The Olympic Stadium remodelling works will take 14 months
13/11/2008
The Organising Committee of the European Athletics Championships Barcelona 2010 spent some time analysing the current economic situation, 20 months prior to the start of the Championships. The Committee reached an agreement to ensure adequate financing for the event. As on other occasions, the meeting was held at the B10 headquarters, in the Olympic Stadium of Montjuïc. Albert Soler, Sports General Director in the Consejo Superior de Deportes, attended the meeting chaired by the Committee’s President, José María Odriozola. Soler travelled from Madrid first thing in the morning, and left after the meeting had finished to catch a plane to Avilés, Asturias, where he had other professional commitments. The City Council sent Pere Alcober, Sports Delegate, and Sergi Pujalte, Manager of the Barcelona Sports Institute. Josep Monrás and Antonio Tobeña attended on behalf of Diputació de Barcelona as Deputy President of the Sports Area and as Sports Area Coordinator respectively. The Committee went through the deadlines for the works to be carried out in the stadium and other B10 facilities. The infrastructure programme hasn’t been modified and the works on the inside of the stadium –the most important ones- will last 14 months, from February 2009 to April 2010. It was approved that Joan Delort, Public Safety Secretary in the Department of the Interior in Generalitat, will become a member of the Organising Committee. A representative of this department will soon be appointed as a member of the Executive Committee. Delort will chair the B10 Security High Commission. The Committee closed the deadline to apply to the transport tender. Six leading sector companies have sent their applications and a final decision will be made during the next Committee meeting on 15 December. Televisión Española (TVE), who will be in charge of broadcasting the event, was also present at the Committee Meeting for the first time. Nacho Gómez-Acebo, in charge of sports programmes production, attended the meeting and confirmed that on 13 January, TVE will visit the Championships facilities, as a first step towards preparing their production plan. To date, a total of 13 companies has bid to be the opening ceremony organisers. In the next Committee Meeting, a first selection will be made, and the selected companies will be able to present their final proposals. For the first time, Committee members had their pictures taken with the B10 mascot, Barni, in the Olympic Stadium.
Other public administrations were also represented in the meeting. Lolo Ibern attended on behalf of the Generalitat de Catalunya as Director of Sports Policy of the Sports Secretary General.
