WU CSU-CTI in Erzurum – Day 1

 CSU Chair, Mrs Kairis Ulp opening the CSU-OC meeting

 As you know the city of Erzurum will welcome the FISU Winter Universiade in January-February 2011 (27/01-06-02). FISU Delegates are busy for their traditional sets of inspections more than one year before the games.

Winter Universiade Supervision Committee (CSU) and International Technical Committee, met today in Erzurum together with the Erzurum 2011 Organizing Committee and also with Turkish members of the NUSF and Erzurum Region and Government representatives.

After a brief meeting lead by CSU Chair, Mrs Kairis Ulp, the FISU CTI Members were invited for a first inspection at the Athletes’ Village. The village is located inside the Ataturk University of Erzurum.

Athletes’ Village is composed of two separate sets of buildings: one in construction and the other which has to be renovated. Together, these buildings will offer a lodging capacity of 3000 beds. Another building located near the village (1km) will also be renovated and will serve as a “back up” (also with a 1500 beds capacity).

The FISU delegates had also the opportunity to visit the Cemal Gürsel stadium which will be used for the opening and closing ceremonies. This stadium will be totally renewed. Tender bid will be effective in November. A 900 m2 area has been allocated for the Press Information Centre including Main Press Centre and International Broadcasting Centre and finally.

The total capacity of the stadium will be 20.000 spectators!

The afternoon session was dedicated to meetings between CSU Erzurum OC

An important delegation of the Erzurum OC gave us a detailed report about Universiade preparation. M. Mehmet Atalay, Chief Coordinator of all games in Turkey and Yunus Akgul, General Director for Youth and Sport in Turkey were present to underline the support of the Government of Turkey.

From left to right, Mrs Kairis Ulp, CSU Chair, M.Önder Ari OC translator, M. Bekir Korkmaz, General Coordinator of the 2011 Universiade, M. Leonz Eder, CSU Vice Chair

The Athletes’ Village construction is in full swing

Rooms for Team Captains meeting were inspected

The new Universiade Coordinator, Mr. Bekir Korkmaz, was very pleased to welcome the FISU delegates, he gave us his vision of the situation:

“Erzurum is eagerly waiting for the year 2011. The rapid pace of venue constructions already started changing the facade of the city. Investments made in 2009 are already a great indicator of how valuable Universiade is to the city of Erzurum especially during a year affected by global economic downturn.

During our meeting in Erzurum in May of 2009, we mentioned the venue construction was behind schedule by two months due to the climate and bureaucratic reasons. Resolving these issues in May, venue construction preparations have accelerated. Venue construction came across as the most critical activity in the project. Any delay in construction during the summer period would have the potential to compromise the entire project. For this reason we focused most of our energy and resources towards the venue construction. This strategy had positive results as most of the venues currently have 50% to 60% completion rate. We plan to complete the roofs of the indoor venues by the end of the year. Now we are in October 2009 and we can safely say we are ahead of schedule by two months. On the other hand we are aware of the fact that completing the physical aspects of the project will not be sufficient by itself. Our efforts on venue construction will be channeled towards organization of the games and human resource improvement during the next three months. Another one of our priorities will be to involve the people and institutions of Erzurum so they can embrace and display a sense of ownership for the Winter Universiade. In order to achieve this goal we plan to form committees with local stakeholders and offer activities to the general public to amplify the enthusiasm for the games.”

Mr Bekir Korkmaz(left), together with Leonz Eder and Kairis Ulp, presenting the new Cemal Gürsel stadium project