Freiburg's New Soccer Arena

Today Red Baron voted on a new soccer arena for Freiburg. The SC Freiburg soccer team plays in Germany's First Bundesliga (Federal Division). It receives the guest teams in a stadium where the playing field is 4.5 meters too short and slants by 1 meter over its length. The capacity of the present Dreisamstadion is limited to 24,000 spectators, so it was high time either to enlarge the current facility or build a new one.

Artist's view: The site of the new soccer arena for Freiburg at the airport.
The broad curved street in front is Madison Allee.
To the right is Freiburg's exhibition ground with halls and parking lots.
The blue buildings in the foreground on the left belong to the technical faculties of Freiburg's University.
The land along the airstrip further up is actually undeveloped;
the fictitious buildings illustrate possible extensions for the university, and
the future soccer arena is situated in the background (©HHVision).

The cost for a new arena is 70 million euros, and the expense for the necessary infrastructure around the new facility will amount to another 47 million. Taxpayers' money will be involved up to 38 million euros, a figure that does not please everybody.

And as it is written: Then the ... elders of the people, assembled in Freiburg's city hall together with Mayor Salomon, voted 33 to 10 in favor of the new stadium, but then they schemed: Let us cover our ***es and have a public vote, "or there may be a riot among the people." 

To make a long story short, Freiburg's Municipal Council decided on November 18, 2014, to build a new soccer stadium in the Wolfwinkel (wolf's corner) near Freiburg's local airport. We, the people, had the final say today, on February 1, 2015.

The battle of posters (©BZ)

When Red Baron received his polling card in early January, he did not find any indication about what he should vote on. This lack of information prompted Germany's Spaßpartei (fun party) Die Partei to put up posters suggesting that on February 1, voters should neither check yea nor nay but instead vote for their party.

Endorsement for Die Partei

Although at the beginning of the campaign, many people thought that a positive outcome of the vote was a mere formality, lately, the adversaries brought up some good arguments concerning the project's financing.

Yesterday Freiburg's soccer team played Frankfurt in the Dreisamstadion and won 4 to 1. This was a good omen. 

Tonight at 1900 hours, the dice were cast. The people of Freiburg decided 58% to 42% in favor of the new soccer arena. However, voter turnout was only 45% of the electorate.

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