'We had enough': Panathinaikos blame the Greek government for stalling the OAKA project / News - Basketnews.com

The big delay in finalizing the agreement between Panathinaikos and the Greek government with regards to the OAKA arena, made the Greens issue an announcement.

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Last April, the news of the OAKA indoor hall being allocated to Panathinaikos BC for the next 49 years came out.

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The arena, along with its auxiliary facilities, would be handed over to the Greek club which should bear its maintenance and operating costs. In addition, 30% of the net income from commercial usage will be returned to the Greek state.

At the same time, the club is committed to making investments in the stadium, which will amount to three million euros in the next few years. In fact, back then, Panathinaikos issued an announcement about the "green Mecca of European basketball," and a historic agreement seemed to be on the cards.

The formalization of the agreement was ratified on May 19, when the by-law regarding the OAKA arena was upvoted in the Greek Parliament, which meant that from July 1, 2022, the installation would officially pass into the hands of the Greens in order for them to refurbish, shape and exploit all the areas according to their needs and the agreed business plan.

However, what seemed to be a pure formality has turned into a dragging ordeal for the six-time EuroLeague champs, who were planning on entering the arena this season as its owners rather than its guests.

Today (December 2),Panathinaikos issued an announcement informing about the process and the current state of things regarding the deal. The club points out that they're aware of who's stalling the finalization of the agreement already in place, and call on the Greek Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, to speed up the procedure so that the contract can be signed as soon as possible.

"Panathinaikos BC, with a sense of responsibility to its millions of fans, wants to inform them in detail about where we are regarding the acquisition of the indoor Olympic facilities, which has become a law of the Greek state, but has not yet been implemented, and how we got here," the announcement reads.

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"On Christmas eve 2020, it was proposed to us by former Secretary General of the government and director of the Prime Minister's office, Mr. Grigoris Dimitriadis, to grant us the use of the OAKA indoor hall for 49 years as a fair act, since Panathinaikos BC has been maintaining it for decades.

That would also be a form of compensation for the non-implementation of a pre-election commitment related to the installations in Votanikos region (editor's note: the place where Panathinaikos FC will have their new football stadium built and - with the expection of basketball- all club's sections will be hosted).

It became clear to us is that the legislative and contractual part of the negotiation would be carried out exclusively with the government's aid. Indeed, the official negotiations started on January 21, 2021 at 13.00. Panathinaikos BC was represented at that meeting by its owner Mr. Dimitris Giannakopoulos and his close associate Mr. Panagiotis Bomis. That part of negotiations moved quickly and an agreement was reached on March 13, 2021, with the club accepting all the terms proposed by the Prime Minister.

From that moment on, the first long delay was noted due to the government's internal problems. The Minister for Sports had to be informed, but he was dealing with more serious problems at the time, such as changing the federations' administrations. Until December 2021, there was no development due to the government's internal communication issues.

Some problems like a parking space, the road that connects the facilities, the master plan, etc. were finally overcome by the State and by those who designed the master plan, as they were non-issues and the process started again.

On April 6, 2022, everything was agreed again with the Minister of State Mr. Giorgos Gerapetritis and the respective by-law vas voted on. As we're approaching Christmas and an active law is already in place, the agreed contract has not been signed.

We understand that our main coordinator and interlocutor on the issue has been replaced; we understand that there are internal problems in the government, which cause delays and confusion; we know who's the one who's been trying to destroy the agreement all along, but we had enough.

We call on the Prime Minister Mr. Kyriakos Mitsotakis to put an end to the lack of coordination and to proceed immediately to the signing of the agreed contract."

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