Glimmer of hope for a new artificial turf pitch

Highly sought after in Markt Schwaben: A new artificial turf pitch for footballers. However, our archive picture was taken two years ago in the neighboring municipality of Poing. © Dziemballa

The current artificial turf pitch in Markt Schwaben is unplayable. And the community lacks the money. But now there is hope for a new building.

Markt Schwaben – A good two months ago, the topic of artificial turf pitches in the Swabian stadium made waves. What happened? Due to the imminent risk of accidents, the two 10-a-side areas (meaning the football penalty area) on the artificial turf pitch had to be closed on 16 March, so that the pitch has only been playable to a limited extent since then. The ZMS faction in the market town council quickly picked up on all this and sent a motion into the race less than a week later.

Main demand: to rebuild as soon as possible using the best possible materials. "Populist"; this is how it struck the ZMS (Zukunft Markt Schwaben). After that, there was radio silence for the time being.

Access to new funding thanks to ISEK?

Now, in the course of the public council meeting in the town hall meeting room, the municipal administration submitted an updated interim report. With clearly hopeful indications: If the final approval of the municipal budget for 2023 by the legal supervisory authority is available, it was said yesterday in the plenary session, then the early start of measures for the renewal of the artificial turf field in conjunction with the Dragomir office could also be applied for via the ISEK (Integrated Urban Development Concept) in accordance with the state funding guidelines. The budget is reportedly expected to be approved in week 24.

The topic of artificial turf has been on the local political agenda of the market for some time. The administration informs the ladies and gentlemen in the council that the renewal of the artificial turf field by the building management had been planned in the budget for five years. However, due to the stabilisation aid applied for since 2018, only so-called mandatory tasks could and were allowed to be implemented. However, the renewal of an artificial turf pitch that was still playable to date was not defined as a mandatory task by the legal supervision.

In the meantime, the office partnership Dragomir Stadtplanung and Schlothauer & Wauer was commissioned to create an ISEK on 27 October. The first concrete talks with the office partnership on the renewal of the artificial turf for the 2023 financial year have already taken place. At the first reading of the 2023 budget on 24 November 2022, a budget of €500,000 was planned for the artificial turf pitch after receiving bids from the building management.

Formally, inclusion in the ISEK opens up additional funding rates of 90 percent. These enable the market to implement the measure for the first time in five years.

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