“We are not very excited about it yet,” says Peter de Jong, chairman of Asser football club Achilles 1894. He responds to the financial contribution of the municipality of Assen to limit the rent increase in the coming period. “But we trust that everything will be fine,” added the chairman.
At the beginning of this month, Asser football associations wrote a letter to the municipality with an emergency call because of the rising energy prices. The clubs fear that they will have to close their doors if no help arrives.
Assen chooses to increase the rents of municipal accommodations next year by 5 percent instead of 14.5 percent. This applies to sports associations for the first half of the year, since it has already been decided this summer not to increase the rent for the remaining months of 2022.
The limited rent increase applies to neighborhood associations and social parties for the whole of 2023. In addition, there will be a contribution towards the energy costs of sports clubs and social organisations.
According to De Jong, the effectiveness of the limited rent increase stands or falls with the amount of the promised compensation for energy costs. “If they are going to reimburse everything above the energy ceiling, it’s fine,” he says. “But we have to wait and see how it plays out.”
“I appreciate the contribution from the municipality, but I regret that the rents are being increased,” says Roelof van de Berg, chairman of Asser football club LTC. He had hoped that rents would be frozen.
“We are going into the red with the current energy prices, and with the rent increase we are going even deeper into the red. We can keep that up for a while, but it is not sustainable.”
In the letter to the fire, the football clubs asked, in addition to financial compensation for the cost increase and a cautious policy regarding rent increases, for financial help to make the sports facilities more sustainable. De Jong indicates that he is still missing this in the message from the municipality. But that may come later, he thinks.
Van de Berg had also hoped that the municipality would provide more information about the plans for sustainability. “What I’m missing is what we’re going to do for the long term,” he says. “We have been talking to the municipality about installing solar panels on the roof for a long time, but that is a tough process.”