Apartments for a maximum of 48 athletes were to be built in this building on Bürgermeister-Smidt-Straße on a total of five floors. A common room of almost 100 square meters was planned on the ground floor, and eight apartments were to be built on the first floor. These are on average 17 square meters. But now nothing will come of the plans. (Christina Kuhaupt)
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For three years they planned, discussed and tried to convince politicians of their project. But on Friday of this week the final end came: The house of the athletes in the Bürgermeister-Smidt-Straße, in which young athletes will actually live from 2021 and should be prepared for competitive sport, will not exist. “We are not angry, but we are very disappointed,” said Peter Gagelmann, the chairman of the Bremen Sports Foundation, to the WESER-KURIER on Saturday. Together with his board colleague Lars Figura, Gagelmann had driven the project for a long time. That it was stopped prematurely for financial reasons hurts Gagelmann and Figura.
The end of the house was made public by a press release that was sent late Friday evening. Gagelmann had previously had a long phone call with sports senator Anja Stahmann (Greens) and informed her about the bad news. Gagelmann also phoned other people involved in the long-term project, such as Jörg Wontorra, building contractor Joachim Linnemann and businessman Holger Löwe, who even made half a million euros available for the athletes’ house. “Everyone said: It was the right decision,” said the former Bundesliga referee.
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The press release says: “It is with great regret that the Bremen Sports Foundation must now give up its hope, despite its great confidence that it will be able to acquire a house for the athletes at the end of the year.” The notary appointment scheduled for December 18, at Gagelmann and Figura said that the property in the city center was to be officially acquired.
For years the project has been tinkered with to offer talented athletes in Bremen a perspective. In the house of the athletes, so was the plan, a maximum of 48 talents should be looked after and prepared for a possible time in top-class sport. In the spring, Figura and Gagelmann had already put their plans into perspective and planned to only let eight to twelve athletes move into the apartments when the athletes’ house opened. Originally, the spring of this year had been considered as the start date, most recently it should be the start of school in September.
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According to Gagelmann, there are various reasons why there will now be no athletes’ house at all. “It’s very complex,” he explained. “Of course Corona plays a big role, but also the lack of monetary support from the city.” The big problem: Politicians basically supported the project, but apart from big words and the announced will to help the sports foundation financially, little concrete came out of the Senate . Only Sport Senator Stahmann had guaranteed Gagelmann and Figura annual support of 50,000 euros. Too little for a project that is not only supposed to offer young athletes a roof over their heads, but also requires educational support. The education department should therefore have contributed around 150,000 euros annually in order to be able to look after the young athletes, some of which are also underage, 24 hours a day. But nothing came of financial commitments.
For Marco Lübke, the sports-political spokesman for the CDU parliamentary group, the temporary end for the House of Sports is “an absurdity”. In his opinion, the project was not wanted by the Senate from the start. “It is clear,” says Lübke, “that sport, and especially competitive sport, has no lobby in Bremen”. Lübke also points out that the failure will also have an impact on plans to develop the secondary school on Ronzelenstrasse into an elite school for sports. Such a project is simply not feasible without an affiliated boarding school.
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Gagelmann and Figura are aware that this decision will disappoint many hopes and expectations, not least those of the owner. Because regardless of how the project came about, the owner of the property, the construction project developer Stefespro, pushed ahead with the expansion of the apartments. But because the sports foundation is not buying the property after all, the apartments are rented to someone else – for example to tourists.
But Gagelmann and Figura have not given up hope that one day there will be an athletes’ house in Bremen. “Thanks to the donations we have collected so far, the project is not over for us, but rather it has been postponed,” the message says. The following applies to the sports foundation: “We remain resolute in the matter. We will continue to promote a house of athletes in Bremen and are confident that we will implement this with our partners, supporters and fellow campaigners. If not in the last location, then in one another place. “
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