ARENA ČAIR BY EUROPEAN STANDARDS

Sports Arena Čair now has completely new interior, wider capacity, new air-conditioning system, stairways, and reconstructed dressing rooms, medical block and telescopic stands. It is fully equipped to host the biggest sports events. It satisfies high standards of sports federations referring to provision of the unhampered communication between the organizers, spectators, sportsmen and media.

The first match to be played in new sports hall is between the senior women’s handball national teams of Serbia and Greece on October 19, 2011 within EHF for Women 2012 Championship Qualifications.

Also, Serbian Handball Federation asked from Niš City Mayor Miloš Simonović to schedule the matches on first Nations Cup competition day at Niš Sports Arena Čair. Nations Cup matches will be played in Nis, Vrsac and Belgrade from November 3 to November 6, 2011 between Czech, Hungarian, Croatian and Serbian national teams. These matches will be a test before Men's EHF EURO 2012 scheduled for January 2012.

On June 12, 2011 after the completion of the qualification, the groups were drawn on June 15 in Belgrade and the fixtures are now known for EHF EURO 2012. According to the regulations of the EHF EURO, Serbia as a host could select 4 teams and allocate them to the four EHF EURO 2012 Preliminary Round venues. So it was already known that Macedonian National team would play at Niš Arena. Now it is known that Germany, Sweden, Czech Republic will be joining FYROM within GROUP B for the matches at Niš Arena Čair. Serbian Handball Federation sent an official request to Nis City Mayor Miloš Simonović for booking the Arena Čair for the period of January 12 to January 23, 2012 for the organisation of European Men Handball Championship 2012. Niš City Mayor Miloš Simonović attended the official tournament draw at the invitation of Serbian Handball Federation. On this occasion Mayor Simonović said that he was glad the Niš will be the host to two former World and European Champions. He invited the German, Swedish and Czech National Team supporters to come to Niš emphasizing that Niš would prove that it deserved to be the center of important sports events.

The EHF Delegation confirmed that the planned dynamics were respected and that the suggestions made by EHF for the improvements of the facility itself were incorporated into new Arena design.

Arena Čair was originally built in 1974. The reconstruction has been done according to highest European standards and criteria submitted by EHF.

Two new entrances with the access plateau and staircases are the primary entrances besides the secondary ones, the two old ones, enabling fast entrance/exit into/from the arena. 5 entrances are planned for the spectators. There are separate entrances for the spectators, players, VIP and media. All entrances have video supervision, automatic ID check outs and computer processing.

The entrance into the sports part is on the west part of the hall. This part consists of team dressing rooms, dressing rooms for team coaches, referees, auxiliary dressing rooms. The small playing court for the warming up of the players can be easily accessed from this part. There are 6 team dressing rooms, 2 dressing rooms for the team coaches, 2 dressing rooms for the trainers and 3 additional auxiliary dressing rooms.

Anti-doping room is located immediately besides the dressing rooms and infirmary. The anti-doping room consists of waiting room, laboratory and separate toilet facilities. The infirmary for players is located on the ground level of the sports hall and there is a separate entrance to the infirmary from the outside and the direct connection/access to the playing court. The infirmary for the spectators is located on the mid-level floor.

The official premises/administrative premises - the premises for EHF staff are located on the ground level of the hall with separate and controlled entrance. There are 4 office rooms and a meeting room. One room is intended for the accreditation issuing purposed. There are also separate toilet facilities.

The playing ground is extended so that the size of the playing court could be 28X28m. By removing the round walls on the level of the playing ground and by cutting into the existing grand stands, the requested dimension for the playing ground is obtained and stretches up to all necessary heights. This solution enables the putting up of the catching net and even distribution of the advertising space on all 4 sides of the playing court. By erecting additional staircase with the gallery the round communication is achieved along the whole arena scope. The concrete ground is layered out and new parquet floor is placed over. The goals are positioned according to the EHF guidelines together with the playing ground bordering line marking and catching nets.

The media facilities are positioned in the east ground level of the hall. The media facilities are entered via separate controlled entrance with the accreditation check out point. The media have info stops, catering space, facilities with special infrastructure for the work of electronic and printing media, press hall and a separate studio. The telescopic stands could be accessed through media part through separate communication access. Behind the registry table, there are seats for journalists on the movable/telescopic stands, anchors and 2 studios.

The lower levels of arena are closed along the rim of the whole object by glass façade in aluminum frames. The higher part of the object is made of adequate thermo-isolation glass and the movable sun shields are placed in front of the glass so that daily lights can be used. The coverage of the lower part is done with the roof membrane on the adequate sub-construction with thermo-isolation. The night lights are placed all around the arena rim. All the installations (electro, heating system, air conditioning and water supply and sewerage) have been replaced.