It’s taken a planned Malcha sports arena over tens years to come to fruition, but Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat and Miphal Hapayis Director Shaul Sotnik finally presided over a ground-breaking ceremony yesterday. This act of progress has taken place just months after the mayor announced in February that he had secured funding to make the long awaited arena a reality.
The arena, to be built next to Teddy Stadium in the city’s south, is being hailed as a mini-Olympic center, a high-tech indoor home for sports seen as an upgrade of the city’s current quaint, yet outdated, arena. The 40,000 square meter struture is expected to be inaugurated in the fall of 2012.
Though the cost has doubled from it’s original projection years ago to NIS 240 million, the city will only have to cough up NIS 20 million. Another NIS 20 million will come from the Toto sports betting council. The national lottery, Miphal Hapayis, which funds community centers around the country, will provide the remaining NIS 200 million.
Following Mayor Barkat’s vision, “The new arena will be the largest indoor space in Jerusalem able to host professional sports, world-class concerts, international conferences and cultural events,” a member of the Barkat administration said in a statement. “Further, the new arena creates new jobs both from its operation and collaterally.” Though the arena will be the new home of Hapoel Jerusalem basketball, it will also include facilities for tennis, swimming, conventions, concerts and other events, and possibly even an ice rink, meaning Jerusalem’s burgeoning Canadian and Finnish expats will finally have a place to play their national sport.
Photos courtesy of the Jerusalem Municipality.
