Kyle Patrick Camilleri
The University of Malta’s long-awaited sports complex project will take seven years to complete, the University has told this newsroom. This project is set to cost €10 million.
The University will be developing its football pitch and athletics track, adjacent to the National Swimming Pool complex and Maltese Olympic Committee’s offices, into an approximate 27,000 square metre area for new sporting facilities. The entire project is estimated to take seven years to be completed from when works start, the university said.
These works have not yet commenced. The University of Malta is currently finalising initial funding arrangements while reviewing technical specifications amidst this project’s preparatory phase.
When contacted, the University did not disclose whether there is a date in sight for these works to begin. The information was sent to this newsroom after queries were sent to the University of Malta.
This newsroom received the new details on this infrastructural project from the communications office of the university, a few days after the Minister for Education, Clifton Grima, disclosed the University of Malta’s debt: a staggering €23.2 million.
Once completed, the University of Malta campus will feature a full-size astroturf football pitch, an eight-lane synthetic athletics track, a spectators stand, and a one-storey underground car park, the university said.
The underground car park will provide 1,000 parking spaces to students and academics, free of charge during office/lecturing hours.
This project will also provide sports research, rehabilitation, and performance labs, an indoor 100-metres athletics track, three squash courts, performing arts facilities as well as facilities, offices and lecture rooms for the Institute for Physical Education and Sport, it adds.
Performing arts facilities are also marked for development through this €10 million project, namely a black box theatre, dance studios, offices, and multi-function rooms.
The idea to incorporate an underground car park into this project, below what will be its new university track, was recommended by the Planning Authority just over seven years ago, back in April 2018. Back then, the PA’s Executive Chairman, Johann Buttigieg, said that not including a car beneath the track would be a missed opportunity for locals in the area as well.
The original permit for this sports complex project was granted back in 2019 on the condition that works could not begin before a new application for an underground car park was secured.
In 2022, UoM Rector Prof. Alfred J. Vella shared that the underground parking lot was excluded from the originally proposed project due to costs, though the PA assured that it would fund this parking area itself. During this past interview, the University Rector lamented that this inclusion had significantly delayed the entire process, thus crushing his vision for the sports complex project to be completed after just three years when he had just started out as UoM Rector.
Rector Vella could not at the time provide a timeline for this project. He had envisioned for this new sports complex to become a hub for sports and a site where sports science is practised professionally.
This project featured in the Labour Party’s 2022 electoral manifesto as electoral pledge number 248.
Earlier this May, Education and Sports Minister Clifton Grima said that progress on this University project will be revealed at some point this summer, with the project to be split into two phases. He noted that costs have skyrocketed due to global inflation and that resultantly, those involved in this process have been discussing the optimal way forward.
