If everything had gone according to the city planning department’s plan, then today we would be in the middle of the renovation work on the football stadium. Already in autumn 2019, the loan for the work was applied for in the municipal council, but the council rejected the deal. The contract between FC Solothurn and the city must first be revised before the loan can be approved. Nobody denied that the renovation was necessary; discussions were triggered solely by the “ominous contract”, as the Social Democrat Philipp Jenni put it.
It would not do for FC Solothurn to be treated privileged compared with the other football clubs, he said at the municipal council meeting at the end of October 2019. This rejection motion astonished City President Kurt Fluri, because FC Solothurn would not receive any direct benefit from the renovation . The head of the city building department pointed out that the building was in very poor condition and that it would be bad for the fabric of the building to wait any longer. Nevertheless, the rejection request was accepted.
The roof lets rain in and heat out
The original contract was signed in 1973 when the city bought the building from the football club. The Sports Commission and the FC worked out a new lease that will come into effect if the building is renovated. When the loan application came back to the local council a year later, it was accepted unanimously and without discussion. For the municipal council it is clear that the building urgently needs to be renovated.
The grandstand building was built in 1931 and was not renovated when the stadium was expanded in 1993. Now it is in poor condition: the roof is trickling, the plastering of the extension is peeling off and the warmth of the heated ground floor of the grandstand building evaporates. That is only part of the damage catalog.
These problems should all be tackled at the same time with this refurbishment: The building envelope, the hot water preparation, the surfaces and the surroundings should be refurbished and the ground floor plan reorganized. It was taken into account that the grandstand building will be included in the building inventory in the new local planning revision as worthy of protection. The structural interventions were discussed with the cantonal preservation authorities.
You will continue to train during the work
If the credit is accepted at the ballot box, construction work will start in June this year and will last for a year. During this time, training and match operations are not restricted and continue to run properly.
The costs are estimated at 2.8 million francs. The community assembly has already approved a loan of 200,000 francs and 1.5 million francs have been pre-financed in recent years. As a result, the amount still to be financed from the total investment amounts to CHF 1.1 million.
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