Dobkin: Kharkiv Regional Council could sell Metalist Stadium

KHARKIV - Kharkiv Regional Governor Mykhailo Dobkin has said he does not rule out that Kharkiv Regional Council could put the Metalist Stadium up for sale.

"I don't rule out that the regional council could propose selling this stadium. If someone wants to autocratically manage the stadium as a private person, then, please, there's its cost. We'll make the calculation openly and publicly, put it up for sale, and let someone buy it. This is a facility, and this is not the same thing as the Metalist football club," Dobkin said at a press conference on Friday, while commenting on an appeal sent by Kharkiv City Council to Kharkiv Regional Council with a request to transfer the Metalist Stadium to the municipal ownership of the city.

Dobkin recalled that the stadium was a municipally owned facility and that it had been reconstructed using the funds of not only a private investor, but also the budgets of different levels.

"Every municipally owned facility should be managed as effectively as possible... If the Metalist Stadium can currently bring in a profit, it would be absolutely wrong to not take advantage of this. Who does this - FC Metalist, the region or the city - is already a matter of internal arrangements," he said.

As reported, on December 19, Kharkiv City Council asked Kharkiv Regional Council to transfer the Metalist Stadium to the municipal ownership of the city. FC Metalist Kharkiv President Oleksandr Yaroslavsky said that he would stop funding the club if the stadium is passed to the city.

The businessman was the general investor and coordinator of Kharkiv's preparations for Euro 2012, having invested his own funds in the construction of the Metalist Stadium, a five-star hotel, the city airport, and the implementation of other projects.