BSC Rapid Chemnitz: New artificial turf pitch is inaugurated
Today, after almost seven months of construction, the artificial turf pitch of BSC Rapid Chemnitz on Irkutsker Straße is being opened.
"As many young talents as possible should find their way into our numerous good Chemnitz sports clubs. That's why I'm glad that we were able to invest there too. For example, we now have six large pitches with artificial turf in the city. Today, BSC Rapid Chemnitz can inaugurate theirs," said Mayor Barbara Ludwig, who will be attending the opening ceremony in the afternoon.
The artificial turf pitch cost a total of 800,000 euros. Of this, the city of Chemnitz provided 400,000 euros from its budget for the long-planned construction project. BSC Rapid itself had financed 100,000 euros via a loan and made own contributions totalling 60,000 euros, with the remaining amount coming from subsidies.
This means that the club with its five departments (general sports group, football, table tennis, bowling and weight training) and around 550 members can now play on the artificial turf, which can be used all year round. After the German table tennis championships in spring and the European powerlifting championships in May, this is another highlight of the 2015 sporting year for the BSC.
Background: The Saxon Football Association, Football District Association, City Sports Association and the football and hockey clubs concerned came to an agreement with the City of Chemnitz at the 2008 Football Summit on the need to build artificial turf pitches at four locations in Chemnitz (SG Handwerk Rabenstein, BSC Rapid, VfB Fortuna, Sportforum). Since then, three artificial turf pitches have been built and a fourth was built at the Eiche Reichenbrand club as a result of the 2013 floods and was inaugurated in July 2014. The artificial turf pitch at Jahnbaude has also been available for use since July 2014. With the opening today at BSC Rapid Chemnitz, the city of Chemnitz now has six artificial turf pitches.