Yesterday, the „Arena Burgas“ sports hall was officially opened, and President Rumen Radev and Mayor Dimitar Nikolov were invited to the event. Around 3:00 p.m., journalists who decided to cover the event were told by the local administration:
„Only the photographers will go at 5:50pm to the training hall, which the President will also visit. The journalists will stay in the big hall. Then very quickly the photographers will return to them so that we can be together for the start of the official ceremony at 6:00 p.m.“
Subsequently, the journalist of Iskra.bg and his colleagues from local websites, who asked to go to the training hall, were not allowed by the organizers because, according to them, they were not „photographers“ because they did not have professional cameras.
This raised many questions, the first one that immediately came up is – Is this being done to restrict freedom of speech? Why is only certain media allowed? Are they perhaps not asking uncomfortable questions?
Iskra.bg received information that despite the millions spent, flooring and basketball hoops were taken from other sports halls for opening. This was one of the questions we wanted to formally ask to clarify whether this was true or not. We wanted to ask what the final amount is and whether Rumen Radev knows what outrages have happened to this hall, which has become one of the symbols of corruption in Burgas Region under the GERB government.
The question also arose – is the President part of this outrage? Were the journalists deliberately kicked out so as not to ask uncomfortable questions to the President, so as not to discredit him and not involve him with the outrages of the local mayor from GERB? Readers of Iskra.bg have repeatedly asked Radev if he is a partner of GERB and Boyko Borissov, and whether he is involved in various schemes and corrupt activities with the party in question? Does he have anything to do with the inflated price of the hall and if so, will he benefit from this price increase?
And after another scandalous situation related to the hall, Deputy Mayor of Culture, Tourism and Sport Diana Savateva welcomed the guests to the event.
Subsequently, Mayor of Burgas Dimitar Nikolov, Governor of Burgas Maria Neykova, President Rumen Radev, without the opportunity to ask them questions, said a few words. The national anthem of Bulgaria was heard, and then the official guests sat down to watch the basketball championship semi-finals match between „Chernomorets“ and „Rilski Sportist“, the journalist of Iskra.bg informed.
We remind you that the first sod of the new hall was laid on October 20, 2014. Especially for it, the emblem of athletics Sergey Bubka arrived in the seaside city. At that time, GERB was in power, and they had budgeted BGN 25 million for its construction. In 2016, the GERB cabinet assigned the state company „Akademika“ to acquire the land for the hall and conclude a contract with the Municipality of Burgas for cooperation, „BNR“ wrote in 2021. Then it was reported that the company has BGN 35 million for construction. In the following year, it was decided to redesign the hall to be gasified.
And then the saga began. In early 2019, it was announced that the hall was expected to be completed by the end of the year. In January 2020, the authorities gave the same request – „by the end of the year“. Then Akademika reported that the deadline was September 2020. The price had already exceeded BGN 38 million, and after an inquiry by Dnevnik newspaper made at the time, it became clear that it had reached BGN 57.2 million. But another 5 million were needed for sports facilities.
Subsequently, the losses continued to increase. The Sega newspaper team stated that the total value of the hall was 75 million, and in an investigation from 2021 they wrote that the starting gun alone costed BGN 200,000. And they compared the hall with the twice larger „Arena Armeets Sofia“, which cost 90 million BGN.
At the same time, another interesting piece of information reached the editors of Iskra.bg – for the opening of „Arena Burgas“, the organizers took equipment from other sports facilities, including the basketball hoops from the Boycho Bronze Hall. The goal – to provide an opportunity for a hasty opening and the holding of a basketball game. In the new „Arena Burgas“, basketball hoops were also purchased during its construction, but despite the huge investment, it was found that they were unsuitable for holding professional basketball matches, and were only suitable for amateur championships. These data have not been confirmed due to the fact that censorship was imposed on some of the journalists.
In the report to us, it is also claimed that on the occasion of the opening, the local administration had to bring the floor-mopping aids, because the new hall did not have its own, despite all the millions allocated.
This whole process with the hasty opening in its current state is a pathetic attempt to mislead the public that „Arena Burgas“ is suitable for holding high-ranking sports events and to win the race with time that has long expired – the opening has been delayed by over Five years. Now, the citizens of Burgas can expect that in the coming months some staircase, corridor, suspended ceiling and all sorts of other similar „lots“ will be inaugurated and this will be presented as a huge success.
And although the construction of „Arena Burgas“ repeatedly exceeded the deadlines for the completion of the construction and came out double, at the moment no one is conducting inspections for the appropriation of public funds.
