New sports university to open in brand-new Tbilisi venue by 2025

A new sports university will open in the Georgian capital city of Tbilisi by 2025, replacing the old university building on one of the city’s main avenues, sport minister Thea Tsulukiani told MPs on Thursday.

In her report on her ministry’s work to the parliament, Tsulukiani said the new educational institution would launch in a brand-new building after professional studies had shown the building of the old old state university of sport on Chavchavadze Avenue was not suitable for rehabilitation.

The university of sports should not move somewhere else but stay where its great athletes studied and where they formed the pride of our country”, she told lawmakers before calling the decision a “great achievement” and noting the previous government had planned to sell the dilapidated building but encountered resistance from sports professionals.

The minister said a national forensics bureau report had confirmed it was “impossible to strengthen and renovate” the existing building, noting disintegration of structures of its walls “in many places” making continuation of studies impossible in the “unsafe” building.

As part of the project for the new university venue, the property will be transferred to an investor with the requirement of constructing the new building in two years’ time in the same location.