RIGA - With Latvia scrambling to get a 11,000-seat ice hockey arena put up in time for the 2006 world championship which it has the right to hold, battles over who will build the stadium and disputes concerning the continued delay have increased dramatically as new players attempt to enter the picture and save the project.
Previous deadlines set by the government have been extended only to ultimately expire with no visible change in the situation.
On April 6, as The Baltic Times was going to press, the Riga City Council gave Multihalle, the company that won the tender to host the event, until the end of the week to announce the name of an investor who will help build the stadium.
Multihalle told City Council members that a Turkish investor was expected to arrive in Riga this week.
Publicly, much of the blame has focused on Latvian Hockey Federation head Kirovs Lipmans. The sports federation leader, who has been asked to resign, also holds a stake in Multihalle, and for this he has been charged with having a blatant conflict of interest.
Lipmans has responded by offering to sell his Multihalle stake.
Ironically, responsible parties tried to jump the gun last week by beginning construction on the site, but they were ordered to stop by the city's building inspection department because of a lack of authorization.
The final decision on the hockey championship will not be made this month, sources said.
"A final decision will be made during the congress at the championship games in Prague on May 6 and 7," International Ice Hockey Federation spokesman Szymon Szemberg told The Baltic Times in a phone conversation from Switzerland.
An evaluation committee from the IIHF will visit Latvia in mid-April to assess the situation. Similarly, Lipmans is expected to visit the IIHF on April 7 to explain the situation.
The Riga City Council, the Merks construction company, Multihalle and the Latvian Ice Hockey Federation have so far failed to agree on a compromise.
At the same time, Merks has also offered to buy Multihalle out of the project for 1.2 million euros.
Multihalle is left now to appeal to Prime Minister Indulis Emsis and Lipmans to emerge with an investor who can shore up financing for the project.
Further complicating matters, on April 6 five of the largest construction companies in Latvia offered to build the arena without the help of Merks or foreign investors. With this proposed plan, however, it remained unclear what future role Merks would have since it owns the land surrounding the arena - an area that will conceivably be used for further development including the construction of a hotel and other amenities.
The Riga City Council maintained that Merks should build the project and their proposal is the best received so far.
Planning problems associated with hosting the international ice hockey event are nothing new as both Russia's holding of the championship, and the Czech Republic's current hosting of the event were both plagued with problems.
The last two countries that lost the right to host the world ice hockey championship were Canada, which encountered trouble in 1970 over a dispute using professional and amateur players, and Czechoslovakia, unable to host it in 1969 due to the invasion by the Soviet military.
Sweden, which hosted both events as a backup, is rumored to be at least one possible destination should Latvia lose the 2006 championships.
A decision will be voted upon by attending members of the 63 counties at this year's ice hockey championships next month.
In order to meet the requirements for hosting the event, Latvia must build an 11,000-seat arena by September 2005 in addition to a smaller capacity arena.
