Sports phygital centre to appear in Kazan Universiade Village

As Realnoe Vremya found out, a phygital centre will appear in Kazan’s Universiade Village by late August 2024. It will consist of several smart sports sites and an administrative building. Nowadays Tatarstan’s main construction company is already looking for a contractor that could supply and install all the necessary equipment. Such a contract is assessed at 95 million rubles, while the federal and republican budgets are its funding sources.

Areas with Wi-Fi and QR codes

Even though the construction of the venue will end only next year, the contractor must supply all the materials and equipment by 20 December 2023. This will include several sets of universal coating where the following sites will appear:

• streetball (basketball) — 15x14 metres;

• futsal — 20x20 metres;

• work out.

They will also be purchased football goal posts, a basketball unit, pull-up bars, different types of benches and parallel bars, fence and many other items. A module multi-section stand for 64 seats and the phygital centre’s building with administrative areas will also be installed near the sites.

The equipment on the sites will have one QR code designed in a centralised information resource. Users can learn all the information about a site there.

Also, the project envisages that street lights will have special speakers that will announce upcoming events and play music. Areas for phone charging and Internet hotspot will also be located in the centre’s territory as one of other comforts.

Games of Future to be held in the Tatarstan capital next year

It should be reminded that an agreement on organising 2024 Games of Future in Kazan was signed at Petersburg International Economic Forum last year.

“There was no doubt that Tatarstan and Kazan as usually will decently present their capabilities. We will be looking forward to hosting the events — less than two years left. I am sure that as usual Tatarstan will decently organise all the events, and these are really going to be Games of Future from a perspective of the content, organisation and, most importantly, the spirit of competition and participants. While we will be waiting for them and help,” said Plenipotentiary Ambassador of the Russian president in the Volga Federal District Igor Komarov.

Russian Vice Premier, supervisor of the Volga Federal District Dmitry Chernyshenko who noted that huge responsibility fell on Tatarstan that was entrusted with hosting the first Games of the Future and wished the republic success.

“We all know how Tatarstan knows how to organise events. But we should agree that an inauguration event will take place for the first time around the world. Nine days of competition in 15 events with a global audience, about seven times bigger than that of the Olympic Games,” said Chernyshenko.

Tatarstan Rais Rustam Minnikhanov, in turn, promised that the republic would do its best to organise the Games of the Future at the top level.

Eight venues to be used at Games of the Future

Eight venues will be used to hold key events of the Games of the Future in Kazan. The competitors will be accommodated in 23 hotels and the Universiade Village. They will also be fed in the village and 2,000 food outlets with different national cuisines. Kazan organisers provide medical services in four areas. Over 2,000 activists from 110 countries and 85 regions will be attracted for the Games. A cultural programme is scheduled too.

Clubs with athletes of any nationality, race and views can participate in the Games of the Future. It rests on the principle of union of the digital and classical sports activity. The competition programme is designed for nine days and includes 15 events — cybersport, AR/VR, robot tournament, cybathletics, drone racing and others.

16 regions were candidates for hosting the Games of the Future. The short list included Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Kaluga, Kazan and Sirius federal territory. It became known that Kazan won the bid to host the first Games of the Future 2024 in history on 16 June 2022. Dmitry Chernyshenko called this a deserved victory.

As Tatarstan Sport Minister Vladimir Leonov said that Kazan Expo exhibition complex will become the main site of the 2024 Games of the Future. Test competitions will be held before the championship because the competitions have never been held in some events.