GFS Strengthens Overseas Presence

The agreement has GFS provide management services for the Barys Arena, a multi-purpose indoor arena that serves as the home pitch for the city’s Barys ice hockey team. The Barys Arena is part of a much larger sports complex still under construction.

Once completed the new building is supposed to attract “worldwide attention” to Astana, as Yerlan Kozhagapanov puts it. Kozhagapanov is the president of the Astana Presidential Sports Club, an umbrella organization housing all of the city’s major sports teams and athletes under one roof.

According to Kozhagapanov, signing with GFS Associates will “provide us with guidance and experience in all of the important areas of design, management and customer services.”

The Barys Arena seats 12,000 people. It has 60 suites, four concourses, a video scoreboard hung in the center, two ribbon display boards, three outdoor video board, a restaurant serving up to 300 guests, full technical support and video production facilities as well as multiple team locker rooms and dressing rooms. And the dasher board system can be adjusted to international or NHL hockey games. The arena also includes a hockey academy, a 50-meter Olympic swimming pool and another swimming pool for synchronized swimming.

The Kazakh news site tengrinews.kz quoted him saying that the Barys Arena could also host “big concerts” as well as “national and international tournaments.” The Barys have since returned to their old rink in the Kazakhstan Sports Arena. Michael F. Sauers, president of GFS Associates, reckons they will play their first proper home game in a packed Barys Arena Oct. 27.