Trouble is brewing in the Munich city council over the fan festival on the Theresienwiese, which is supposed to herald the start of the European Football Championship, which starts two days later, on June 12th. The reason is a letter from economics officer Clemens Baumgärtner (CSU), in which he explained to the six parliamentary groups last week why there will be no discounted tickets for those in need.
That’s exactly what the Committee for Labor and Economy made a condition of when it made the Theresienwiese available for the fan festival in November, at which global stars Ed Sheeran and Nelly Furtado, the German singer Mark Forster and the English newcomer Dylan performed: ” The Department of Labor and Economic Affairs is commissioned, in collaboration with the concert organizer, to provide, if possible, a quota of tickets at socially acceptable prices so that it is a celebration for everyone,” the resolution states.
In his letter, Baumgärtner has now highlighted the words “if possible” in bold and underlined them and stated that when the options were explored, a criminal risk was discovered “if discounted tickets are issued to or via the state capital (to third parties)”. The possible offense: accepting or granting a benefit. In view of this, there are only two options left, says Baumgärtner: Either the city buys tickets at the regular price and passes them on, for which there is no budget; or the organizer “voluntarily complies with the will of the city council in a practicable manner”. That happened.
The Hamburg company FKP Scorpio has set a relatively cheap basic price of 95 euros, which of course increases to 110 euros due to various fees. “Many people in this city can’t afford it,” says SPD city councilor Simone Burger. She appeals to FKP Scorpio to provide a cheap contingent of tickets. “Legally, it’s not a problem if the organizer does it themselves,” she says. Sebastian Weisenburger, parliamentary group leader of the Greens/Pink List, reminds us that “the city council’s mandate was anyway that the organizer should provide the contingent itself and not the city – that would have been the simplest solution.”
Both Weisenburger and the left-wing parliamentary group leader Stefan Jagel also criticize Baumgärtner’s approach. In his argument he refers to a legal report that obviously comes from FKP Scorpio. Weisenburger finds this “strange because he is not interested in very cheap or free tickets for economic reasons.” Jagel is irritated by the fact that the department may have passed on the city council decision and then received the legal opinion back.
Tobias Ruff, spokesman for the ÖDP and the Munich List, also criticizes the fact that the concert organizer “prefers to invest his money in reports from lawyers instead of approving discounted tickets for those in need.” He adds: “The Theresienwiese must not be used to enable private entrepreneurs to increase their profits and the general public to simply bear the burden.”
While the concert organizer can expect revenue of 8.5 million euros from the sale of the 90,000 tickets alone, the city is only planning to generate revenue of 60,000 euros for the Theresienwiese. These consist of the daily flat rate for the time of assembly and dismantling from May 31st to June 17th, 10,300 euros, as well as 55 cents for each square meter used on the day of the event, which should be between 90,000 and 100,000 square meters.
While the CSU/Free Voters faction is satisfied with the information provided by the economic advisor, the other parties still need to talk. SPD Ms. Burger wants to talk to the economics department again soon. “We hope that we can still make a difference.” Left spokesman Jagel calls for at least 100 tickets to be purchased and then raffled off among Munich Pass holders. The Department of Labor and Economic Affairs “certainly still has the necessary 12,000 euros somewhere in the budget”.