This year, three football clubs in the municipality of Borger-Odoorn will be responsible for the maintenance of their own club building. The club building of VV Nieuw-Buinen, HOVC and SV Borger is being privatized. A building where you as an association have everything to say sounds great, but there is a lot involved.
The municipality is currently implementing old policy. “To what extent is it your job as a municipality to manage real estate? Clubs can do much more if they are privatized,” said councilor Ankie van Tongeren. But this will be an exciting change for the football clubs.
Siert van der Laan, chairman of VV Nieuw-Buinen, still has to see how it will all turn out. “If you are privatized, then as a club you bear all costs. You have to arrange everything yourself, such as maintenance. That involves a lot more work,” says Van der Laan.
VV Nieuw-Buinen has an old building with a lot of overdue maintenance. “We are of course confronted with the defects, especially if we soon have to pay for them ourselves. Now you call the municipality and it will be resolved,” says Van der Laan.
“Sources of the geothermal energy installation are leaking and there are other things,” said Van der Laan. The question remains whether these shortcomings can be remedied with the help of subsidies. The association is currently discussing this with the municipality. There is hope that the subsidy pot will be well filled. “I would of course prefer it the way it is now, but we are making the best of it. Time will tell,” says Van der Laan.
This is different at HOVC, the football club of Exloo and Odoorn, because a new sports park is being built there. “We are not dreading it yet, because we are currently still in the new construction phase,” says chairman Harold Enting. HOVC has already thought about an approach if privatization is ready.
“We want to hire a facilities manager as a volunteer,” says Enting. The new position will be filled by a well-known face within the association. “I am still chairman myself, and if I ever stop, this seems like a great position,” says Enting enthusiastically. Enting is now fully involved in the construction process and is knowledgeable.
SV Borger will be the last football club where the club building needs to be renovated. “We are first in discussions with the municipality about new construction, then we will probably discuss privatization,” said board member Henk Speelman.
According to the football clubs, plans can be made with the municipality. “Many things can be discussed. For example, we have a heat pump in our new building, if that breaks down there are investments we can fall back on,” says Enting. It is already known for HOVC how large the subsidy will be, but VV Nieuw-Buinen is still considering this.
Privatization has advantages and disadvantages for sports clubs. If management remains with the municipality, the clubs can be sure that the costs do not come from their own budget. “But soon we will have everything in our own hands. Then we can do it faster, easier and cheaper. We are also looking forward to that,” says Enting.