Russia’s Sports Minister Vyacheslav Fetisov told a news conference Monday that Russia is prepared to spend $6.75 billion to develop the resort area of Sochi, situated on the Black Sea shore 800 miles south of Moscow, if it wins the bid for the 2014 Winter Olympic Games.
He said most of the money would come from the federal budget but did not specify how much that would be.
Fetisov and other officials said they viewed the Games as a potential boost for the area, which is popular among Russian tourists but not well known internationally.
Fetisov said, “the realization of the Olympic project in Sochi can be the locomotive of developing the whole region…today Sochi gets two million tourists a year, and after nine years that could grow by three times”.
The plan is to hold indoor ice events – hockey, speedskating, figure skating and curling – on flatlands around the city, with skiing, snowboarding and bobsledding centred around the nearby mountain resort of Krasnaya Polyana.
The distance from the athlete’s village to any of the venues would be no more than about six kilometres, according to Dmitry Chernishenko, general director of the bid committee.
The road leading to the snow-sport venues would be closed to private vehicles, ensuring smooth transport, and a light-rail system would be built from the airport to the snow-sports area, said officials.
Sochi’s competition is PyeongChang, Almaty, Borjomi, Georgia, Jaca, Salzburg and Sofia.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) will name three or four cities as finalists in June and the winner will be selected in July 2007.
