Phnom Penh Post
Banzai Events and
Marketing Manager Charles Juillard stands infront of the 2,000-seater
Beeline Arena on Chhroy Changvar peninsula. Photograph: Sreng Meng
Srun/Phnom Penh Post
A two-year memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the National
Olympic Committee of Cambodia and Beeline Arena, the Kingdom’s first and
only privately owned multipurpose indoor stadium, will be formalised
tomorrow, opening up to local athletes a top-end facility for training
and competition.
This unique, renewable partnership allows the prime sports body in
the country and member federations the use at a nominal cost of a
2,000-seat capacity arena conforming to international standards.
After the signing of the document at the arena, situated on the
Chhroy Changvar peninsula past the Japan Friendship bridge, the
Cambodian Mixed Martial Arts Association, formed late last year, will be
officially launched.
With the indoor hall of Olympic Stadium currently going through
extensive renovation, the need had never been greater or more urgent to
have a well-equipped training centre like the Beeline Arena ahead of the
year end’s SEA Games in Myanmar and next year’s Asian Games in South
Korea.
“This is a special alliance born out of a common purpose and that is
to give Cambodian athletes the best possible shot to train and excel. We
are proud to be associated with the NOCC,” Charles Julliard, events and
marketing manager of Banzai, the local company which owns the arena,
told the Post yesterday.
“Our aim is to create a home federations can call their own and use
our excellent facilities for their indoor disciplines and help raise the
profile of Cambodian sports, domestically and internationally.”
NOCC Secretary-General Vath Chamroeun said: “We will encourage our
Federations to make the best use of the arena and I am particularly
happy that our long-felt need for quality training facility has now been
met.
“I am confident this partnership will be mutually beneficial and will
create exciting new avenues for us to achieve better results in indoor
games.”
The arena, which measures up to international requirements including a
FIFA-approved futsal pitch, has some exciting events lined up this year
including the Ultimate Khmer Championship, which is to be a television
spectacle involving international mixed martial arts stars.
To contact the reporter on this story: H S Manjunath at
hirimanju@yahoo.com
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