You may have heard of the Palma Arena, a new sports venue in Palma de Mallorca. 

Palma Arena was built as a velodrome for indoor cycling races. It was inaugurated in 2007 when it hosted the 2007 UCI Track Cycling World Championships. The building has a capacity of 5,000 spectators, I believe. The multisport pavilion was also used last year to stage a rather silly tennis competition between Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, when half the court was surfaced in clay, whereas the other half was done in grass.

The Velòdrom Palma Arena, as it is also known, is now in the news for being the subject of fiscal allegations of some severe wrongdoings. The Spanish Fiscalía Anticorrupción is puzzled by an aproved cost estimate of some substantial 48,000,000 €, when in fact total bills were presented for the slightly higher sum of 90,000,000 €.

The audience of tonight’s rock concert, performed by Spanish group Estopa, may not worry too much about any kick-back that might have occurred at tax payers’ expense. Admission tonight is 28 € for advanced purchases or 33 € at the doors. The concert starts at 22h00.

The photo was taken in Palma de Mallorca, Baleares, Spain. The date: July 14th, 2008. The time was 13:58:01. Carmelo Esteban is credited for the smaller photo. Gracias.