Daniel Cristian Stan, Mayor of Târgoviște, has maintained the Romanian city can accommodate two new football stadia after plans were approved to resurrect a project that had first been proposed in 2014.
Liga 1 football club Chindia Târgoviște is currently awaiting the completion of redevelopment works at its Stadionul Eugen Popescu, but Complex Sportiv Stadion Municipal, an older project of Dâmbovița County Council, has now been given the green light.
The 12,012-seat stadium, which will also feature an athletics track, will be developed to the standards necessary for Liga 1, UEFA Champions League and Europa League games, and national team matches.
Having been projected to cost €22m (£18.35m/$23.86m) back in 2014, the price tag has now increased to €70m, with tenders due to be issued for its design and construction contracts.
President of the Dâmbovița County Council, Corneliu Stefan, said on Facebook: “As I explained to all the ministers who announced this project, the stadium will be a county and regional sports complex, with the possibility of organising a multitude of sporting events, other than football.
“National and world-class rugby matches will be played at the stadium, but athletics competitions can also be organised. Once the works are completed, our county will be able to enter the national and European sports circuit, but it will also create opportunities for sports investment that will be practiced in this stadium.”
Stan has maintained the development of a second new stadium is a worthwhile project for the local region. He told Romanian newspaper Gazeta Sporturilor: “Even if we, the City Hall, are now renovating the old stadium, the new stadium that will be built in Târgoviște, based on the project of the Dâmbovița County Council, is not an unnecessary investment at all.
“Think that, at the county level, where about 500,000 people live, we no longer have such sports facilities, stadiums, by today’s standards.
“The old stadium, which will be completed, I hope, by August-September, will be Chindia’s home. The other, which will also have an athletics track, will host other competitions, in addition to those in football.
“If the project of the County Council was approved faster, from 2016 or 2017, it would have been ready by now. But we still had to improve the old stadium, because we couldn’t let it collapse.”
Images: Corneliu Stefan via Facebook
