The new winter stadium in Jičín has few changing rooms and there is a draft in it

photo: www.sport-jicin.cz

Jičín - The new winter stadium in Jičín, which cost the city nearly 110 million crowns, lacks sufficient locker rooms and has draft issues. After 15 months of operation, city officials confirmed this at a press conference today. The lack of locker rooms could supposedly be addressed by installing mobile units. Preventing drafts would require an investment of 14 million crowns, which the city is currently unwilling to provide.
According to Mayor Jiří Liška, the hockey players are missing at least two locker rooms for their satisfaction. "The hockey players have an idea to resolve this with mobile units. Nothing can be added to the stadium," said the mayor. Once the hockey season ends, the city will address the problem, according to him. The stadium was created by covering the original open ice surface, and the construction also included new facilities and a restaurant.
Due to cost-saving measures, the city council decided that the stadium would not have air conditioning. To ensure natural ventilation, two corners of the stadium are wall-less. However, the open corners allow drafts to flow through the stadium. "It's true that there's a draft, but that's how it was designed," said Deputy Mayor Vlastislav Matucha. According to councilor Ladislav Brykner, enclosing the corners has already been designed, and completing this along with the necessary air conditioning would cost about 14 million.
The city sees acquiring a new refrigeration machinery as a more important investment than air conditioning. During the renovation, it was not changed, and its aging technology is 40 years old. This year, the city budget has allocated 100,000 crowns for project documentation to change the refrigeration system.
The winter stadium hall near Kníže pond has an unconventional shape. It resembles an inverted ship, with its roofing made of wooden glued trusses covered with a titanium-zinc roof. The roof slopes down to the ground near the Cidlina River to reduce noise from operations.
The costs for the stadium reconstruction were nearly one-fifth higher than originally anticipated. The majority of the investment was covered by a loan of 90 million crowns from the city council. There still remains 75 million crowns to be repaid from it. The city council now wants to take advantage of lower interest rates on loans in the market and will seek a new bank for refinancing the loan. The council estimates that it could save over two million crowns in interest by the end of repayment in 2020.