Jul 6, 4:20 PM
Saas-Grund ice rink vote leaves a costly shell hanging in the valley
Voters in three Valais municipalities rejected a deficit guarantee for the nearly finished hall, and the financing plan has now been withdrawn.
A nearly finished building, a higher bill than promised, and then a local no at the ballot box: it is not exactly the sort of sequence that inspires confidence in public project management. In the Saas Valley in Valais, the voters of Saas-Grund, Saas-Balen and Saas-Almagell rejected a deficit guarantee for the ice rink in Saas-Grund on Sunday, leaving the project in limbo.
Turnout was close to 90 percent, which suggests the matter was anything but a sleepy municipal footnote. Around 60 percent voted against the proposal. Alwin Venetz, the municipal president of Saas-Grund, said he was at least relieved that all three municipalities rejected the plan in the same way. That may be cold comfort, but in local politics even that counts as harmony.
The hall is tied to EHC Saastal, which needs an ice rink to keep playing in the first league. The original idea was a new sports and event hall backed financially by the three municipalities. Until now, the club had played on the natural ice rink in Saas-Almagell or in a hall further away. Construction began in 2024, with costs initially estimated at CHF 10.5 million.
Then came the familiar part of the story. The budget was no longer enough, and the figure rose to CHF 14 million. The three main creditors of the new hall — a bank, a construction company and an electrical services provider — said they were prepared to cover the additional millions. But they attached conditions, among them an annual deficit guarantee of CHF 200,000 from the three municipalities.
Venetz said that would have been an acceptable path from the municipality’s point of view. The voters disagreed, and that is rather the end of the matter for now. The municipality says it knows of no plan B, C or D, though it still hopes a solution can be found for the hall. Responsibility for what happens next, Venetz said, remains with the builder, meaning EHC Saastal.
On Monday, no one at EHC Saastal could be reached for comment. The creditors, for their part, said in a statement that they had taken note of the rejection and would withdraw the jointly developed solution for completing the ice rink. That leaves Saas-Grund with an awkward question familiar to many public projects: who, exactly, is meant to tidy up once the money runs out?
Written by Martina Kirchner martina.kirchner@alpineweekly.com
