The new centre was opened by PM Miro Cerar, the Minister of Education, Science and Sport Maja Makovec Brenčič, and the head of the Planica Institute, Jelko Gros. "There was a lot of positive energy in this project. For the sake of our athletes it was about time that we finished it. In the summer Planica will be the base centre for preparations for a wider range of sports teams, and a great number of new opportunities are opening up. We're changing our mindset with regards to tourism – our goal is to make every guest spend at least two hours here. Because of that they will keep returning," said Mr. Gros.

On Saturday Planica will host an open day, when visitors will be able to take a ride down the ski flying hill with a zip line. Many ski jumping fans already saw a part of the new centre at the beginning of the year during the ski-jumping World Cup event.

A good 40 million euros
The Planica Nordic Centre project was worth around 40 million euros. It all started in 2007 with the purchasing of land. The path to realization was long with many obstacles along the way. A rough plan of what the Nordic centre would look like was made in 2009. An architectural design competition was carried out in 2010.

A few months ago jumps from the new giant hill
The year 2011 saw the start of work on the Bloudek Giant ski jumping hill. The whole project then came to a halt, until amendments were made to the project plan. Once the amendments were made the construction of the cross-country course also began. March this year saw the final event of the ski-jumping World Cup in Planica, with the first jumps from the new giant hill.

First races in January
The next important event will take place on the 16th and 17th of January, when Planica hosts cross-country skiing World Cup races. Two months later (18th-20th of March) the best ski jumpers in the world will return to the north-west of Slovenia, for the traditional season end of the World Cup