Sochi Mayor: Olympics Will Mean Economic Growth

(ATR) The mayor of Sochi says a 2014 Winter Olympics in the Russian resort lead to economic growth for its residents and a legacy for future generations of winter sports enthusiasts.

“With all the things being constructed for 2014 the economy of the city will grow 10 times. We will create 160,000 new jobs here,” said Viktor Kolodyazhny Friday in a roundtable discussion with reporters in Sochi covering the visit of the IOC 2014 Evaluation Commission.

“Our main goal is to transform the city into a resort which functions for all seasons. In five or six years time you won’t be able to recognize this place,” he said.

He added: “The Games will create many more additional opportunities for our kids to become involved in winter sports.”

Kolodyazhny was speaking on the final day of the four-day inspection tour of the Black Sea resort by the IOC. He has spent much of the week with the delegation answering questions about the bid.

On Saturday, the majority of the 16-member delegation departed Sochi on a chartered flight from the new Adler airport to Frankfurt where they caught connecting flights home. The new Aeroflot route opened up in February but generally only operates a weekly Wednesday service.

The Russian government is planning to invest $12 billion in Games infrastructure, building most of the proposed 13 competition venues and Olympics-related constructions from scratch.

The IOC commission said Friday that time could be an issue if Sochi was awarded the 2014 Games as there was so much infrastructure to develop.

But Kolodyazhny has no worries on the timetable for developments, saying: “The Russian President has said that the government guarantees everything will be constructed on time.

“Developments in this region will be happening regardless of whether Sochi host the Olympic Games.

“We and the leadership of this country want these developments and the prosperity and wellbeing of people to increase to bring Russia up to the European level of lifestyle.”

Kolodyazhny said the city and Russia was “looking forward to building the most modern state-of-the-art facilities that will attract a lot of people to practice sports”.

“As mayor of Sochi I’m interested that everything being built here in the framework of the Federal Target Program for a Sochi Olympic Games brings additional revenues to the city,” he added.

Asked by Around the Rings whether the $806 million budget to build the Olympic Park could escalate, the mayor said: “No, we do not anticipate that the real budget will exceed the planned budget. Costs will be fixed with the companies that win the construction tenders.”

“We are very interested that large foreign companies become involved in construction projects in this region,” he added.

According to the bid book, the proposed legacy fund to maintain the Olympic Park after a 2014 Olympics is $35 million.

And Kolodyazhny confirmed: “City government and authorities are prepared to maintain all the facilities that will be built so that kids and others can use them as well as professional athletes.”

Around the Rings also questioned the Sochi mayor about his role in a 2014 Olympics which would take place 30km from the city in a place called Adler. The Olympic Park would be built in the Imeretinskaya Valley.

The Olympic Charter states that “all sports competition must take place in the host city of the Olympic Games, unless the IOC Executive Board authorises the organisation of certain events in other cities, sites or venues situated in the same country.”

Kolodyazhny confirmed that Adler is part of the Sochi administration area, which extends to the Krasnaya Polyana mountains, site of the snow sports venues.

“In administration terms, Sochi is twice as big as Moscow,” he commented to Around the Rings. “It’s a big territory covering over 130km of the Black Sea coast.

“I am elected by the population of this city and I should defend all the interests of the citizens of Sochi, that is why my role as head of the administration will be quite big for the Olympic Games.”

Kolodyazhny said he was confident Sochi 2014 had a strong bid which could see off competition from rivals Pyeongchang and Salzburg: “As a sportsman myself I obviously very much want to win this race.”

Reported from Sochi by Mark Bisson.

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