People who are deeply rooted in ice sports in the region have joined forces for the initiative. The first chairman of the association is Björn Kloth, himself a longtime EHC fan. His deputy, Michael Lobstedt, is the fan representative at the EHC. They come from Freiburg, the Markgräflerland, the Ortenau, from the Upper Rhine. “And that makes it very clear: This is not just an ice rink for Freiburg, but for an entire region,” explains Kloth.
A feasibility study by the city recently showed that a new building would cost between 45 and 68 million euros. Too much to do out of pocket, especially since the pandemic and numerous major projects have drained the city’s coffers. The initiative now asks the city how such sums would be calculated, since other cities built state-of-the-art ice rinks for a fraction of these construction costs. “We want transparency in the process,” said Kloth. “We want everyone to understand the process and understand the importance of an ice rink for a center like Freiburg.”
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