Estonia’s first double-layer football field, located in an indoor hall in Mustamäe close to the main building of Tallinn University of Technology, was issued with an operating licence on 25 January. The full-sized, artificial turf-covered Raja football hall, which was completed as a joint project of Tallinn Kalev, TalTech and the Estonian Football Association, was officially opened on 13 February. One of the ribbon-cutters at the ceremony was TalTech’s rector Tiit Land, while the main speaker was its head of sports activities, Vice Rector for Academic Affairs Hendrik Voll.
On behalf of the university, Voll expressed the hope that the TalTech brand would expand into the world of football. “Our dream is that one day a full-size outdoor stadium will be built on our campus, an architectural jewel with beautiful timber features that respects and blends in with nature,” he said. Footballers would be welcome to such a stadium, of course, but so would athletes and indeed everyone in the city. “It would be a stadium where TalTech could organise its own song and dance festivals as well, given the number of cultural collectives we have,” Voll suggested.
“We’d be able to hold public concerts for the people of the city as well, and could even host graduation ceremonies there. Why not!” Next to this future stadium, Voll envisages a ‘long throw’ arena to serve as the birthplace of new Olympic champions in addition to the three who have already graduated from the university, one of them being Gerd Kanter.
The other speakers at the ceremony had similarly high-flying ideas. “Football is the most played sport in Estonia,” noted Tõnu Sirel, the Director General of the Estonian Football Association. “Unfortunately, the problem we’ve always had has been the lack of year-round training opportunities. The construction of indoor halls will help us bridge that gap, and it’s also very important from the point of view of getting people to exercise more.” Tallinn Kalev’s sports director Joel Lindpere agreed that the Raja football hall will establish a new standard in training conditions for hundreds of youngsters and enable teams representing Estonia to train competitively.