The 'never ending story' of the sports complex in Pattaya
The Pattaya Sports Complex has been under construction for more than a decade. Whether it will be completed for a 2026 Olympic event remains an open question.
Mayor Sonthaya Kunplome and his deputies visited the Eastern National Sports Center at 16 Soi Chaiyapruek with a total area of 2 Rai on January 254. He felt that little had changed since January 2019 last year.
Contractor Rama of the 2-HT joint venture Co. claimed, however, that the work was now 40 percent complete, but is currently stalled due to unforeseen problems due to the rocky subsoil of this future sports complex.
In 2009, work on this 774.000.000 Baht sports complex was started. It was intended to build 12 different sports fields, a swimming pool, a tennis court, 12 large and small stadiums and a parking lot for 500 cars.
The first phase of the project has already spent 90.000.000 Baht on 5.000 of the planned 20.000 seats in the football stadium. This was completed in September 2010. Grass was planted and construction of the last 15.000 seats was to begin later that year with a budget of 500.000.000 Baht. Completion would take place in 2012.
However, nothing was done for several years. The extra help from the military has also led to nothing, as have interim start-up procedures.
The ground under the complex is said to be too rocky to drill and due to air pollution problems workers couldn't use explosives because that would create a lot of particulate matter, so nothing is being done at the moment.
Officials hope the stadium will be completed in time to host the 2026 Youth Olympic Games.
Source: Pattaya Mail
just a side note. The (summer) Olympic Games are in Tokyo this year.
The next Olympic Games, the Summer Games, will be in 2024. In 2026 there will be Olympic WINTER GAMES. They take place in Italy. So I think the games in 2026 are the youth Olympics.
Dear John,
That is also stated in the piece: “The Youth Olympic Games in 2026” last sentence.
thanks for your comment. Apparently I read over it.
one more critical note.
is said:
stalled due to unforeseen problems due to the rocky subsoil of this future sports complex.
That is indeed a very unpredictable problem. Suddenly there was the rock bottom. Totally unexpected. It is not for nothing that Dutch builders are active everywhere. Is a certain choice. They are not that surprised.