OAKA 2.0: the new masterplan for the Athens Olympic Center in Maroussi

“Every visitor to this place has the same mixed feelings that I think we all feel now. On the one hand, pride and nostalgia, culminating in the 2004 Olympic Games “, said the Prime Minister in his speech, at the presentation of the Master Plan for the complete modernization and utilization of the facilities of the Athens Olympic Sports Center” Spyros Louis “(OAKA)

At the same time, the prime minister referred to the first time he visited the Olympic Stadium, when he was 15 years old in the final of the then Champions Cup between Juventus and Hamburg.

The image of the space has been improved

“We all remember the best moments from the 2004 Olympic Games. What happened next is more or less known to everyone. Disappointment. Very important facilities were left to their fate. As it happened with almost all the Olympic infrastructures “, the prime minister added. He stated that in the last two years many important interventions have been made and “today the image of this emblematic space is much better than the one we received”.

“It is clear that with such interventions we could not launch an intervention of the scale that OAKA deserves. That is why we have included the master plan and the plan of total renovation in the Recovery Fund with 43 million euros “, the prime minister added and referred to the projects that are to be done.

The projects to be done

“We will start the maintenance and energy upgrade of the central stage, the repair of the central shelter. Not the slightest intervention had taken place in the shelter in the last 17 years. We will prepare the study to make the most important investment in terms of security. The indoor gym, the cycling track will also be renovated, I talked about the tennis courts but also about the intervention in the surrounding area “.

“The Olympic Center is now transformed into an Olympic Park in Athens with separate neighborhoods for the training of our athletes but open for individual sports and entertainment of the residents. “A championship venue is also becoming a mass sport venue,” the prime minister stressed.

Continuing, he pointed out the triple imprint of this intervention. “First of all, ecological. It is at the same time an important development project. It is also an intervention which has a budgetary character. Our goal is for its budget in three years to be balanced and in five to generate profits.

Above all, however, the benefit will be social. OAKA will perform much better to the Athenians. It already attracts about 20,000 every weekend and a little less on weekdays. With the intervention that we will make, this number will increase significantly “.

The project will be included in the Recovery Fund

He stressed that the government’s view is that all the great projects of a country should offer a lot to everyone. “Public and private forces can work together in such a direction. This project is one of the 10 largest in the package of initiatives included in the Recovery Fund. Greece 2.0 Plan is being implemented and the first resources will be disbursed before the end of the month “, noted Mr. Mitsotakis.

“Let us hope that our own records will start from here in our effort for a new image of Athens and the whole of Greece”, the Prime Minister concluded.