Mirosław Drzewiecki, the minister of sport and tourism, visited the stadium on Friday.
He got familiar with the project of the last step to modernize the facility. He did not hide that he is impressed by the Silesia stadium.
The Minister had visited the facility for almost an hour. In the company of the marshal Boguslaw Śmigielski and Adam Matusiewicz he visited changing rooms, conference rooms, a point of command as well ass grassland.
– The Silesian stadium is located in beautiful surroundings. There are no such facilities and changing rooms – praised the minister.
After walking Drzewiecki listened to the presentations about the progress of modernization, which was presented by Marcin Stolarz, a director of the Office for Preparation of EURO in the Silesian Voivodeship. He also saw a movie presenting what Silesian Stadium will look like in 2012. The videovisualisation prepared by the Silesian ‘Urzad Marszalkowski’ took a big impression on everybody.
– There are fewer things to do than anywhere else and a lot of investments is finished. On the other hand, looking at the current stadium and on the draft we can say that there will be two different facilities. The stadium is big and it will become the largest arena of athletics. It will have the largest roof in the world (43 thousand. sq m) – assessed the minister after watching the presentation.
Drzewiecki said that he was happy that it’s not the government, not UEFA, which will choose the host-cities. – In Germany, those who decided on where the world championships would take place then did not have entrance to the three cities whose bids had been rejected.
The final step of rebuilding the Silesian Stadium will begin in July and will last until April 2011. After its completion, the scene of a capacity 55,211 will covered with roof.
In April, Poland and Ukraine will host Michael Platini, the head of UEFA. In May, the decision concerning the place of the Euro 2012 will be made. – All Polish cities have the chance to host matches of Euro [Warsaw, Wroclaw, Gdańsk, Poznan, Krakow and Chorzow, note. ed]. Now, it is difficult to say whether the division of championship between Ukraine and Poland will be symmetrical. But decisions made in May will not necessarily be the final ones. This could slow down the preparation in the cities marked as reserves – explains the minister.
The chances of Chorzow? – Today, there are no Jerzy Buzek and Anthony Piechniczka with me. They think that the championship should be hosted in Silesia. It is true that, when it comes to the size of the cities and the number of football clubs, the power of the region is the largest. I cross my fingers for all the Polish cities trying to host matches for Euro 2012 and I am very happy that the Government is relieved from the requirement of choice. Apart from all of it, we have to remember that we are building facilities not only for championships but for years. It is worth preserving their unique character of them – added the minister.
We have to add that the Minister has received an invitation from Marshal Śmigielski for the August concert of U2 band. – This is the last event at Silesia before the start of modernization works – said Śmigielski. The Silesian Stadium is to be ready on 29 April 2011.
