Last week, news wrote about the fact that families with children cannot afford to play sports. Tighter financial times mean that many clubs are experiencing inquiries from families who are struggling with their finances. But it is not only in children’s sports that the costs are felt. Even at the top level, it is very demanding to make ends meet. In the Bodø spectrum, around twenty players run around on the three-coloured parquet. The women’s team of IK Junkeren has just had one of the first training sessions in the season run-up to the autumn league games. But in the last couple of months, on the other hand, the players have done a lot more than log training hours with stickers on their fingers. – We have had kroner rolling, we have started Spleiser and we have gone door to door asking for deposits. We have also been picking up rubbish for many, many hours. That’s what players Trude Håkonsen and Vilde Evensen say. The Junkeren’s handball venture lacked so much money that the ladies had to go out to collect empty bottles. Here, they have received a bag with a pledge from a donor. Photo: Privat The players had to do the collection of the empty bottles – and the deposit itself – themselves. In search of sponsors, the team carved together a “rescue wall” where all companies that sponsored the team got their logos on it. Because the handball venture was about to be shut down as recently as this spring. Then began a wild scramble to survive. – All this we have done without. Most of us are either students or have a 100 percent job with the side of handball. Then it will be work first, then training and then volunteering. – Should it be like this that you have to pledge bottles in order to do top sports in Norway? – No, and I didn’t think it would be like that. I have played in the 1st division in other clubs in Norway, and I have never come across it before. But we do it for Junkeren, and we do it because we need the money, says Evensen. Before this season, Junkeren IK has had one tactic on the field and a completely different one outside. Photo: Marius Guttormsen / news Moved up – about to go bankrupt Last year, the jubilation was over the top when the Junkeren ladies moved up to the second highest level of Norwegian handball, the 1st division. While the ladies fought on the field to stay in the division, it quickly became clear that the toughest battle would take place off the field. Because the sports team had run into major financial problems. Before the annual meeting earlier this spring, there was a proposal on the table to wind up the entire top effort. The accounts showed that the club ran a loss of NOK 1.65 million, and a large part of the expenses belonged to the handball investment. Thus began a desperate battle to raise money to preserve the only handball team on the women’s side at the top level north of Levanger. This is what it looked like when the Junkeren ladies raffled off training dates to people who supported the team financially. Facsimile: Screenshot Facebook And when the club started a so-called “Tippling Challenge” in April, they raffled off training dates with an optional Junkeren lady or someone in the coaching team for anyone who contributed more than NOK 2,500. Now the Junkeren players are shouting a warning to the association that the survival of the investment is at stake. – We hope that they can make it a little easier for us to do our sport. Having so many chores is not normal. Junkeren coach Lovis Tönnies gives instructions to the players during one of the first training sessions for the season in the Bodø spectrum. Photo: Marius Guttormsen / news Have to raise NOK 700,000 each season – In the same way as all other sports teams in Norway, it is difficult to have a large investment and top investment. It costs a lot for the members and it is extremely expensive to travel, rent the hall and the track, says general manager Roy Arne Valøy in Junkeren. Because the team plays in Bodø, the team has had to travel by plane to all 25 away games this year. In addition, hotel accommodation is provided in cases where you cannot catch the last flight home. Roy Arne Valøy is general manager of IK Junkeren. Photo: Marius Guttormsen / news Thus the expenses for the club are galloping. More expensive plane tickets from northern Norway have not helped the situation either. – For the top investment in women’s handball, we have travel costs of around NOK 900,000 a year. Then we get around NOK 200,000 in support from the union. That means that we as a club have to raise NOK 700,000, continues Valøy. – How do you solve it? – It is a lot of hard work for the team to collect sponsorship income, support and, not least, donations. The highest training fee in the city of Valøy says that the investment in top sports in the club should not exceed the investment in the wider and children’s area. – No, it does not. Broad sports must be separate from elite sports, so it must be run in two different ways. But if you look at the training fees in children’s sports, Junkeren is the most expensive in Bodø. Training fees in Bodø Grand Bodø – NOK 2,500 Bodø/Glimt – NOK 3,000 Hunstad – NOK 1,400 Junkeren – NOK 3,600 The sums are based on G/J 10. For a ten-year-old, you have to spend NOK 3,600 in Junkeren. If you compare with, for example, Hunstad IL, which does not have a top sports investment, the price is NOK 1,400. – Why does it cost more in Junkeren? Is it due to the top investment? – This is due to many other factors, but top sport also plays a part. It is a little more administrative and a little more expensive to run. So there will be a bit of a difference, says Valøy. Will raise the issue at the sports council – Travel costs are something that has become a problem for several northern Norwegian clubs, says Reinert Aarhus. He is chairman of Nordland sports circle and on his way to the sports council, which will be held in Bergen this weekend. Here will have raised the issue of travel costs for northern Norwegian clubs for the sports summits. Reinert Aarseth is the chairman of Nordland sports circle and will raise the issue of travel costs at the sports council this weekend. Photo: Nordland sports circle – We now experience that northern Norwegian clubs have expenses that are far greater than other clubs in the country. It is unfair. – But the teams receive support for travel expenses. Isn’t that good enough? – I think it is not good enough, because you get class differences between the parts of the country which make it difficult for teams to participate. You cannot end up in a situation where an entire part of the country is excluded from participation in the series systems we have. Handball president: Will listen to input Handball president Kåre Geir Lio was himself a coach at Junkeren in the 1990s. He knows the situation the team has been in, but says it is the clubs’ responsibility to finance the activity and scale the level of the activity accordingly. – The travel distribution scheme is a small contribution in this context, but it is essential that it is perceived as reasonable and fair. He acknowledges that the arrangement may not be good enough. Kåre Geir Lio is handball president in Norway and was previously a coach for Junkeren in Bodø. Photo: Vidar Ruud – This scheme has been tweaked at regular intervals. But it probably has a worse expression now than it did in the early 90s. It is possible that we can discuss. He therefore welcomes a discussion in the Handball Association about how these schemes work out in practice. – If we receive an inquiry with examples of how it looks for the team, then we can discuss in the board how we can improve it. We must do that very quickly if it is crooked, intractable and unreasonable. All teams must have approximately the same conditions to participate.
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Raffled training dates and pledged bottles to save the handball team – news Nordland
