The soccer field of the FF Geretsried is no longer playable.
The reason: It lies on a filled gravel pit that gives way again and again.
A new building would be expensive.
Geretsried
- The "Toad Pond" lives up to its name again. Every year in autumn, the soccer field on Robert-Schumann-Weg causes trouble because the area becomes unplayable in rainy weather: In particular, the north-western half of the square, which has sagged in places, has the character of a lake landscape. Football fans have got used to the fact that games have to be postponed again and again. But this summer it got worse.
The place has been unplayable for months, the men's teams have not yet been able to play a single home game on their facility.
At the beginning of July, the place was "practically flooded" by extreme rainfall over an area of around 1000 square meters, as Patrick Verbaast reports.
In the weeks after that, the water did not drain.
“A game can definitely not take place.
The social life after Corona starts again, but without the football friends, "says the club board.
The artificial turf is available to the youngsters for games - in coordination with the Bavarian Football Association, there is currently an exemption to play A-, B- and C-Juniors games on the pitch, which is known for regular association games at 11, 5 meters is too short (we reported).
For the men, the misery means: All home games have to be relocated, either within the city to the Isar-Loisach Stadium or to the Böhmwiese - where a game has already taken place - or to the opponents' pitches.
Both are unsatisfactory.
“Relocations must be approved by the association and the opponent.
That costs a lot of time, energy and money, ”explains Verbaast.
In unfamiliar places - even within the city - football fans lose the income from kiosk sales.
“It's a catastrophe in terms of sport, society and finance,” complains the FFG boss.
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Patrick Verbaast, chairman of the football friends Geretsried
© Archive
What annoys him the most: As early as October 2020, he wrote to the city to draw attention to the worsening of the problem, which has been known for years.
“The space was not used during the lockdowns.
Sadly, nothing happened during the whole time ”, says Verbaast.
"I can't accept that like that."
Because, unlike other clubs that complain about a decline in membership, the football fans are seeing "a lively influx of people in all age categories, especially children and young people".
This season the club has grown from 18 to 22 teams.
"It is completely unacceptable that we are dependent on one and a half places," said the FFG boss.
"The situation is extremely frustrating."
Thomas Loibl, press spokesman for the city of Geretsried, rejects the accusation of inaction.
“The fact that nothing has happened since the club was reported does not correspond to the facts.” On the contrary, the municipal building authority, the sports department and the real estate department have worked intensively to find a solution in the past few months (see box).
But: The soccer field on Robert-Schumann-Weg, which was built on a "filled gravel pit", posed a "fundamental challenge" for the city.
Also read: Prohibited trips to the bunkers
"It contains gravel, sand, humus and also rubble from the bunkers that were demolished there at a depth of around four to eight meters," explains Loibl. Unfortunately, it can be assumed that the backfills were not compacted in layers at that time. "All the problems there today are due to this fact."
The colleagues from the building and sports department have worked intensively on solutions and improvements over the past few months and explored possible alternatives during site visits.
"The result is admittedly sobering," says the press spokesman.
In a nutshell, this means: In order to get the problem under control completely and sustainably, in the end all that remains is a new building.
According to initial estimates, the costs for this amounted to at least one million euros.
Loibl: "That is an amount that cannot easily be represented in the city budget and for which a fundamental political decision is required."
Also read: Geretsrieder finances: Big investments, big worries
In order to improve the situation at least temporarily, however, a "quick help measure" had been put out to tender.
A company has now been found that will start work promptly - around October.
In the north-western area, an area of 600 to 800 square meters is to be filled with gravel and compacted.
Cost: around 20,000 euros.
But, according to Loibl: "Since the area is expected to sag again in the medium term, this measure, as described, is only of a transitional character."
