Palma Arena

The Palma Arena, also called Velódromo de Palma, is a multifunctional sports hall with velodrome in Palma de Mallorca Spanish.

The Arena and their use

The Palma Arena covers an area of 90,000 square meters and offers bicycle race in space for 4500 spectators. The cycling track is 250 meters long and is made of Siberian pine. The Arena can also be used for other sporting events, such as Indoor tennis tournaments, as well as for concerts and other events such as exhibitions. It was opened in May 2007 with a tennis exhibition match between Rafael Nadal, who is from Mallorca, and the Swiss Roger Federer in front of a packed house. The game was Battle of Surfaces called because the playing surface was half grass and half sand. In the same year here the track world championships were held to the occasion, the arena was built, as well as games of the European Basketball Championships.

Corruption scandal

The creation of the Palma Arena was accompanied by a corruption scandal: The Münster architect Ralph Schuermann, who had designed the Velodrome, had denied a continuation of planning and construction, as it should submit fake bills for higher sums in his own words. He was then dismissed by the Majorcan authorities, government of the island, and the Dutch architect Sander Douma and a local planning office led the construction to end. The costs increased as a result by more than double original estimate of around 48 to ultimately around 120 million euros, despite the fact that a part of the system has not been completed. The Mallorca Zeitung described the arena in 2009 as the "biggest million grave in Mallorca " and the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung wrote that it go in the affair of a "costly Velodrome ", " who, when they had finished up for anything suitable except for bicycle races. "

After completion of the Track World Championships in 2007 refused the International Cycling Union Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI ), the velodrome because of numerous shortcomings, the further approval for international races; a total of more than 220 construction defects on the entire hall were found, most notably a leaky roof. The velodrome itself had to be completely rebuilt in 2011 due to water damage. Against several Majorcan politicians investigations have been initiated for corruption in this context; it was suspected that they had allegedly been lining the difference between actual costs and fake invoice amounts into their own pockets. In March 2012, the former president of the Balearic Islands, Jaume Matas, was sentenced in a first process of several in the first instance to six years in prison.