Although the renovation of the Harm Kuiper Sportpark in Odoorn was officially kicked off on Thursday afternoon, the new tennis courts are almost ready.
According to alderman Ankie Huijing, the renovation is therefore ahead of schedule. The artificial turf of the three tennis courts will be installed next week.
How fast that will go depends on the weather, says Mark Bijkerk of Bouma Sport en Groen, who is responsible for the construction of the sports fields. “The mat needs to be glued and sand still needs to be added. This must be done in dry conditions. The fencing also needs to be around it.”
Nevertheless, Bijkerk does not expect to need much longer before the work is completed. “We expect to be able to play tennis on it in two to three weeks.”
No home games for now
The Harm Kuiper Sportpark in Odoorn will be renovated this year and next year for more than 3.7 million euros. The park will have four football fields, one more than the current three, two public padel courts and three so-called smash court tennis courts. Such courses can be played in almost all weather conditions.
Alfred Rol, treasurer of Tennis Club Okko, is ‘super happy’ with the progress. “Our season had normally already started. Of course we want to lose as little of our season as possible. For the time we do miss now, we have offered our members a discount. Now that the track is almost ready, we hope to start at the end of May.”
Home games will not be played on the new courts for the time being. “We don’t have sanitary facilities yet, we are discussing that with the municipality. In order to be able to play the competition, we only have away games.”
Soccer fields tackled
Starting next week, the former training field of football club HOVC will also be taken care of. That will be the new main field. The other three fields then follow. “I’ve been doing this since 2013,” he says HOVC chairman Harold Enting . “I’m glad it’s official now, and it’s going well now.”
The sports park may be located in Odoorn, but its importance extends beyond the village limits, according to Enting. “We are an association for Exloo, Odoornerveen, Klijndijk, Valthe and Odoorn. Moreover, it is important that we can all exercise together at one sports park. Now we are still spread over the villages. That means you have three times the energy costs and need three times as many volunteers. We now also have to store them in three buildings.”
The sports park is expected to be fully ready to play from the September 2024/2025 football season.