The Taipei City Government yesterday announced a final list of 79 venues to be used by athletes training for and competing in 22 events at the 2017 Summer Universiade.
Two venues, the Taipei Tennis Center and a basketball court at Hoping Elementary School — which is scheduled to open after the Universiade — are to be completed before the event, with the tennis center designated as the venue for tennis finals, the Taipei Department of Sports said.
Baseball events are to be held at the Sinjhuang Baseball Stadium in New Taipei City and the Taipei Tianmu Baseball Stadium, which is to be the venue for the final, the department said.
The announcement came after the International University Sports Federation (FISU) approved the list, which underwent numerous adjustments to bring the venues in line with the federation’s requirements, the department said.
Department Deputy Commissioner Liu Chia-tseng (劉家增) said some proposed venues were removed from the list because they did not conform to the federation’s specifications, which could cause a range of problems, such as not having enough space to accommodate a sizeable audience or to hold award ceremonies.
The venues for similar events, including several martial arts competitions, were adjusted in compliance with FISU statutes, because they had been scheduled to take place at the same time in different parts of a venue, which could hurt audience attendance, Lin said.
Department Commissioner Hung Chia-wen (洪嘉文) said that due to the difference between the estimated costs and tenders accepted by the city government and an austerity plan announced by Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), the planned budget for maintenance of the venues was reduced from NT$5.36 billion to NT$3.03 billion (US$164.07 million to US$92.75 million), a 43 percent decrease.
He said that the athletes’ village would be built in Taoyuan’s Linkou District (林口) and was to be completed by June 2017.
Construction is to be conducted in two phases in the form of affordable housing, Hung said, with the second phase focusing on compartmentalizing the buildings to accommodate international delegations.
In related news, Fubon Financial Holding Co will not be sponsoring this year’s Taipei Marathon, with the city government seeking other forms of collaboration with private sector firms to organize the race, department division chief Liu Yi-ling (劉怡伶) said.
Enrollment for the race is to open in the middle of next month, with the route to pass by famous structures, including Taipei 101, the Taipei World Trade Center and the Taipei Fine Arts Museum, she said.
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