Let us remind you that the total area of the Gorki Media Center was more than 30,000 square meters. m. (the current area of Casino Sochi, after a global reconstruction, has increased to 33,000 sq.m.). The infrastructure of the media center included the Mountain Broadcasting Center and the Gorki Press Center, and on the roof there were four studios and six platforms for live broadcasts overlooking the mountains. Federal media journalists shared their impressions of working at the XXII Olympic Winter Games.
Evgeny Slyusarenko, head of the sports department and columnist for Vedomosti (from 2010 to 2014):
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- “Olympics in Sochi” is an event that you have been turning to, willy-nilly, for all 10 years that have passed since that moment. The legacy of the Games is often talked about, but in the case of the Russian city, it is not just a commonplace. I flew with my family to the seaside in Sochi, you see the model of “Buran” - you immediately remember the main press center (MPC/IBC) of the Olympics. You go skiing to Krasnaya Polyana - here is the mountain press center, where the famous casino is now located. It was there that reports were written about victories in snowboarding, bobsleigh and skeleton, biathlon and cross-country skiing. The same Italian restaurant where journalists and other officials celebrated these victories still operates in the mountains. Can you imagine? It was a great time, the significance and legendary nature of which is only now being realized by the participants.*
The media center could simultaneously accommodate up to 4,000 television and radio broadcasters and 500 press representatives from all over the world. The building contained spacious offices for news agency editorial offices, press conference rooms, a television and radio broadcasting center, equipment studios, and service centers for photographic and video equipment. There was also a post office, a pharmacy, a dry cleaner, a supermarket, an Internet cafe, a Sochi 2014 licensed product store, a bank card support office, a relaxation room, a food court, a cafeteria, and vending machines with food and drinks.
Alexander Sluzhakov, correspondent for Championship.com in 2014:
*- My colleagues and I often remember working at the Games in Sochi, although we really had to work hard. I covered events in the mountain cluster, mainly cross-country skiing and biathlon. We had to get up at about 8.00 in the morning to get to the Laura ski and biathlon complex to find out the latest news. The question always came up on the agenda: will the races be held at all? For several days there was very heavy fog, and the starts were postponed.
You come to the stadium, find out, and pass on the information to the news editors. And then you work almost without pause: until the evening and on your feet all the time. You watch the race on monitors in the mixed zone, catch athletes there, take comments, and send them to the editor. Then you get on a snowmobile and rush to the press conference. Afterwards you write a report. And then another race. If it is not there, then with transfers by minibuses and funiculars you get to the bobsleigh and luge track. And you practice competitions there. Having thoroughly frozen, you get to your hotel closer to 20.00 in the evening and buy food - as a rule, the first ration of the day. In your room, you finalize the latest materials, while simultaneously watching figure skating or hockey on TV. And in the morning everything is new. With this unrealistically dynamic graphics... I would love to do it all again!*
Dmitry Klipin, correspondent for the online publication Gazeta.Ru:
*- The main impression and experience was the absolutely fabulous atmosphere of universal positivity and inclusiveness. The holiday was watching around every corner. Even despite certain organizational and logical roughnesses, to which, however, no one paid any attention, everyone was absorbed in the suspense of the historical event.
Absolutely any sports facility, immediately after the start of the competition, was immersed in the atmosphere of a large and vibrant carnival, the scale of which many of us felt only years later. It was a real spiritual and emotional feast!*
Now in the building of the former media center, the Sochi Casino operates around the clock, where the following are open to tourists: the only theater in the Krasnaya Polyana mountains - the In the Game theater, the Brunello gourmet restaurant, the Buffett restaurant, the Poker School, the Sochi Poker Club; and over 50 gaming tables and over 424 modern slot machines are available.
- “This is, of course, an interesting fact. Ten years ago it was a media center for journalists who prepared news materials for the whole world. And three years after the Olympics, that is, in 2017, this place again became a point of attraction for events. Now Russian stars, actors, musicians, show and ballet dancers perform here, poker tournaments and championships, big draws are held - both foreign and Russian tourists come to watch these events,” said Natalia Voldaeva, general director of the Krasnaya Polyana gambling zone "
Over the 7 years since the opening of Casino Sochi, more than 3,165,722 people visited, of which 11% are foreigners. Interestingly, the geography of guests covers over 173 countries. Tourists from China, Iran, Turkey, India, Armenia, Israel and many other countries come to the Krasnaya Polyana gambling zone. The most exotic countries whose residents visited the Sochi Casino are Liechtenstein, Cambodia, Mozambique, Uganda, Jamaica and Haiti.