The Zug Tennis Club will have to play on the roof

The Zug Tennis Club fears for its future. The city council wants to house the fire brigade and the services department on the club grounds in the Göbli in Zug.

The 826 members of the Zug Tennis Club (TCZ) are worried about the future of their club. Their six all-weather and three clay courts at Göbli are at risk after the Zug City Council (Stadtrat) terminated the lease as of 31 December 2025.

The city of Zug is planning to build a new fire station and services depot (Werkhof) on the current site of the Zug tennis club. It has offered the club the opportunity to build new tennis courts on the roof area of the planned buildings.

This has been met with scepticism on the part of the TCZ. "We are grateful to the city of Zug for this proposal to build a new facility on the roof of the fire station. But it’s difficult to imagine being able to realise nine courts and the necessary infrastructure on a limited area at a height of around nine metres above the ground," said club president Angelika Leemann in a press release.

Only a short time for the decision
The city has assured the TCZ of an addendum to the current building rights contract with a time-limited use until the end of 2028. But the city expects the Tennis Club Zug to confirm the use of the roof by December 2024, so that a letter of intent can be drawn up for the new construction of the planned Werkhof and fire station building, with the Tennis Club Zug on the roof.

According to TCZ media spokesperson Monika Wegmann, the time factor is an urgent problem, although finding an interim solution is just as urgent. After all, the construction is expected to take three years. "If the club members are unable to practise their sport during this time, the tennis club would be on the brink of collapse," she says. But there seems to be no interim solution in sight for the construction period.

Without such a solution, the jobs of employees such as coaches and groundsmen could not be secured, the press release continues. Juniors would have to stop training "and the Tennis Club Zug would face financial difficulties, especially as it would no longer receive membership fees", explains Monika Wegmann.

View of the nine tennis courts in Göbli                     Photo: zvg/TC Zug
Location of the tennis courts                  Printscreen, sear.ch

According to Monika Wegmann, those responsible at the TCZ are in talks with the city. However, the city has said that it has no land that could be made available. The TCZ spokesperson mentioned the so-called ‘Sportmeile’ in Herti as an alternative location. "There are six football pitches available to footballers there, and two more are to be added. The TCZ would need the space of two football pitches."

The question therefore arises as to why football is being favoured. Especially as the Zug 94 football club that is based there has fewer members than the Zug Tennis Club.

The TCZ has a large number of inter-club players, who compete with other clubs every year, while three teams even compete in the national league. In addition, over 300 children and young people train at Göbli and are supervised by a total of six coaches. From 2022 on, the Zug Tennis Club has also hosted the Challenger Tournament Zug Open, the fourth-largest ATP professional tournament in Switzerland.

The Zug Tennis Club has been in existence since 1928, and is the largest tennis club in the canton, according to a statement from the TCZ. The club has been playing at Göbli since 1976.

Zug Corporation is involved
"The city of Zug is in constant dialogue with the Zug Tennis Club. The city of Zug is also in dialogue with Korporation Zug, the largest landowner in the city, in order to find a solution together," explains André Wicki, Mayor of Zug (Stadtpräsident).

“The main concern of the city council is the efficient utilisation of the available land. Our investigations have shown that there are no other ground-level sites on municipal land," says the mayor. The city of Zug is confident of finding a solution together with the Zug Corporation.

"Back in March 2020, the city council commissioned an internal city project group to draw up a feasibility study for an operations building that combines the areas of the Werkhof, the FFZ fire brigade and the Zug Tennis Club (TCZ)," explains André Wicki.

Based on this, and with the involvement of the TCZ, an architectural firm specialising in fire brigade and Werkhof operation buildings drew up a feasibility study in 2021. "This confirmed that the necessary space could be brought together in an operations building, while retaining the TCZ space as roof use." says André Wicki. The city is convinced that the feasibility study has shown that the TCZ can maintain its operations at its current location.

Club will retain its importance
Relocating the depot and the Zug Volunteer Fire Brigade to the Göbli would open up new opportunities at the current location. For example, for the construction of apartments. "The close proximity of a new depot site to the recycling centre with the Ökihof will result in a high degree of operational synergies, including those as a result of the shared operating areas," says the mayor.

The Zug Tennis Club and tennis as a sport are very important for the leisure activities on offer in the city of Zug. André Wicki is convinced that "with its 800 members and large youth section, the club will be able to maintain its important status for club life and leisure activities in the city of Zug in the future".