Valentijn Duijser, chairman of MHC Roden, is left with many questions after the meeting. He wants clarity. “We need a good club building and two playable fields. We have prepared a proposal, namely that of the Beukenhof location. We are also open to other suggestions, but something has to be done.”
Duijser fears that there will be another year of meetings about a possible bundling with VV Nieuw-Roden and VV ONR. Those football clubs also have a housing issue. ONR is fine in its current location, but the municipality wants to build there.
Leonie Hummel spoke on behalf of ONR to express her dissatisfaction with the municipality’s plan to have ONR play on the grounds of VV Roden. That would then become one sports cluster together with the Ice Club Roden, Groningen Athletics and the racing pigeon club De Snelle Thuiskomst.
An investigation by engineering firm Sweco, commissioned by the municipality of Noordenveld, would show that all these associations fit on the site of VV Roden. VV Roden doubts that, just like ONR. “Our G-team was not taken into account in the study,” says Hummel. “In addition, we would go from four to one full field. That while VV Roden alone already has 900 members. We will then run out of space.”
Hummel asks for ‘room for growth and for our G-department’. “We don’t want to be squeezed out.”
The city council underlines Hummel’s argument and asks the council to take another critical look at the merger of various clubs on the VV Roden site. Council member Astrid Westra (CDA) asked for clarity for ONR and MHC Roden, who have been waiting for perspective for a long time. It even means that investments in the accommodations are being postponed, because it is not clear how useful that is.
In the meantime, she sneered at clubs that, in her eyes, keep coming up with plans as ‘a kind of Caterpillar Never Enough’. “That while they already received a substantial contribution in the previous round of the ISAP.”
At the end of a long discussion it was clear that Tennis Association REO and Football Association Veenhuizen can look forward to energy-saving measures. Speedcentre Roden will probably get new boarding poles and a safe separation for the public.
The meeting must have felt like a disappointment to the sports clubs in Roden-Zuid and Norg. No nails have been hit and decisions will only take place after the summer.