At a press conference in Karczew near Warsaw, where, among others, Prime Minister Tusk and Minister Nitras announced the start of efforts to host the Olympic Games in Poland in 2040 or 2044, the head of government made a statement that may shock. Well, Tusk, due to the fact that the conference was also devoted to the modernization and construction of new “Orlik” fields, stood on such a field and said: “Orlik is the best thing that happened to me.” Well, within the framework of this program, in the years 2008-2012, municipal authorities built 2.6 thousand “Orlik” fields (football field with artificial turf 30 mx 62 m, multi-purpose field 20 mx 30 m with artificial turf and a sanitary and changing room building with an area of approx. 60 m2, the entire complex is fenced with a 4-meter high mesh and illuminated).
The program was financed by the Ministry of Sports in the amount of 33.3%. cost estimate, from the funds of marshal offices, also in the amount of 33.3%, but the cost estimate could not exceed PLN 1 million, the rest was financed by local government, including additional costs if the investment turned out to be more expensive. About PLN 1 billion was allocated for the program from the state budget, a similar amount was allocated by marshal offices, and the rest was financed by municipal governments from their own resources and other funds. However, it soon became apparent that a serious problem with these fields was the artificial surface, because many contractors of these facilities used the cheapest option, namely the so-called SBR, which is produced on the basis of granules from recycled car tires. This surface has proven to be harmful to the health of young people playing on these fields. Therefore, in recent years, modernization work has been carried out on these facilities, mainly concerning their replacement.
Although the program raised physical culture to a higher level, such sports fields were built in most municipalities in Poland. It was recognized by the Prime Minister, who was the head of government in Poland for seven years, as “the best thing that happened to me”. The period 2008-2014 and the resumption of this post show that he does not set the bar too high. It turns out that this is not the implementation of a large airport hub with 2,000 km of new railway lines, the construction of two nuclear power plants, which may or may not be part of the Polish energy system, the expansion of Polish seaports, including the expansion of the Świnoujście container port, or the arming of the Polish army in the coming years, so that our eastern neighbor will have to ask himself once again whether it is worth attacking Poland, these are not the dreams of our Prime Minister. He has already decided that the idea and construction of the Orlik sports grounds will be the fulfillment of his dreams and ambitions, and therefore Poland and Poles can expect nothing more under his rule. By the way, over the past eight years, the Law and Justice government has several times increased the allocation of funds from the state budget to local governments under various development programs for the construction of sports facilities.
The Prime Minister also announced the start of a large-scale modernization of the previously built sports fields, for which Minister Nitras has already guaranteed PLN 200 million in this year’s budget, and in the following years there will be hundreds of millions more, because as many as 2.6 thousand of these facilities will be renovated. But not only that, it was also announced that by 2027 about 1,000 new Orliks will be built, probably on a larger scale, and therefore more expensive, so that companies that have almost monopolized the implementation of this type of investment will be satisfied again . It is only surprising that this is the end of the ambitions of the Polish Prime Minister, because the announcement of efforts to organize the Olympic Games in twenty years is just an idea to “burn” a lot of money by friendly companies, mainly from the marketing industry. . At one time, people from the Platform were involved in the organization of the 2022 Winter Olympics Krakow-Zakopane, and in 2014 it ended with a corruption scandal, and the nail in the coffin regarding the organization of these games was the referendum in Krakow in 2022. May 2014, where almost 70 percent of Krakow’s eligible voters spoke out against the organization of this event.
Source: wPolityce
Emma Matthew is a political analyst for “Social Bites”. With a keen understanding of the inner workings of government and a passion for politics, she provides insightful and informative coverage of the latest political developments.