TALLINN – The city of Tallinn is to allocate nearly 32 million euros to sport in next year's budget.
According to next year's draft city budget, the focus in the field of sports will be on creating opportunities for physical activity and sport in the urban space, as well as supporting various sports projects and international competitions.
Operational expenditure in the area is planned at 20.3 million euros, while investments are planned at 11.4 million euros. This is a total of three million more than this year.
According to Deputy Mayor Vadim Belobrovtsev, Tallinn is undoubtedly the center of sports life in the country and since Tallinn will be the European Capital of Sport in 2025, it will consistently contribute to the development of the field.
"We organize a large number of high-level competitions, thousands of young athletes train in various clubs and tens of thousands are involved in sports. Nevertheless, we want to create more opportunities for physical activity, to motivate people even more towards a healthier lifestyle and to make physical activity part of everyone's everyday life. While already today, just over half of residents exercise regularly on average, the longer-term goal is to increase this figure to 65 percent by 2035," Belobrovtsev said.
In order to achieve these objectives, organized sporting activities, both physical and competitive, will be developed and supported in cooperation with national and local sports organizations. In this way, support will be given to various sports projects and associations, private sports bases and international sports competitions that are firmly established in the sports calendar and that showcase and enrich the sporting life of Tallinn. It will also focus on health, continue to support recreational and competitive sport for children and young people, and organize various awareness-raising events and campaigns involving young people.
"The biggest investment in the sports sector next year will be the complete renovation of the Tallinn Sports Hall, which started this year. The hall is expected to be ready for the autumn season of 2023, with around 7.5 million euros planned. We will also continue to renovate the Kadriorg Stadium, which will celebrate its centenary in a few years' time, in stages. For next year, we have budgeted one million euros for both the design and the installation of the lighting," the deputy mayor said.
In addition, a football hall will be built next year on Punane Street with a budget of 1.1 million euros. The Kristiine sports center will also undergo insulation and facade works, for which half a million euros have been earmarked. Work will also start on the design of an extension to the Sole sports center, which will improve the internal circulation logic, extend the lobbies and provide much-needed additional sanitary facilities. The budget for the design works is 170,000 euros. In Nomme, work will start on a new facility to replace the dilapidated Ilmaris extreme sports field, with 200,000 euros planned for both the design and the first phase of works next year.
In 2023, 550,000 euros is earmarked for the maintenance and expansion of the city's sports facilities. A reserve of 390,000 euros is foreseen for the renovation of sports facilities to cover minor works in several sports facilities.
Tallinn's 2023 city budget will have to be approved by the city council. The draft city budget submitted to the council totals 1.14 billion euros, which is 66.5 million euros, or 6.2 percent, more than in the 2022 revised budget.
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