After a mishap, the groundbreaking ceremony for the new LASK football stadium – estimated at 65 million euros in construction costs – was celebrated on Saturday at the Linzer Gugl.
A good six months later than originally announced, the Raiffeisen Arena should be completed on February 10, 2023. Inadequacies in the award process had led to another tendering process. The construction company Porr was awarded the contract last week.
LASK President Siegmund Gruber thanked the more than 80 sponsors and emphasized the importance of the new arena for the youth at the event with numerous fans and guests of honor. “Today I am most pleased that we see many children and the LASK offspring in our colors. This means I know that we are doing the right thing here for the next generation. The Raiffeisen-Arena will be the basis for the future of our association “he is convinced.
It is planned that the entire second half of the 2022/23 season will take place in the arena. But they want to try together with Porr to be able to play in the stadium earlier. If this does not succeed, alternatives will be looked for in good time, according to the LASK. The athletes are currently playing their national home games in Pasching, internationally the Wörthersee Stadium in Klagenfurt is currently the alternative location. The start of gaming operations was originally planned for July 2022. Then the lease for the Paschinger Stadium ends.
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Gugl instead of Pichling
As of May 2017, the former Bundesliga climber had leased the Waldstadion from the municipality of Pasching as a provisional home for five years. The Bundesliga club actually wanted to build a new stadium suitable for international matches on the green field near Linz-Pichling. When the plans became known, a citizens’ initiative “Rettet den Pichlinger See” was formed, which collected almost 9,000 signatures against the new building in a local recreation area and thus forced a referendum.
It did not come to that, however, as LASK withdrew its plans. An agreement was then reached with the city of Linz to return to the Gugl. This also meant that the Upper Austrian. Athletics Association – under protest – had to move out of the existing stadium. A new center, the “Oberbank-Arena” in Wieningerstrasse, was built for the athletes.
Thus, at the end of January this year, the demolition work on the old stadium on the Gugl began, only to be stopped a month later. One of the reasons for this was the assertion of the former LASK Vice President Manfred Zauner, who put the project costs at 117 million euros instead of the originally estimated 65 million euros. The soccer club contradicted this and withdrew Zauner from the project. The project team was reorganized, inadequate tenders and orders that had already been placed were partially withdrawn – including those to the Frankplan company, which sued for the payment of around 483,000 euros due to an alleged loss of earnings.
Settlement in court
Only a few days before the groundbreaking, on Thursday, this construction site was removed. As the “Oö. Volksblatt” reports, a settlement was reached in court. LASK takes over two open partial invoices with deductions and transfers 50,000 euros to the company within two weeks.
The positive building permit for the 20,000-seat arena on the Linzer Gugl was confirmed by the State Administrative Court in September. The Upper Austrian provincial government is contributing a maximum of 30 million euros to the project. The remaining sum – around 35 million euros – is to be financed by a model with private investors that Raiffeisenlandesbank Oberösterreich is handling.
The stadium fulfills the international requirements of the ÖFB and thus enables international matches for the national team in Linz. The cup final could also take place in the arena. In the future, the stadium will be in category 4 of UEFA, and therefore theoretically suitable up to the Champions League semi-finals. It is planned that a medical center, a restaurant and a kindergarten will also be located in the stadium on Linzer Froschberg.
Textquelle: © APA
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