Sport NZ offer $25m relief package for community sport

Wednesday, 6 May 2020

Club netball and other community sport around the country is set to return on Friday. (File photo).

Sport NZ has dug into its cash reserves to offer a $25 million relief package targeted towards beleaguered community and regional sports bodies as they deal with the financial impact of Covid-19.

The sportswide shutdown has been felt acutely at club, community and regional level, with the disruption to membership fees and the drying up of class four gaming funds leaving many organisations without any income.

Last month Stuff reported on the plight of Auckland’s East Tamaki rugby club, which has produced All Blacks Eric Rush and Pita Alatini, which is now struggling to pay its power bill.

“If we don’t get footy back, then we will go under,” said club chairman Ian Toki.

Sport NZ boss Peter Miskimmin says over the past six weeks he has heard many stories similar to that of East Tamaki’s.

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Peter Miskimmin, CEO of Sport New Zealand.

“What we recognise and as time has revealed, the real hurt and real pain is coming in our communities,” says Miskimmin.

“We’re hearing anecdotally a lot that some may not survive, they can’t pay their bills, they’re in absolute survival mode.”

“Those clubs are run by absolutely brilliant volunteers, who also have day jobs and other issues to deal with in these troubled times along with trying to keep their clubs afloat.”

“Community sport is the heartbeat of our sector, that’s where it all happens, and that’s why we wanted to focus much of this money at those who are doing good in our community.”

Sport Bay of Plenty chief executive Heidi Lichtwark.

The biggest chunk of the package is made up of the Community Resilience fund ($15m), which is aimed at providing short-term relief to clubs and regional sports bodies to help them keep their heads above water during the shutdown.

The package will also include a $6m partner support fund, a $3m physical activity fund to promote sport and recreation opportunities to those most in need, and a $1m fund to support key national organisations that may not typically received Sport NZ funding, such as those working in outdoor education.

The focus on grassroots level sport follows an initial package of support to national sports bodies and regional trusts announced early last month, which guaranteed 2020 funding levels will roll over into 2021 - a commitment of $70 million.

In addition to Thursday’s announcement, the government is considering a Sport and Recreation recovery package, which is set to be announced in the Budget later this month.

The Community Resilience fund will be administered through New Zealand’s 14 regional sports trusts (RSTs), due to their stronger links to the communities. Miskimmin says while the RSTs will be provided with a clear criteria of who is eligible for the funds, it will operate on a “high trust, low compliance model”.

Heidi Lichtwark, chief executive of Sport Bay of Plenty, estimates her organisation will be allocated about $1m from the community resilience fund to divide among the region, which she believes will have a massive impact.

Lichtwark says a survey of her region revealed an average of 31 per cent revenue loss across community and regional sports bodies. Many estimated they only have enough money to stay open for four to six months.

“We’re hopeful that we will have enough money to support lots of organisations in our region and we won’t have to do a lot of picking and choosing. It is a reasonable chunk of money for a sector that is operating on pretty small budgets,” says Lichtwark.

“We won’t know until we really get into it, but we think this will be enough, I don’t think we will have to turn too many people down.”

Lichtwark says the funds will alleviate a lot of stress in the sector, so community leaders can focus on how to get sport back up and running when the government restrictions ease.

Sports organisations around the country are eagerly awaiting information about when they will be able to return to the field of play.

Miskimmin says Sport NZ is currently working with the government Covid response function, WorkSafe NZ and MBIE on clear guidelines for national, regional and community sports organisations in how to safely resume sport and recreation activities as New Zealand works its way down the alert levels.

“I don’t want to speculate what that will end up being, but level two will offer a bit more flexibility and we want to make sure we can maximise the opportunity for sport and recreation because of the importance of being physically active. The physical and mental health, the social connections that come from that are really critical,” he says.