MOSCOW, December 17 (R-Sport) – Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko is looking at building a new curling arena for Moscow as a reward for the national women's team after their victory at the European championships last week.
Russia’s women won their second European curling title Saturday with a 6-5 win over Scotland, while the men's team gained the right to participate in the world championships for the first time.
“I will talk to [Moscow Mayor] Sergey Sobyanin about the construction of a curling center to celebrate the girls’ victory,” Mutko said.
“I will call him today. The most important thing is to come up with a standard design and find a place in Moscow.”
Mutko also lamented the poor coverage of curling on Russian television.
“I’m disappointed that this sport is so rarely broadcast on TV and the federation president invests little money in propaganda. We need to reconsider this issue,” Mutko said, adding that his ministry would organize a special program to promote curling in Russia.
The 3,000-capacity Ice Cube arena will hold curling competitions at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.
The first test events are in February.
