Jobbik calls on government to provide financing for operation of new stadiums

The conservative Jobbik party has called on the government to provide financing for the operations and maintenance of recently built sports stadiums and argued that the respective municipalities did not have sufficient resources for the purpose.

Jobbik MP György Szilágyi told a press conference on Tuesday that

the government’s stadium programme, launched in 2010 with a budget in the 100 billion forint range, was “unreasonable and unprofessional”

because its proponents had not taken the cost of operations and maintenance into consideration.

Szilágyi insisted that it was “next to impossible” to find an operator capable of running the new facilities profitably.

Péter Balassa, a municipal representative of Szombathely, in western Hungary, said at the press conference that

his city’s stadium, opened last year, costs the city over 300 million forints (EUR 928,000) a year to operate, while “those funds could be spent elsewhere” such as on a rental housing programme or welfare services.

As we wrote before about the current status of football and future perspectives, the sports economics expert says, it is very unlikely that progress will be made in the near future, either regarding the national football team or clubs, read more HERE.

Photo: MTI

Source: MTI