The city of Bratislava should not request additional funding to cover the reconstruction costs of the Ondrej Nepela Arena. This is part of the agreement that the city has signed with the Ministry of Education, said mayor of Bratislava Milan Ftáčnik on Thursday. This contract led to the release of 40 million EUR of government funding to cover the costs.

Ftáčnik said that the reconstruction of the arena is underway according to plans and the city will fulfill all its obligations in connection to the 2011 IIHF World Championship. „We have tested all the systems including the cooling, heating or lights,“ said Ftáčnik. Everything is going well so far. The mayor believes that the Slovakia Cup event will be organized well. Tickets have been sold out in just five hours.

There are many details that have to be completed in the new arena. CEO of Ingsteel Anton Bezák believes that the arena will be finished on time. He pointed out that the arena has an area of 4 500 m2 cooled surface and 60 km cooling pipes. There are also two garage floors which offer 372 parking lots.

The stadium will be closed as of 14. February. Reconstruction will get underway again and should be completed 14 days later. After this phase the new interior will have to be adjusted. This includes adjustments in locker rooms, restaurants, buffets and at the sky boxes. The whole arena should be completed and handed over in mid April 2011.