Olympic Stadium to receive EUR 8 million facelift

Football pitch to be widened, running track resurfaced

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Helsinki's Olympic Stadium, dating originally from the late 1930s, is to be given an EUR 8 million facelift.
      For the renovations project the Stadium Foundation, which administers and manages the historic structure, will receive EUR four million from the Finnish government matched by an equal amount from the City of Helsinki.
     
According to information obtained by Helsingin Sanomat, the Ministry of Education and the City of Helsinki have agreed on the endorsement.
      The Ministry will formally decide on the matter on Friday. At that time Minister of Culture and Sport Stefan Wallin (Swedish People’s Party) will announce the names of all other exercise venues that are to receive stimulus money from the government.
     
In the Olympic Stadium’s case, the millions will primarily be spent on renovating the stadium tower and renewing the entire sporting area.
      As regulations regarding international football call for the widening of the grassed surface, the surrounding running track also has to be relaid. Furthermore, as the sporting arena is renovated, the engineering underneath it, such as the sub-surface heating system, will also need to be renewed.
     
Some of the visitor spaces, such as the toilets, will be given a facelift.
      The floors of the gyms and the changing rooms also call for some prettifying.
      In the first instance, security fences will be installed to surround the stands for fans of the home and visitor teams before the summer’s football games.
      The movable fences will be about a metre in height, and they will only be used in the World Championships qualifiers. Finland host Liechtenstein, Russia, and Wales this summer and autumn.
     
The next repair works after this round are estimated to start towards the end of the autumn, once the plans have been finalised.
      The Stadium Foundation is also planning to commission a detailed study into the condition of the Olympic Stadium, which was erected in 1938 for a planned 1940 Olympics that never materialised. The Summer Olympics were eventually held in Helsinki in 1952.
      According to managing director Maija Innanen, the foundation will decide on further renovations only after the completion of the study.
     
By the turn of the year the foundation will also produce visions of how the stadium’s use could be diversified in the future.
      “For example events related to the annual Helsinki Festival could be organised here”, Innanen envisions.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Refurbishing of Olympic Stadium more costly than anticipated (23.8.2004)

Links:
  Helsinki Olympic Stadium (Wikipedia)
  Olympic Stadium

Helsingin Sanomat