TUR - Big work space for journalists at Olympic Dome

View the video interview here

ISTANBUL (2010 FIBA World Championship) - The media will arrive from all over next year to cover the FIBA World Championship in Turkey.

That means the media workrooms have to be ready at venues all over the country.

When the tournament switches to the Olympic Dome in Istanbul, journalists will be impressed.

FIBA Communications Director Florian Wanninger visited the venue that will be used for the knockout stage of the tournament and talked to FIBA.Com.

In general, what is your first impression of the rooms in the Olympic Dome where the media will be doing much of their work?

Florian Wanninger: I think these are very good facilities for our purposes. The FIBA World Championship is the flagship event of FIBA as such and we will draw probably between 1,500 and 2,000 media representatives from all over the world. What I see now, at this stage, I don't think we will have any problems.

Is that about the same number of media people you had in Japan? Has it changed at all?

Florian Wanninger: The number in Japan was approximately 1,800 but we had requests from over 2,000, close to 2,500. And I'm expecting close to the same numbers for this one. Maybe we have to be a little bit more restrictive in the application procedures. We will open an online accreditation procedure tomorrow (Tuesday, December 15) during the draw so media can register through our event website. I think the deadline for registering is June 1, 2010. We'll see, but we expect quite good feedback.

What is going to make this particular media room good?

Florian Wanninger: As you know, this Olympic Dome is a building that was originally designed to hold 40,000 people. I think it was constructed in 1987 and they trimmed it down to 15,000, 16,000 for basketball purposes. That means there is a huge 'back-of-house' space available and that makes our life very comfortable. The first impression is it's very comfortable in size. We will not have the problems to allocate enough working space for our colleagues.

You've been able to attend a lot of Olympic Games, FIBA World Championships and other big basketball events. When anyone comes to see this in Istanbul, you begin to understand the magnitude of what's going to take place next year here in Turkey.

Florian Wanninger: First of all, you're right. I'm a veteran, if not a dinosaur. I've been in this business now for 20 years and of course, these events are always the highlight. On the other hand, they are the reasons for a lot of the grey hair that I have because there is a lot of pressure and a lot of stress in the preparations and during the events.

Okay, you said it. What types of situations are you going to encounter that are going to give you one or two more grey hairs that you can tell us about?

Florian Wanninger: (Smiling) You guys (journalists) are never really happy. Whenever we hear from you it's probably a complaint. It's very rare that someone says, 'Great job'. But that's our job and we have to do our best to provide perfect working conditions so that the event is properly covered. So I'm looking forward to the challenge and I'm already excited.

FIBA