Gazientep to have a new sports complex

GAZİANTEP - Anatolia News Agency

The construction of the Akkent Sports Village on an 86,000 square-meter area will be finished in a year. The facility will include a half-sized Olympic pool. AA photo

The eastern province of Gaziantep, which has become the rising star of the East Anatolia region thanks to its industry and trade, is preparing to welcome the region’s largest sport facility.

The construction of the Akkent Sports Village, which is being established on an 86,000 square-meter area in Karataş neighborhood, will be finished in a year by the Şahinbey Municipality. 

“If there is a facility, you have a chance to play sports. We are making the Şahinbey neighborhood richer in terms of facilities. Some 3,500 people play sports at the current facilities, but our goal is to increase this number to 10,000 by the end of the year,” Şahinbey Mayor Mehmet Tahmazoğlu said. 

Slated to cost 120 million Turkish Liras, the facility will include a half-sized Olympic pool and a pool for people with disabilities, sports halls, Astroturf fields, volleyball and basketball courts, a running track, tennis courts, stands for spectators, walking areas, children’s playing areas, as well as picnic areas. 

Tahmazoğlu said their goal was to build a facility where everyone would come with their family and where people of all ages could play sports.

The mayor said the project would be finished gradually and that the indoor swimming pool would be finished in the first stage. The pool will have an area of 4,240 square meters and include a sauna, a Turkish bath, a café, a fitness center and many other facilities, he added. 

Tahmazoğlu said they had allocated an area of 35,000 square meters to the General Directorate of Sports for the project. “The directorate will build the running track and the football fields. We will finish the first stage of our own construction in June and July and the second stage at the end of the year. The running track and football fields will be completed by the end of the year, while the facility will be completed within a year at the latest. It will be open to the use of all people.” 

First of its kind 

The mayor said the Akkent Sports Village was the first sports facility project of its kind in Turkey’s east and southeast and that the area for the project was very valuable. “This is why the total cost of the project will be up to 120 million Turkish Liras.” 

He also said they had begun another sports and culture center project for women and that it would be finished by the end of the year. 

“If there is a facility, you have a chance to play sports. We are making the Şahinbey neighborhood richer in terms of facilities. Some 3,500 people play sports at the current facilities, but our goal is to increase this number to 10,000 by the end of the year,” he said.