Swiss Post Plans Construction At SBB Site; Baselworld boss bails; Basel EGamers Vie For Top Money Prizes; Fire at Europapark

News For 29 May 2018

Despite shrinking mail volume, Swiss Post plans to join the ranks of the most ambitious construction projects undertaken recently in Basel.  Discussions are underway for a 450 Million Swiss franc building complex called the Nauentor by 2028 complete with three new 80 meter high-rise buildings for commercial tenants.  Swiss post itself is in the process of consolidating its post services to Solothurn, and will have moved its sorting facilities out of the current building by 2020.  In its place, Swiss Post says the most likely remaining services will be for business customers only.  

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Sylvie Ritter, managing director of Baselworld, is leaving her role at the end of June. According to a statement by Ritter, 2018 saw the beginning of a necessary conceptual reorientation and thanked her team for a wonderful time, good conversation and common enthusiasm.  Martin Fergusson, the head of sales at Baselworld, also is leaving at the end of June after 28 years with the trade fair.  This year, Baselworld, the international watch and jewelry trade show, saw a drop in exhibitors to 650 and it was shortened by two days, although the attendance remained the same.  Next year, Baselworld will take place March 21-26.

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E-Gaming is set to earn 800 million in revenues from sponsors and advertisers in 2018.  For those of you unfamiliar with E-Gaming, it is also described as professional video game playing by most people over 30.  And before you scoff or tune out, you should know that E-Gamers can earn six figure salaries playing for top teams in the most popular games.  Basel is now also in on the action, with its local team: SQG which stands for Swiss Quality Gaming.  Their game is DOTA 2, a follow-up game to Blizzard Entertainment's Warcraft series.  SQG was founded in 2017 by 25 year old Noah Eigenheer, who says he and his team mates typically spend at least six hours a day practicing for competitive matches.  In their sights is this year's The International DOTA 2 event in Vancouver.  Team SQG's highest tournament placement was last year at the 2017 ProDota Cup Europe where they came in 3rd out of 16 participating teams.

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Anyone with children in the Basel area has surely made the hour trek north to Germany’s largest amusement park, Europapark. Last Friday evening, a large fire swept through the Scandinavia area of the park, which it is divided into countries.  According to the Europapark spokesperson, a fire may have broken out in the costumes warehouse hall and then hit the Batavia Pirates attraction. Around 550 volunteers, including 300 fire figures and 100 police officers, battled the blaze all night.  Despite the horrific accident, no one was injured and the park welcomed 15,000 people last Sunday afternoon.