By Andrew Warshaw
September 23 – Voters in FIFA’s home city of Zurich have rejected plans to build a 19,000-capacity football stadium, the second time in five years that residents have given the thumbs down for a new venue.
The decision, in a referendum taken Sunday, means the city’s two main clubs, FC Zurich and Grasshoppers, will continue to use the Letzigrund stadium, originally built primarily for athletics, for their home games.
City authorities had proposed to extend credit of SFr216 million ($237 million) to build a new ground on the site of Grasshoppers’ former home Hardturm, closed down in 2007.
The following year another project to develop a new ground as a venue for the 2008 European Championships, which Switzerland shared with Austria, was blocked by local residents and legal issues.
“The city council accepts the decision but regrets that the football city of Zurich will not have an adequate arena for a very long time,” the city government said in a statement.
FIFA had initially offered to contribute SFr20 million ($21.94 million) towards the proposed stadium last year but withdrew the offer because of plans to include standing areas. The money instead went to grass-roots projects.
Environmentally-conscious Switzerland has a habit of saying no to prospective new infrastructures. In March, the country’s proposed bid for the 2022 Winter Olympics at neighboring St. Moritz and Davos was dropped when voters in the canton of Graubuenden declined to support it.
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