New Sofia Sports Arena Holds 1st Open Doors Day

The brand-new Sofia sports facility "Armeets Arena" has 12 529 seats and the capacity to hold 19 000 people. Photo by Yuliyana Nikolova, Sofia Photo Agency

The brand-new Sofia sports facility "Armeets Arena" will hold Sunday its first "open doors" event.

The announcement was made by the Ministry of Physical Education and Sports.

The decision was made because there is huge interest towards the new facility and the official opening ceremony could not accommodate all those who wished to visit it.

The Arena will be open, free of charge, on July 31 between 1 pm and 5 pm. Employees will organize the visits and provide guided tours.

On August 20th and 21st the facility will be open, once again, free of charge for the Rhythmic Gymnastics World Cup, a sport in which Bulgaria traditionally excels.

On Saturday, "Armeets Arena" was officially inaugurated by Bulgaria's Prime Minister, Boyko Borisov, in the presence of the Mayor of Sofia, Yordanka Fandakova, and the Minister of Sports, Svilen Neykov. They all watched the first ever sports competition held in the hall – a friendly game between the men national volleyball teams of Bulgaria and Serbia. Bulgaria won the game.

On Friday, the organizers of the opening ceremony took journalists on a 52-meter-high platform, which also functions as a restaurant, to show them the facility from above.

The Arena has 12 529 seats and the capacity to hold 19 000 people. It was built in 18 months. It can be used, under the contract, for 8 types of sports, but offers possibilities for the practice of 30. It has a special security system that takes pictures of the spectators and recognizes those banned from sports events over hooligan acts.

24 police teams were engaged Saturday to monitor traffic and movement around the facility.

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