It is a belated Christmas present for the footballers of TSV and FC Ottobrunn: the municipality is building a second, modern artificial pitch next to the already existing artificial turf field to the east of the Haidgraben this year, which will also give the footballers a continuous training field in autumn and winter. and to enable gaming operations. In addition, the municipal council decided on Wednesday to renovate the existing pitch in 2024 and to equip both pitches with LED floodlights.
The approval of the project, which the CSU had applied for in the municipal council four years ago, was not to be expected before the meeting on Wednesday evening. The building committee of the municipal council had rejected the construction of a second artificial turf field in the previous week with a tie.
The two sports clubs then wrote to the municipal councils again, in which they noted how urgently another place was needed from their point of view. SPD municipal councilor Martin Bruno Radig, who is also the second chairman of TSV, brought up the needs of the two clubs again in the municipal council. According to Radig, the need for additional training opportunities in the clubs with their 30 teams and more than 700 members is growing steadily, especially among children and young people. In autumn and winter, however, the natural grass pitches are often not playable and are closed, which severely restricts training. Another artificial turf field would not only expand the training capacities, but would also be suitable for league games, Radig pleaded for the approximately one million euro field.
“We have completely different problems,” says the Greens
Above all, his plea for child and youth work in the clubs has obviously led to a rethinking within his parliamentary group, because both the SPD and the Greens and the Ottobrunn Citizens’ Association (BVO) still have major concerns about the precarious budget situation of the community. Ruth Markwart-Kunas, the leader of the SPD parliamentary group in the municipal council, said she still has stomach ache about the financial situation of the municipality. After the first budget talks, however, she sees potential for savings elsewhere. Her group never doubted the need for a new place, said Markwart-Kunas: “And we are now also thinking of the children and young people who have been hit by Corona and treated neglectfully.”
The Greens, however, are still concerned that the municipality simply cannot afford a new site. “We have completely different problems. We live in times of crisis and the worst crisis is the climate crisis,” said parliamentary group spokeswoman Doris Popp. She also criticized the fact that there had still not been talks about a financial participation of the two clubs in the new building. Even the citizens’ association did not deviate from its skeptical attitude. “If I look at the budget, we will take on 20 million euros in new debt next year and take 16 million euros from the reserves,” said BVO councilor Reinhard Pohl. “I don’t think an artificial turf pitch is currently feasible.”
With the votes of the CSU and SPD, the second artificial turf pitch, which is to be filled with olive pit grit instead of plastic for reasons of environmental protection, finally found a majority.