The municipality of Unterhaching has planned four million euros from property sales in its budget. It is not only known in the municipal council that the sale of the football stadium at the sports park is behind this. So far, everyone has assumed that the only possible buyer is the Spielvereinigung, which has also been struggling with the municipality for a purchase agreement for years. But after Armin Konetschny from the Greens justified his parliamentary group’s rejection of the approximately 110 million euro budget on Wednesday evening by saying that dependence on the game association was “highly risky”, SPD parliamentary group leader Peter Wöstenbrink made it clear why his party friend Mayor Wolfgang Panzer remains relaxed with a view to these four million: “A tender and a sale to investors who are as football-savvy as possible are also conceivable.”
Reports about the regional football league’s liquidity problems had previously alarmed some in the municipal council. Because these four million are in an asset budget that, for the first time during Mayor Panzer’s term of office, has to support the administrative budget with a volume of almost 90 million euros, in which there was a gap of 5.5 million euros despite savings, fee increases and the cancellation of subsidies. But rejecting the entire set of figures, which the local politicians had struggled to achieve in many seemingly endless meetings, was a step too far for the majority. Wöstenbrink does not initially assume that any investor will actually get involved in the sports park: “The fact that this stalled transaction from 2020 should now lead to an income item in the 2023 budget goes back to an initiative by SpVgg Unterhaching at the end of 2022, that one I now want to approach this acquisition in a binding manner and with a new scope.” Despite current unfavorable press reports regarding the Spielvereinigung finances during ongoing game operations, the SPD wants to meet its long-term concerns while safeguarding the interests of the community.
Football games in the sports park would have to be approved by the town hall
Now the deal with the stadium and the game association is not only a topic of excitement among the local councils in terms of the budget. Because a few days ago it was also announced that the Munich Ravens football club from Munich intends to host the home games in the European League of Football (ELF) in the Unterhaching sports park this summer – thanks to a cooperation with the game association. How could that be, asked Evi Karbaumer from the Greens. Finally, there is a lease agreement with the game association, which states that the purpose is “the game and practice operation for various football and youth teams from the Unterhachinger clubs and the operation of the restaurant”. It also stipulates that subleasing is only possible with the written consent of the municipality. Noise could also be an issue.
In this already heated mood of the budget debate, in which Panzer had to listen to criticism from many quarters, the mayor reacted quite irritably to the football issue: “Have you read somewhere that the mayor allowed it?” He asked and asked clear: “There is no written permission, for nothing!” The lease agreement with the game association is currently being automatically extended by one year if it is not terminated by March 31 of the current year. The SPD wants to talk about it in the municipal committee in good time.
In the almost four-hour session, it became clear once again: “The good years are over,” as Christine Helming of the Free Voters put it. In the past, the community managed beyond its means, “almost like a maggot in a bacon. The good income made us careless.” Structural changes were called for by many. Richard Raiser (CSU) even said: “We are facing a pile of shards of unprecedented proportions.” They failed to build up sufficient reserves, there was not enough focus on the important topics on the income side, instead they were chasing multimillion-euro costly castles in the air. Mayor Panzer, who is visibly struggling with the low tide in the coffers due to the high trade tax repayments, and who is not unaffected by the outrage and finger pointing, said: “I use my decision-making power to ensure that we don’t just threw populist phrases, but actually viable solutions find.”