A new sports complex will be built in Gyumri, the “sport city” of Armenia, where, as the people of Gyumri like to joke: “the sport is a lifestyle, and becoming a champion is something like a flu infection". The sports complex will be the biggest in the region, and will be named after three-time world champion, five-time European champion, European Games and Olympic gold medalist Arthur Alexanyan. Gyumri Municipality has allocated about 10 hectares of land adjacent to Ani district for the construction of a sports complex, which meets the requirements for building a typical sports venue, where almost all summer sports camps can be held. The new sports complex will have a sports school, a competition hall, a swimming pool, a hotel, a stadium, sports grounds, and running tracks. The stadium is a 105x68 m football field, surrounded by a 9-line oval rubber running track, and it can accommodate 1100 spectators. The building of the sports school will have a 1220m² wrestling hall accommodating 6 carpets with 30 m flight, and a weightlifting hall consisting of 8 weightlifting platforms. The sport complex will also include a football playground, basketball, volleyball and tennis courts, and an open sports field with exercise equipment. There will also be a 25m swimming pool and a gym. The main business card of the sports complex, however, will be the competition hall. It will have stands on both sides with 1044 seats. 37m hall built with metal load-bearing structures (trusses) will be unprecedented in its size and the opportunities provided for organizing large-scale tournaments. Here it will be possible to hold high-quality competitions in weightlifting, boxing, wrestling, basketball, volleyball and mini-football. Gevorg Alexanyan, the director of the complex and Arthur Alexanyan’s father and the coach, has been to many competition halls and sports grounds that have accepted first-level tournaments, and has tried to incorporate his experience and observations into the new sports complex. "It will be possible to hold both European and World Cup tournaments in our competition hall. In some European tournaments we used to wrestle even in smaller halls”. A four-storey V-shape hotel will be built in the sports complex to host a large number of athletes (the hotel will have 109 rooms). In the exterior decoration of the buildings it is planned to use black tuff, typical for Gyumri, and white unglazed travertine. The project is funded by the Government of RA.

The new sports complex is expected to be built very soon, and it will unite the Olympic Youth Sports School of Cycling and Olympic Youth Sports School of Sport, Artistic Gymnastics and Acrobatics named after Hrant Shahinyan. At first it was planned to build sports hall in the yard of Hrant Shahinyan sports school building, and then reconstruct the building of Olympic youth sports school of cycling. But the research revealed, that the building of Olympic youth sports school of cycling is physically worn out, in the IV degree of emergency and should be demolished for security reasons. As for Hrant Shahinyan sports school building, it is technically impossible to build a hall in its yard. Taking into account the research results, it is planned to join the projects and build one completely new sport complex. The new complex will consist of two buildings and will be located at 48 Bagratunyats Street. One will host the 1076.0 m² rhythmic gymnastics and acrobatics hall and 348 m2 outbuildings. The other one is 1280 m² two-storey building with a flat roof and an inner courtyard, hosting the cycling sport school. The perimeter of the two buildings covered with asphalt concrete layer 220 m long and 2 m wide will serve as bike path. The gymnastics and acrobatics hall can host 250 spectators. On the flat roof of the two-storey building of the Cycling Sports School it is planned to install 200-240 photovoltaic solar panels. The exterior walls of the two buildings will be fitted with three-color fibro-cement slabs. The sport complex will be able to host up to 500 people at the same time. The area is adapted for people with mobility problems. The new sports complex will have a well-landscaped green area of 1727 m², where all the decorative trees, firs and bushes will be replanted. The design of the Olympic youth sports school of cycling and Olympic youth sports school of sport, artistic gymnastics and acrobatics named after Hrant Shahinyan is being implemented by HGSN LLC by the order of RA Urban Development Committee. The chief architect of the project is Gagik Harutyunyan.