Today, top athletes like skier Nicole Good from Pfäfers travel to the indoor ski centers in Germany and France in summer to train. In future they should be able to stay in their home country: A new type of indoor snow sports facility is to be built in the Hagerbach trial mine in Flums. "The aim is to enable top athletes to live, train and work in the Sarganserland-Werdenberg area," explains initiator Markus Bonderer. He is a member of the St. Gallen cantonal council and president of the Campus Ostschweiz association in Sargans for winter and outdoor sports. The project is part of the "Sportvision Ost" project. In cooperation with the canton of St. Gallen, a campus is to be built in the Sargans area in addition to the winter sports facility in Flums.  In parallel, the NetzwerkSport association will realise a summer and indoor sports facility on the Gründenmoos site in St. Gallen. This will provide Eastern Switzerland with a national sports centre inspired by Magglingen in Western Switzerland and Tenero in Southern Switzerland. Cooperation with the National Olympic Committee Swiss Olympic and the Liechtenstein Olympic Committee is planned. Concrete exchanges with these associations are already in progress.

Sportvision Ost: optimally supporting competitive athletes

The aim of Sportvision Ost is to promote sports talent and make life and training easier for competitive athletes in their home country.  The project provides for innovative infrastructure, complementary competence centres and tailor-made educational offers. Thus, sports associations are to develop centres of excellence according to their requirements and needs. Professional athletes will receive support from doctors, psychologists, coaches and nutritionists in so-called competence centres. The educational offers should be adapted to the needs of professional athletes at all levels in order to limit the double burden. The canton of St. Gallen has allocated CHF 250,000 for a feasibility study. This should analyse how the sports performance and competence centres and the special educational coordination can be implemented in the Sarganserland-Werdenberg and St. Gallen area. The first results should be available in September 2021.

Snow sports facility inside, instead of on the mountain: innovative, ecological, flexible

In the Sarganserland-Werdenberg area, the intention is to build an indoor snow sports facility in the Hagerbach trial mine in Flums. This should benefit both competitive and popular sports. It will offer training opportunities for cross-country skiing, biathlon, alpine skiing and bobsleigh. The facility is to be realised with due consideration for the environment and is to offer all-season training opportunities at constant conditions. The snow sports facility would allow the simulation of different weather and slope conditions and would allow year-round sporting events.

Sarganserland-Werdenberg as the perfect base for the Sports Centre East Swiss

"Due to its geographical location, the Sarganserland-Werdenberg area is a very suitable base for a sports centre in Eastern Switzerland," says Markus Bonderer from Campus Eastern Switzerland. Within an hour, all the important reference points such as Zurich, St. Gallen, Davos or Lenzerheide can be reached by public transport or by car. "Thanks to the proximity to other cantons and countries, a radiance far beyond the cantonal and national borders is guaranteed". According to Christoph Gull, the significance for the region and the municipality is enormous. The President of the Sarganserland-Werdenberg region and the municipality of Flums played a decisive role in shaping the project. "The winter sports centre is a flagship project that will make the Sarganserland-Werdenberg region even better known," Christoph Gull is convinced. The attractiveness of the living, working and business location is increasing. "In order to further develop the area economically and to counteract the lack of skilled workers, it is in our interest to attract people from outside the area, who move to our area to work and live here".

Summer sports facility planned on the Gründenmoos

A step further than the project in Sarganserland is the project in the city of St. Gallen. The NetzwerkSport association has been awarded the contract for an interim use of the Gründenmoos sports facility until 2025. In addition to regular operations, the long-term development of the area is now being examined in cooperation with Sportfeld Gründenmoos AG, the city and the canton of St. Gallen. Concrete plans include a six-part hall with two handball courts and areas for tennis, floorball, boxing, swinging, equestrian sports and much more. In the meantime, a pavilion on the site will enable representatives from the worlds of sport, business and education to meet. The entire "Sportvision Ost" project is supported by competitive athletes from Switzerland and Liechtenstein as well as prominent personalities from the worlds of business and education.