule. The general contractor has guaranteed that the construction will begin this September and that it will take between twelve and fourteen months to complete.'
On July 1, the IIHF definitely allocated the 2006 event to Latvia after a period of uncertainty and concerns about delays with the arena construction in Riga.
It will be the first time that Latvia will host the IIHF’s flagship event and it will have the honour to host the 70th IIHF World Championship in Riga, a city of 800,000 inhabitants whose history dates back to 1201. The dates of the championship are TBD.
The second arena will be in the Riga municipality of Skonto, where an already existing event venue will be reconstructed to a hockey arena for 6,000 spectators.
Latvia 2006, which will take place two months after the 2006 Olympic Winter Games in Turin, will be sandwiched between the 2005 IIHF World Championship (Vienna and Innsbruck, Austria) and St.Petersburg – Moscow, Russia which will be host in 2007.
Canada (Quebec City and Halifax) will host the 2008 IIHF Championship while Switzerland (Zurich and Berne) will be the organizer in 2009.
For further information:
Szymon Szemberg
IIHF Information & Media Relations Manager
0041-1-562 22 75 (direct), 0041-79-774 07 11 (mobile)
0041-1-562 22 39 (Fax)
szemberg@iihf.com
www.iihf.com
The Riga Arena could hold up to 12,000 fans for the IIHF World Championship with seating for 10,000. The arena will feature all modern facilities with club seating, private suites, restaurants and bars.
'We are very pleased with what we were shown', said IIHF General Secretary Jan-Ake Edvinsson. 'The building in Riga will be a state-of-the-art arena with everything you need to organize a world championship. We are especially happy with the time schedule. The general contractor has guaranteed that the construction will begin this September and that it will take between twelve and fourteen months to complete.'
On July 1, the IIHF definitely allocated the 2006 event to Latvia after a period of uncertainty and concerns about delays with the arena construction in Riga.
It will be the first time that Latvia will host the IIHF’s flagship event and it will have the honour to host the 70th IIHF World Championship in Riga, a city of 800,000 inhabitants whose history dates back to 1201. The dates of the championship are TBD.
The second arena will be in the Riga municipality of Skonto, where an already existing event venue will be reconstructed to a hockey arena for 6,000 spectators.
Latvia 2006, which will take place two months after the 2006 Olympic Winter Games in Turin, will be sandwiched between the 2005 IIHF World Championship (Vienna and Innsbruck, Austria) and St.Petersburg – Moscow, Russia which will be host in 2007.
Canada (Quebec City and Halifax) will host the 2008 IIHF Championship while Switzerland (Zurich and Berne) will be the organizer in 2009.
For further information:
Szymon Szemberg
IIHF Information & Media Relations Manager
0041-1-562 22 75 (direct), 0041-79-774 07 11 (mobile)
0041-1-562 22 39 (Fax)
szemberg@iihf.com
www.iihf.com