Newsletter Newsletter 2/2017 Report Bidding ITF Slovenia

On Sunday 7th of May GM. Bos and Master Coos van den Heuvel have visited Koper as part of report preparation. Slovenia is bidding to host ITF World Cup 2020. The visit started with warm welcome of Thomaz Barada the chairman of the 2020 World Cup project, at hotel Bernardin, the main hotel of 2020 World Cup. The hotel, which will be completely renovated at the end of this year, is part of a big resort and convention centre, with big and small meeting rooms (capacity 10 to 1100 persons) for the board meetings and congress. A new highway will be ready next year, so travel from the hotel to the center of the city will take no more than 15 minutes. Referees will be allocated in the hotel next to the sport Hall.

On Monday 8th of May the delegation visited Sport Hall Bonifica, the main venue of the 2020 event. The hall of general measures 50x40mtr also offers warming up halls, meeting rooms and other facilities, and is located in a big and great sport complex and fully accessible during the competition days. Outside facilities are also available like running tracks and places to practice. The sports complex is no more than 5-minute walk from the city center of Koper. The representatives of the city have expressed the full cooperation with ITF Slovenia and the city of Koper. They would like to promote the city of Koper through the event and are willing to share the experience with organising big sport events. One of the past successful events Koper has hosted was EuroBasket 2013.

After lunch the delegation had an appointment with the management of the Bernardin group hotels.

They were offered a full tour around the whole complex and the organiser can offer very good package deals for the participants of the event from 3 till 5 stars. Hotel for the umpires was still under construction and will be ready next year, and is located next to the venue.

Organizer also explained that the costs of meals drinks and others everyday items are very cheap compared other tourist areas in the world, so not many additional costs for the participants and supporters are expected.

As the conclusion of the visit, the delegation stated that hotels and venue meet all expectations to organize a good and representative high-level championship. The organising team to make the proposal is very good organised and gives the impression that they can handle an event of this dimension. Organiser Tomaz Barada, as vice president of the Slovenian Olympic committee, will also use his contacts in order to simplify the organization, and high international Olympic officials will be present at the championship. This can give the ITF the possibilities to move up to a higher level of events and government recognition in the world.

Tomaž Barada
Podpredsednik OKS
Vice-President