A solution for the artificial turf pitch?

Ellwangen

For years, 1.33 million euros have been passed on in the city budget. The money is reserved for the conversion of the hard pitch at Galgenberg into a combined artificial turf pitch for football and baseball. But first it was the threatening EU-wide ban on microplastics, then the huge increases in construction costs that prevented construction. When, apart from Michael Dambacher, hardly anyone else believed that the project could be realized with costs that remained reasonably reasonable, the mayor presented a variant to the building committee that convinced all ABUV members.

The head of the civil engineering department, Susanne Howedank, described the current cost calculations: the originally planned combined baseball/football field would currently raise total costs of almost 3 million euros. This variant 1 would require an additional 1.6 million euros in the 2023 budget in addition to the amounts already set.

Variant 2 only provides for an artificial turf football pitch at Galgenwald. The baseball field at Hungerberg, previously an improvised field, would be expanded to meet Bundesliga requirements. This variant 2 would have a total cost of 1.86 million, of which almost 500,000 for the baseball field. The city’s share of the costs would be over one million euros below that of variant 1.

Andreas Hunke spoke on behalf of all three clubs (TSV, DJK and Förderverein Kunstrasenplatz) for the realization of variant 2. The Virngrund Elks could bring in significantly more of their own work on a grass field. 1400 hours of work have already been done for the current provisional solution. Materials that were dismantled on the Galgenberg were reused on the Hungerberg. With variant 2, one could do without further interventions in nature.

Albert Schiele was pleased with the proposed approach because it would also have been difficult to produce the rotated, combined playing field. Hans-Peter Müller agreed. It would certainly be better for the baseball department to have its own space because that way you can avoid scheduling conflicts with other departments.

Hariolf Brenner wanted to know what would have happened to Hungerbergplatz otherwise. It is clear that the second artificial turf field is needed because it cannot meet the needs of the LEA.

Michael Dambacher explained that the sales agreements with BIMA mean that the area must remain a sports facility for the next twelve years.

Wolfgang Seckler wanted to know how the costs relate specifically to the size of the artificial turf (11,700 square meters for variant 1 to 8200 square meters for variant 2). The funding of the project is unclear, since the baseball field is purely for a club, while the artificial turf on the Galgenberg can also be used for school sports.

Joachim Zorn was interested in federal funding for the innovative artificial turf pitch. As the mayor explained, the city only had to pay what an ordinary artificial turf pitch would cost. The companies Tecnaro and Morten Extrusionstechnik will bear the additional costs from the new type of construction using biomaterials via the federal subsidy that has already been approved.

Andre Zwick asked about the follow-up costs, such as the development of the Hungerberghalle and the lounge for the caretaker who maintains the Hungerberg squares. Johannes Gresser was also interested in the maintenance costs for two courts and Fritz Widmann wanted to know how risky the innovative surface is. Dambacher referred to the guarantees of the two companies, which are very optimistic that the new concept will work.

Another topic was the club’s own contribution, which was set at 200,000 euros. Work must be offset. It also needs to be clarified which hourly rate is to be applied for personal work. The mayor suggested 15 euros. The extent to which the baseball field can also be used for school sports was also discussed. For the Buchenberg School in particular, the secondary Sport am Hungerberg center is more favorable than the sports grounds at the Waldstadion.

Hans-Peter Müller wanted the amount of personal contributions to be formulated more specifically. Andreas Hunke counted the lighting on both squares among the items where personal work and cost savings are possible. A clear framework should be in place by the municipal council meeting.

Jonathan Felch, chairman of the city association and the association for the promotion of artificial turf, drew attention to the occupancy plan for the current artificial turf pitch, which is completely overflowing. With second place, clubs in the sub-towns would also have the advantage of training in one of the two places in winter.