Inflation and rising energy prices have also arrived in the sports sector. A group of representatives of the associations convened at short notice outlined a precarious situation that clubs and officials are facing. The NPO fund is supposed to bring help.
It was the heads of umbrella organizations such as ASKÖ and Sportunion, as well as representatives of professional associations from football to tennis, from swimming to skiing, who described their situation on Tuesday during the crisis meeting in the St. Pöltner NV Arena. It was about costs that arise from the club’s own systems – such as floodlights – but also about rising rental costs, for example in swimming pools.
Karl Kukutsch, chairman of the Lower Austrian Sports Council, spoke of officials who had reached their limits: “They fought their way through two years of the coronavirus and really gave everything. Now a third year – many will not be able to hold out any longer. We fear that we will then gradually lose officials, which particularly affects the youth work. Because energy price increases are predicted to be fivefold, that alone is no longer manageable.”
Fund of 50 million euros required
In this context, State Councilor for Sport Jochen Danninger (ÖVP) called on Minister of Sport Werner Kogler (Greens) to reintroduce the NPO fund, which had helped in the CoV crisis. This time, however, in about double the amount. While around 25 million euros were distributed to the Lower Austrian sports clubs during the CoV period, it would now have to be twice as much to be able to cover the cost increases – i.e. around 50 million euros.
“I see the NPO fund as the best and most accurate way of helping clubs. If there are differences specific to the federal state or cases of hardship, we as the state of Lower Austria will compensate for this, i.e. close gaps in the funding system,” says Danninger. But the basis must be the NPO fund, according to Danninger. All representatives of the associations spoke at the round table convened at short notice on Tuesday of an acute threat to the existence of many clubs if this help were not forthcoming.