Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat succeeded in obtaining a $6 million-dollar donation from the Kraft family for the establishment of the Sports facility in the Emek Arazim area of Jerusalem. The mayor received the impressive donation from Mr. Robert Kraft, owner of the NFL team New England Patriots as part of the 50th anniversary of the reunification of Jerusalem in addition to the 20th Maccabiah Games which are scheduled to take place in July 2017 in the capital. The money will be used to build the new Kraft Family Sports Campus.

The mayor is confident this latest addition to the city’s arenas will bring additional international sporting events to Israel in the future.

The official City Hall statement reads “The establishment of the Kraft Family Sports Campus is an unprecedented cornerstone of this renaissance, among other things, expanding the culture of US football in Jerusalem, and serving as a complement to the existing Kraft Family Field in Sacher Park.”

The new complex will contain US regulation soccer and football fields, administrative offices, locker rooms, parking, and an access road. It is supposed to open in the beginning of the summer of 2017, in time for the 20th Maccabiah Games.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)