Frankfurt multifunctional arena: Skyliners and Kaiserlei

SEven the Skyliners are in need. The Basketball Bundesliga Club announced on Wednesday, in the person of its managing director Gunnar Wöbke, that it would now submit an offer to the city of Frankfurt “in which we will show how the construction of a multifunctional arena at the Kaiserlei can still be realized on the basis of the existing tender.” . Wöbke appealed to the support of four named “long-time Club of Friends members” of the Skyliners, who are all entrepreneurs. Wöbke did not want to give any specific information as to whether they would be willing to help build the hall as investors. First, talks would have to be held with the city, he told the FAZ

“We work with professionals. We are now ready to take on investment risks. ”For Wöbke, the construction of an arena at Kaiserlei, for which costs of 120 to 150 million euros were planned, did not die. “This is the only place in Frankfurt where the arena can be realized realistically and economically in a timely manner.” That is “a very good location,” he emphasized.

An insurmountable obstacle

So far, the construction of a new arena seems to have been an insurmountable obstacle to the expansion needs of the basketball Bundesliga club with Wöbke at the top. Because since Tuesday it has been clear in the seemingly endless game of patience that neither of the two shortlisted investor groups, the initially favored provider Langano and then AEG Anschutz, will build an arena with up to 13,000 spectators at the Kaiserlei because of the long drawn-out award procedure has been terminated by the city without surcharge.

Five years of concrete planning for the major project turned out to be wasted time in this context. The end had been looming for a long time. In this respect, Wöbke and his colleagues will not have surprised. You must have worked on alternative plans in the background. The construction of a new hall in Frankfurt has been contemplating on various levels for two decades. For a while, Wöbke had the feeling that politicians were not pushing the issue with the necessary energy. But then it was “on the radar”. So far there has been nothing more than a silver lining, as the most important thing is missing: the implementation of the project.

“What doesn’t grow, it dies” – this is Wöbke’s motto in this troublesome matter. The pressure to act has grown again. Without a new arena, from their point of view, the Skyliners would not have any prospects in Frankfurt economically or in terms of sport, as the ball sports hall does not correspond to a modern sports facility with boxes and spacious VIP rooms. Their goal of becoming a Euroleague team in the premier class would have to be burying the Frankfurters. And in the Bundesliga, which could in any case lose its sporting importance in the coming years because the top clubs are increasingly concentrating on international business, the Skyliners, with their modest budget, would probably be on the threshold of second class.

So there is only one way out for them if they want to bring their ambitious goals to life: The Skyliners have to build the hall themselves with the help of potent partners in order to ensure their survival in the medium and long term. And that in difficult times of the corona pandemic. Wöbke had already spoken of an interested American investor in the past. And he informed politicians some time ago that the club needed the promised property at the Kaiserlei. If the city were to implement another building project there, it would be a “GAU” for him. To find shelter somewhere else, he has not been able to gain anything from this possibility. At the airport, a consortium led by a Canadian investor is planning an even larger arena with a capacity of 23,000 spectators. The Skyliners managing director, however, rates the planned timelines for the realization of the project called “The Dome” as unrealistic.

The Frankfurt ice hockey “lions” view the project at the airport from a completely different perspective. They see their future in “The Dome” and have already signed a corresponding preliminary contract with the planned operating company. Stefan Krämer now expects “all parties to support the hall project at the airport with the utmost urgency so that our future is secured. Because whoever is now against The Dome, is at the same time against a modern multifunctional arena in Frankfurt and thus also against ice hockey in Frankfurt ”, said the managing partner of the“ Löwen ”.