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San Siro, Assago, Rho and Santagiulia: this will be the quadrilateral of the Milanese venues of the Winter Olympics. The Inaugural Ceremony, next February 6, will take place at the Meazza stadium, while the Forum – for the occasion called “Milano Ice Skating Arena” – will host the figure skating and short track competitions. The Rho Fair, on the other hand, will be the home of long track speed skating and ice hockey, which will see the majority of matches played at the “Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena”.
The latter is in fact the only new sports facility built for the Games in the city. The PalaItalia, designed by the English star architect David Chipperfield and owned by the German entertainment giant Eventim (which operates in Italy through its subsidiary TicketOne), has had a troubled history, including delays (the works will end on January 9th when the test-event will be staged, even if many of the related works will not be completed, especially for the connections) and extra costs. The initial investment for a 16,000-seat indoor arena was 180 million. However, mainly the increase in the prices of raw materials has led to increases of around ninety million which will be partially financed by the Government, the Lombardy Region and the Municipality of Milan (the 30 million allocated by the so-called “Advances” decree in November have been added to the 21 million of the Sports Decree in August).
The same fate will have the extra costs of the Olympic Village built by Coima Sgr as part of the redevelopment of the area of the former Porta Romana airport and which after the Olympics will become a student residence with 1,700 beds. Compared to the initial cost (100 million), there could be additional expenses of around 30 million.
For the long track speed skating competitions, the restructuring of the Baselga di Piné rink in Trentino, the Italian cradle of the discipline, a return to the Lingotto in Turin, theater of the 2006 Games, or the use of the Milan Arena were initially considered.
In the end, the Fiera di Milano in Rho, already home to Expo 2015, was chosen. The cost of the operation supported by the Fiera Milano Foundation was approximately 25 million. The «Milano Speed Skating Stadium» was created in pavilions 13-15, for a total of 35 thousand square meters of covered surface, including the 400 meter oval track (as many as an athletics track, but with flatter curves and longer straights), with stands for 7,500 spectators and all the technical areas necessary for the professionals.
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