Stern Will Lease The Hall To The City?

The City of Zagreb expects the private entrepreneurs to buy the land, make projects, build the hall, and then lease it to the City.

The City of Zagreb will lease the handball hall with 18 thousand seats from private entrepreneurs for the purposes of the World Handball Championship in 2009. At what price and from whom remains to be seen.

The City government has decided at a sitting earlier today to open a bid to entrepreneurs to build a multipurpose sports hall. The invitation is valid for ten days after the announcement.

- We have already made an agreement with Vjesnik and the announcement will be published in that newpaper in the following days – said the mayor, letting the interested entrepreneurs know that they did not have much time. The building of the hall has to start on July 1 at the latest and the City of Zagreb should take possession of it no later than November 1, 2008.

Short deadlines

To make things clear, it is not very likely that any entrepreneur will be able to respond to this call unless he or she already has a piece of land ready and unless the project planning for the hall is already finished. Cynics would say that the bid was opened as if on someone's cue. To the extent of public knowledge, so far only a group of Hungarian investors, represented by Davor Stern, have such a solution. They own a huge piece of land in Laniste and they would model the hall after the one in Athens, which was also built in a very short period of time.

Bandic's absolute lack of concern over the short deadlines is an indicator. When asked by reporters if he had any back-up plans, at first he said he did not. – We do not need any back-up plans – Bandic angrily responded to the inquiry, only to change his mind less than a minute later.

- Not only do we have a plan B, we also have a plan C and a plan D – the mayor showed off his knowledge of the alphabet. If all his letters fail, Bandic should still be able to pull through by reconstructing the Dom Sportova Sports Hall. Just in case, an expert committee was formed yesterday to work on the reconstruction project for Dom Sportova.

- A smart man leaves nothing to chance – Bandic wrapped up his folk wisdom series.