UTC Ried: New tennis courts planned

Tennis has been played on the UTC Fischer Ried facility for 51 years now. Back then, construction took place on a rubbish dump, which has made the subsoil more and more unstable over the past few years. The sand courts have repeatedly had to be “emergency sanitized” in recent years. Now there should be a breakthrough in the “new tennis courts” project. A complete new construction of the facility, as rumor has it over and over again, on the “Eisen-Wagner-Area”, is off the table.

“We’re staying at our location, that’s fixed,” says Florian Reiter, sporting director and vice-chairman of UTC Ried in an interview with OÖN. Reiter recently presented the conversion and complete renewal of the pitches to the sports committee. Both in this body and in the city council, a unanimous decision in principle was made for the city’s financial participation. “We currently have two offers on the table,” says Reiter.

The UTC sports director and Ried’s mayor Bernhard Zwielehner (ÖVP) assume total costs of around 600,000 euros. A one-third solution from the city, association and the state of Upper Austria is being sought. “The city plans to extend the total funding of 200,000 euros over several years,” says Zwielehner, adding: “The sustainable development of this location is important for the club, the city and the sport.”

According to Reiter, five clay courts and two hard courts are planned. “Our plan would be to make one of these hard courts available to schools and the general public,” says Reiter. In addition, two padel tennis courts are to be built by an external company on the UTC-Ried facility.

There is already a partner with the “Padelbase”, emphasizes Reiter, who is hoping for construction to start in autumn, or in spring at the latest. “If we could play on the new pitches in the summer of 2024, that would be a dream.”