Container solution died

Before spring kick-off: club “loses” cabins!

A wall or ceiling collapsed during renovation work at the facility of Upper Austrian league team Bad Ischl, and the authorities have ruled that it cannot be replaced for the time being.

(Bild: Hörmandinger Marion)

Other soccer clubs lose a game or perhaps one or two players to a competitor. But one Upper Austrian league club lost its dressing rooms ten days before the first spring home game. More correctly: the cubicle replacement! Because a planned container solution cannot be implemented!

No end to Bad Ischl's soccer "wall fall"! The team at the bottom of the Upper Austrian league had also wanted to replace the dressing rooms in the winter as part of the one million euro renovation of the facility. However, problems had already arisen in the run-up to the project: because the building is located in a "red zone", the Upper Austrian government had expressly not approved any new construction, only renovation. This meant that the brickwork had to be preserved! 

Mishap during renovation
However, a wall collapsed over a length of 10 m during the renovation work, causing a ceiling to collapse as well. Normally not a problem for club president Josef Zeppetzauer, a master builder. In this case, however, it was a lengthy one due to the legal requirements, as solutions had to be found with the authorities responsible for nature conservation and water and building law before construction could continue.

The containers were due to be delivered on Wednesday afternoon, but we were suddenly told that we wouldn't get permission for this either.

SV-Bad-Ischl-Sektionsleiter Johannes Roitmayer

However, as the spring in the Upper Austrian league begins on Friday and Bad Ischl's first home game awaits on March 15 with the derby against Mondsee, Zeppetzauer had considered a container solution - in plain language: the home and visiting teams would be accommodated in two large containers, the referee team in a small one.

The big question: where to move to?

"The containers were supposed to be delivered on Wednesday afternoon, but suddenly we were told that we wouldn't get permission for them," says section manager Johannes Roitmayer, who denies all rumors that the teams and referees will now be housed in a school: "That wouldn't work at all, because we also need indoor space for half-time!" On the other hand, Roitmayer believes it is theoretically possible to move to the training ground in Kaltenbach. "There would be a new cabin wing there," says the Ischl soccer veteran, who sees a different problem at the possible alternative location: The spectators! There is hardly any space between the outlines and the fence bordering the pitch . . . 

Which leaves only one fact: nine days before the first Upper Austrian League home game, Bad Ischl don't know where it will be played!