Alexandria’s mayor wants to keep the connection going with Croatia after the city hosted the Croatian National Football Team as its World Cup home base.
At Alexandria City Council’s meeting Tuesday (Sept. 22), Mayor Alyia Gaskins proposed a memo to establish a friendship city with Osijek, Croatia.
Gaskins said the Croatian Embassy approached the city about ways to continue a partnership after the World Cup hosting.
“Sports, I think, as we saw this summer, have played a powerful role in uniting our community, but also we put a lot of time and energy into serving as a base camp for the Croatian National Team,” Gaskins said. “As a result of what we were able to create, our city has been picked up in international travel magazines, and we’re seeing a lot of people really paying attention to our city in a new way.”
The mayor clarified that a friendship city is not the same as a sister city, which Alexandria has established with Dundee, Scotland; Helsingborg, Sweden; Gyumri, Armenia; and Caen, France. The friendship city agreement would be time limited and allow the cities to explore if they want stronger ties.
“It also gives us an opportunity to build on some other opportunities that are building, and specifically between the soccer teams here with Alexandria Soccer Association, as well as others in our potential friendship city,” Gaskins said.
Along with athletic opportunities, the partnership could also have tourism implications for Alexandria. At Visit Alexandria’s annual member meeting last week, Gaskins reported she received an influx of messages from Croatians and others seeking to visit the city because of the World Cup team’s visit. The team’s welcome event at Episcopal High School in June drew a crowd of hundreds to meet and watch the players practice.
The friendship city proposal will return to City Council for consideration on Oct. 13. That would involve a resolution to form the friendship city agreement and formation of a friendship city subcommittee.
