Seventy percent of Vienna’s (Austria) sports facilities are in urgent need of undergoing rehabilitation work. The City is planning to inject 150 million euros for the refurbishment work and for constructing four new structures.
‘Heute’ reported that Sports Councilor Peter Hacker of the Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ), the Green Sports Spokesman Hans Arsenovic and the Head of MA 51 – Sports Vienna (the Sports Department of Vienna), Anatol Richter, presented the sports facility development plan – ‘Sport. Vienna. 2030’ recently. Based on this concept, around 150 million euros will be spent in the coming years for the renovation of existing sports infrastructure and the construction of new sports facilities.
New multiuse sports hall in Kagran (Vienna)
Among other things, a multiuse sports hall for 3,000 spectators with a focus on ball sports and three lightweight training halls will come up in Kagran. The infrastructure for swimmers in the stadium pool and other pools is already being expanded, and the City’s round halls are being completely reconfigured. Further, pump tracks and ball game cages will be set up in public spaces. The comprehensive renovation program for the City’s club sports facilities includes the construction of new cloakroom buildings, setting up additional playing fields, putting up floodlights and roof renovations. By expanding the currently unutilized ancillary areas, hobby and popular sports popularization is guaranteed.
‘Heute’ further reported that in order to gauge the needs for popular, competitive and top-level sport, MA 51 – Sport Vienna conducted a broad survey of over 70 Viennese professional associations and their clubs. Over 200 responses from almost all recognized sports gave a clear picture that there was a need for making available additional training opportunities, especially for indoor sports. Clubs and associations from the ball sport also expressed the need for a bigger hall to stage national and international sporting fixtures.
Close scrutiny
An inspection of the sports facilities was carried out to determine the extent to which reconfiguration work would be required. The close scrutiny carried out in the year 2019 brought to fore the following factors:
- Thirty percent of Vienna’s sports facilities are in good structural condition; and
- Seventy percent are in urgent need of undergoing refurbishment in various forms – from renovations to general renovations or renewals.
Futuristic facilities
Based on the above two factors, an investment plan was worked out and it was decided to carry out:
- Comprehensive renovation of the sports facilities; and
- General renovation of the round halls owned by the City of Vienna: The Steigenteschgasse pilot project in Kagran is already being implemented. The six other round halls will also get new roofs, new outer shells, leading-edge technology and additional training centers.
New sports facility:
- Construction of a multifunctional sports space boasting spectator capacity of circa 3,000 people: Flexible use of the space for training and events thanks to retractable and extendable grandstands. Parallelly, three large training fields will come up; and
- Construction of smart training halls: These halls will be employed to hold training sessions from athletics and gymnastics to ball and trend sports. The idea is that smart training modules allow training sessions to be extended.
Sports facility expansion:
- Expansion of existing sports facilities in the City of Vienna – the Vienna Athletics Center in Prater and expansion of FAC-Platz in Floridsdorf, Austria – the home ground of the Floridsdorfer Athletics Sports Club, a football club from the 21st Viennese district of Floridsdorf, expansion of Wiener Sport-Club Stadium in Vienna, the residence of football club Wiener Viktoria, and also on the list is expansion of Simmeringer Had in Vienna, the home venue of Austrian association football club Simmeringer SC; and
- Setting up additional swimming infrastructure in the stadium pool: Additional 50m pool, and a retractable roof.
‘Heute’ also reported that the first press release on the grandiose sports infrastructure plans in the City of Vienna will be released this year. Several projects to reduce energy consumption are already being implemented through the ‘Sportcontracting’ funding program of MA 51 – Sport Wien.
Future of sports in Vienna
The sports facility development plan also intends to take into consideration the City’s growth. In order to meet the goal of an affordable, easily accessible and wide range of sports for all Viennese in the future, the following measures will be adopted:
- Over 500 school gymnasiums in Vienna are already being used by sports clubs, 140 of them are also being used during weekends. In the coming years, these options will be expanded further, including during the school holidays;
- In urban development projects, it will be ascertained that based on needs-based analysis, there is enough space available for sports infrastructure;
- The diversity of the urban sports infrastructure will be made even more visible and kind of tangible. Recreational areas will be included in the overall concept; and
- In the course of a screening, potential areas of around 56,000 square meters were named for around 50 sports facilities under the purview of MA 51, which will be made available in the future as multipurpose spaces.
Sports data
‘Heute’ informed that Vienna enjoys almost 10 million square meters of sports space exclusive of local recreation areas such as the Danube Island, the Marchfeld Canal or the green Prater:
- More than 250,000 Viennese are members of one of the more than 3,000 sports clubs and over 120 sports falls in the organized sports category;
- MA 51 – Sport Wien manages over 200 sports facilities spread over a total of around 3.6 million square meters – 43 of them are operated by the company itself (13 sports halls, 13 youth sports facilities, three sports and fun halls, and 14 outdoor facilities) – 154 are operated on the basis of existing contracts from Viennese sports clubs; and
- In sync with the municipal baths and schools, MA 51 creates an annual offer of over half a million training hours for hobby, leisure and amateur athletes, club athletes and professional competitive sports.
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