2013 WU Update: 1st CSU Visit in Maribor

MARIBOR – On November 15th a 1st visit of the FISU Supervision Committee for the Winter Universiade was scheduled to be held in Maribor, Slovenia. Kairis Ulp, CSU Chair, and Leonz Eder, CSU Vice-Chair paid a visit to Maribor, while Oleg Matytsin and Marian Dymalski were tied up for different reasons. The FISU team was received by Srecko Vilar, Games Management Director, Joze Jagodnik, Games Management Member and Srecko Medven, Sports Coordinator and Executive Director of Sports. From SUSA Andrej Pisl was temporarily also present.

In the first part of the meeting, the OC representatives of Maribor 2013 presented the current concept and explained the changes compared to the bidding book. They also explained the new concept of accommodation, the OC chart and the preliminary budget. The major changes are the adjustment of the overall budget – the operational budget still remains the same with € 13 mio. -, a new concept of accommodation in three Campuses, namely Campus Pohorje, Campus Radvanje and Campus Citiy, and the fact that existing facilities for Ski Jumping and Nordic Combined in the country will be used instead of the construction of a new venue in Maribor. The date of the Universiade has been fixed as from January 31st to February 9th, 2013 and has already been agreed with the CTI of FISU. In an open discussion the FISU representatives shared their experiences from previous Universiades and from the preparations for Erzurum 2011. They also stressed some facts from the FISU minimum requirements, promised the OC to help in establishing a cooperation with the OC of Erzurum and finally discussed the progress report to the FISU EC on November 18/19 in Brussels as well as the working plan until September 2011.

As the City of Maribor has been awarded to be the European City of Culture in 2012, the OC of the 2013 Winter Universiade is trying to establish a lot of synergies between the two important events, mainly in fields like logistics, transportation, marketing etc. If Maribor will also become the European City of the Youth, it will even be easier to recruit the volunteers for the Universiade. And additionally the OC tries to cooperate with the OC of the European Championship in Basketball, also to be held in Slovenia in 2013.

In the evening the FISU delegates were invited to a dinner hosted by the Mayor of Maribor, Franc Kangler. He was recently successfully re-elected in the first round which never happened before in the history of Slovenia. He again underlined the fact that he fully stands behind the project of the 2013 Winter Universiade and will provide any possible support to the preparation of this important event.

(Source: Leonz Eder)

Workmeeting with the OC

Srecko Vilar, Games Management Director, explaining the Mariborsko Pohorje region

Arrival of the Alpine Skiing Competition

The venue for the Opening Ceremony