Wattens council rejection sparks dispute over WSG Tirol stadium
Saturday 15th August 2026 on 14:15 in
Austria
The rejection of a guarantee for the expansion and renovation of WSG Tirol’s football stadium has sparked a dispute in the market town of Wattens, ORF reported. Opposition parties have jointly criticised the club’s response, while Mayor Lukas Schmied said talks were needed.
The dispute follows a press conference on Friday at which WSG sporting manager Stefan Köck expressed strong disappointment that the municipal council had rejected the guarantee for the project on Tuesday. Schmied responded with a detailed statement, saying, “Positive emotions belong on the football pitch, but boundaries were crossed here.” He said he wanted to resolve the issue in a personal meeting.
WSG Tirol is currently modernising the Wattens stadium to bring it up to top-flight standards. The project is expected to cost more than six million euros.
The ÖVP, FPÖ, SPÖ and MFG, which supported the guarantee, said the information available had been unclear. They said concerns about the use of taxpayers’ money should be taken seriously, but that after carefully weighing the opportunities and risks, they had clearly backed the proposal.
The opposition parties pointed to what they described as clear benefits for the municipality. These included an additional 80,000 euros in annual revenue from new parking spaces financed by WSG. They also cited the stadium’s “future value”, arguing that the modernised facility would become municipal property because WSG only leases the land.
WSG has played home matches at Innsbruck’s Tivoli stadium for years. Its average attendance of 1,975 in the 2025-26 season was by far the lowest in the league.
Despite the council’s decision, WSG plans to continue with the renovation. “We will definitely continue building the stadium,” Köck said, adding that the club would arrange the necessary guarantee elsewhere.
The relationship between WSG and the municipality appears to have suffered from the recent tensions. Köck told ORF Tirol that the club was not seen as a major employer contributing value to the municipality. He said the registered office of WSG’s professional company could be moved to a neighbouring municipality, where it would pay municipal tax.