“The crisis will not jeopardize the existence of sports clubs as existentially as it does with culture,” said Achim Könneke, the previous cultural, school and sports officer. Nevertheless, some clubs in Würzburg can go down the drain. This was the result of a survey by the Bavarian State Sports Association (BLSV), the results of which the city of Würzburg has requested from the local clubs. She received an answer from 14 of the more than 100 eligible associations. The city will then do a second, more precise survey, with hopefully more response, after Pentecost, so that in an emergency it can also make individual contact with the clubs in need.
On March 16, the sports facilities and club homes had to close. Since then, all sports on offer have been suspended. For the clubs, this meant enormous loss of earnings in the area of leases, entrance fees and other income from home games, courses and rentals of venues. In addition, clubs, especially those with high fluctuation, fear a loss of membership, which will only take effect at the beginning of the new year. Only now the easing allows easy operation and the club homes that are hosted are allowed to open again.
Average five-figure damage per club
More than 40,000 members play sports in over 100 clubs in Würzburg. The importance of the clubs for the city is therefore not negligible. The statistics show that every club in Würzburg currently expects damage of almost 40,000 euros. Sports office manager Jens Röder emphasized, however, that these are estimates of the clubs.
There will not be a universal solution for all clubs, since each club is different and the problems arise in different areas. Means: One club lacks the audience revenue, another the course income and a third club the revenue from the rental of the sports facilities, especially tennis and squash courts are affected. “There is no such thing as the typical sports club,” explains Röder. In particular, the size of the clubs should be noted here. “The classic club with 200 to 400 members and one or two departments is coming through the crisis.”
Compromise when using the hall
The doubled association fee of the Free State, which is expected to be paid in August 2020, also helps here. The city of Würzburg has also decided to pay 55 percent of the sports funding to relieve the pressure on the clubs. The rest of the money will follow in July or August.
However, all these measures would not help the clubs much if they could not use the school gyms in the city even after the following easing. The reason for this is that these are corona-dependent and are used by schools as classrooms or for afternoon care. “Here I ask to compromise,” said Röder in the committee. If a hall is used as a classroom or for final exams, this is certainly understandable. Nevertheless, 11,000 young people are looked after in the clubs who are dependent on the use of the hall. If the hall is used for afternoon care, it can still be used by clubs in the evening, according to Röder.
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