Merchants' fortune
Early elections scheduled for October could further jeopardize the future of merchants at Warsaw's 10th Anniversary Stadium, as the government has yet to sign off on a new location for trading.
Within a year, all occupants of the stadium must vacate the premises to make room for its renovation as a sports facility, as well as for the nearby construction of a new National Stadium, a project which is crucial if Poland is to successfully host the Euro 2012 soccer championships. Sports Minister Elżbieta Jakubiak last week announced that the plan to build the new National Stadium on the site of the old stadium had been abandoned. Instead the new stadium will be built on land next to the old.
Although the government has promised to provide a new plot for the merchants to stadium manager Kupieckie Stowaryszenie (KS), the deal has not yet been made official.
KS, which manages the 10th Anniversary Stadium through its sister company Centrum Hurtowo-Detaliczne, began as a lobbying group for the merchants in February last year, seeking a new location for them as it saw the threat of Poland's Euro 2012 bid. The stadium's previous management company, Polski Klub Gospodarczy, was fired at the end of July after failing to vacate the merchants when the Ministry had demanded. KS was brought in to manage the stadium and the eventual transfer to a new location.
State plots
The government has promised to construct facilities for the merchants on a plot on ul. Radzymińska, in Warsaw's Targówek district. But a KS representative, who wished to remain anonymous, said getting to this point had been a massive challenge and the group was now lobbying hard to close the deal before the change of government.
"Finding the plot was not an easy achievement," explained the representative. "The city was offering all sorts of options on land that didn't belong to it but instead to the state, so there was no weight in the offers - they were useless." The aforementioned location was eventually offered by the state, which also owns the land on which the stadium is situated. However, the new plot will not be able to accommodate all the merchants. Priority will be given to those that are members of KS and a lottery will be held for the remaining slots.
The KS representative said that the merchants were delighted with the progress made towards gaining the new plot, but WBJ found that many are still unsure of what lies in store for next year. One merchant said, "It is all one big mess. I don't think it's guaranteed that we will be here for another year. None of us are really sure what is going on, we're getting mixed messages all the time. We just want to know what is going to happen."
Mean media
Another merchant explained that media coverage has been having a negative effect on business. "I have been here 15 years selling Polish products. The goods are known to be high quality and well-priced. Poles make a real living here and people are dependent on it. Even known brands like Ochnik started here. But business has been bad with the issue of the stadium in the papers. The media is showing all the worst sides, but normal Poles work here too. Warsaw really needs this kind of place and we need more support to maintain it," she said.
More than 3,000 workers are employed directly by the market and a further 30,000 are estimated to depend on it, making a living by producing and supplying the goods sold by the stadium's merchants.
