Many active citizens fill Bochum’s self-description as a “sports city” with blood and pulse. Movement and activity promote the quality of life and also promote a lively urban culture, as the work of the city sports association shows. Bochum should therefore create more sports opportunities and a sports park for each district.
The sporting spirit finds its place, be it in the forest for jogging, in the park for yoga or for strength training in the gym. But there are activities and sports that require sports facilities with certain equipment. In many cases these are sports fields and, increasingly, sports halls.
Last but not least, sport often no longer takes place in club structures. The result is that solo recreational athletes and loose groups of active people are also looking for sports facilities and are sometimes competing with clubs.
As the sports landscape changes, the city’s sports infrastructure must also adapt and additions must be made.
Urban Green has proven itself
With the Urban Green in Riemke the city of Bochum has made a first significant contribution to innovative sports infrastructure. Boules, jogging track, calisthenics and a sports area in an open-air hall for basketball, football etc. The reactions of the citizens using the facility are positive and show that there is great interest and a great need for high-quality sports offerings. A large part of this is also due to the fact that the Falken have found an operator for the wide range of services.
One cannot rest on this success. The positive experiences should be a springboard for the next step.
A sports park for each district
The CITY DESIGNERS propose to build a multifunctional sports hall in each district, independent of the schools, for clubs and for athletes not organized in clubs. The priority here is sport. There is no need to take school events and lessons into account at these locations.
Unlike the Urban Green, these new offerings are intended to be all-weather capable, meaning that they can still be used in storms and snow even in the depths of winter. An offer for classic popular sports would be available at each location and supplemented with special offers that vary from hall to hall.
The Lissfeld sports park in Linz, Austria, is an example of a wide range of sports facilities beyond club sports. Unlike the URBAN DESIGNER-Proposal, all sports offerings are centralized there on 56,000 square meters. The sports park offers space for ball sports, table tennis, gymnastics, etc. in two multifunctional halls. This is supplemented by a trendy sports hall for skateboarding, inline skates and scooters as well as a beach volleyball hall, a tennis hall, a small hall for badminton and a squash box. A new sport like pickleball also finds its place in a pop-up version. In the outdoor area there is space for baseball, curling tracks, clay courts for tennis and mini golf. A darts center has also been built in the sports park. The construction cost the city of Linz around EUR 16 million in 2009.
According to the presentation of the URBAN DESIGNER A similar offering is to be set up across several locations in Bochum. At each location there should be at least two normal multifunctional halls and one hall for one or more trend sports. All locations must be conveniently located and easily accessible by bike and public transport in order to avoid the need for an expensive underground car park like in Linz. If an underground car park is to be implemented at individual locations, then this should only be implemented in shared use as a neighborhood garage.
Possible test locations would be, for example, the Springorumpark in Weitmar, at the skate park Auf der Heide on the border of Wiemelhausen, Altenbochum and Laer, or on Dietrich-Benking-Str. in Hiltrop. Other locations should also be examined, taking into account the least possible interference with the open space. It would also be possible to implement this by adding more floors to existing school sports halls in order to potentially achieve further organizational synergy effects.
Possible usage models
In order to enable uncomplicated use for clubs and individual athletes as well as for independent private groups, times in the citizen sports parks should be easily booked online. A digital access system and the issuance of devices via sports boxes make low-personnel and basically 24-hour operation possible. We propose a similar system, also using the city of Linz as an example, for all other sports facilities such as school sports halls. Since 2019, school sports halls can be reserved “at the touch of a button” via the provider Venuzle.
The Urban Green site would be part of this measure. In the future, this offer should also be examined to see whether a real weatherproof hall should be built there.
The Sportpark Lissfeld is owned by the city of Linz. It pays for the construction and renovations. Liva Sport is in charge of operating the sports park and offers the offer at “moderate prices” (e.g. day in the trend sports hall EUR 3.50 or EUR 2 reduced, with an annual subscription less than EUR 1 per day / table tennis table EUR 3.30 / badminton 9 .50 EUR/h / stock track 1.30 EUR person/h). According to the presentation of the URBAN DESIGNER The operation of the halls in Bochum should be possible for citizens free of charge, with a deposit or very inexpensively. A restaurant is also offered in Linz. It is possible that space could be created at individual central locations in Bochum for a restaurant in a leasing model in order to cross-finance the sports offering. Sponsorship and the rental of advertising space in the sports parks could also represent an additional pillar of financing. The halls can also be used for other events or sports competitions.
Already had in 2022 the CITY DESIGNERS As part of the preparation of the 2023/2024 budget, a request was made to allocate funds for the planning of sports halls as “good rooms”. This was rejected. With the proposal from citizen sports parks, this initial approach has now been further developed for clubs and recreational athletes.
