Take shorter showers, turn off the heating or air conditioning. This is what the measures in sports clubs currently look like to save energy and the associated costs. But that alone is not enough to keep the business going. Solutions must be found – as quickly as possible.
“Energy costs are a bigger problem than Corona”
Due to the pandemic, SG Schorndorf has already lost several hundred members. Actually, the club wanted to win them back. Instead, the membership fee for the club’s own fitness studio had to be increased and now a greater loss of members is feared. The managing director of the club, Benjamin Wahl, cannot rule out having to raise prices in other sports departments next year in order to roughly offset the increasing costs. The combination of the pandemic and rising energy prices is a burden: “One wonders where to get all this back, even if the prices have been adjusted,” says Wahl in an interview with SWR Sport.
demands on politics
In order to help the clubs, Ulrich Derad, General Manager of the Baden-Württemberg State Sports Association, calls for quick and, above all, non-bureaucratic support: “It is important to make subsidies accessible, because they exist, but they don’t help if they are not accessible”, he says. Derad tells SWR Sport about an association that asks its members to shower at home to save water. Just one example of many.
“The situation is dramatic”
One club that has helped itself is the Feuerbach Sports Association. An energy manager saves around 25 percent of previous energy costs. Nevertheless, the rising costs are also a major concern here. Benjamin Haar, managing director of the club, explains to SWR Sport: “For example, there is still the possibility of lowering the air temperature by another half a degree, but then we are in an area where it becomes really uncomfortable and at some point the risk of injury increases.” Everything that is currently technically and financially possible has been done. He can only appeal to his members to adapt their own consumer behavior: “The times when you talk for half an hour in the warm shower after exercising are over,” says Haar.
Dilemma between cost pressure and social mission
The first communities are doing away with warm bathing days. Due to the low water temperature, some swimming courses for children have to be cancelled. “Swimming is a skill that is essential for survival. There shouldn’t be any shaking on a topic like this,” says Haar with concern. Despite the cost pressure, the clubs are aware of their social mission and want sport to remain accessible to everyone. “We must not exclude socially disadvantaged people.” In the end it is clear: no sport should not be the solution.
Source: SWR