Dubrovnik has been crying out for a multi-purpose sports hall and congress centre for years and now thanks to the sport of handball it could well get one. The sporting, musical and conference opportunities that a multi-purpose hall could offer would also help attract events throughout the summer months. And Dubrovnik could well be one of the host cities for the 2025 Handball Championships, meaning a new sports centre would be required.

Croatia, along with Norway and Denmark, have presented their bids for candidates to host the 2025 Handball Championships, and the Croatian National Handball Federation has announced that one of the host cities could be Dubrovnik. The Mayor of Dubrovnik, Mato Frankovic, has welcomed the news and announced that the city will be a great host for the elite of the handball world. But the city can’t host such a prestigious sporting event without a representative venue, such a venue doesn’t exist in Dubrovnik. The Mayor of Dubrovnik has an answer “When we received the offer to be one of the host cities for the World Handball Championship, we answered that we were ready to build a new sports hall,” he commented.

Adding that “We have enough time until 2025 as all the preconditions for its construction in the spatial planning documentation already exist.”

The existing sports centre in Dubrovnik, which is in serious need of redevelopment, will be invested into this year after funds from the European Union were secured. However the Mayor has announced that a new hall will be built with a capacity for 5,000 spectators and that it will be multi-functional, meaning apart from sporting events, large congresses and concerts will also be able to be held.

The price tag for such a development is still unknown however the Mayor is confident that the Croatian Government would assist in financing such a project.