HELP IS ON ITS WAY
Decisions over future investment in sport for the next four-year cycle have been put on hold as the government focuses on providing immediate relief to sports organisations battling to stay afloat during the sporting shutdown.
Sport and Recreation Minister Grant Robertson yesterday announced all funding from the current financial year will be rolled over into next year to ensure national sporting organisations (NSOs) can remain operational during the Covid-19 crisis.
Robertson confirmed the government is also working on putting together a recovery package for sport, which will offer more medium-term solutions to an industry that has been brought to its knees by the pandemic.
The package is expected to be announced ahead of next month’s Budget.
Robertson says it is too early to say what that package would look like, but it would encompass community sport right through to the high performance end.
‘‘I’ve had direct conversations with a number of sporting organisations. They are obviously concerned for their futures and where they fit in and what kind of support there might be.
‘‘This will give us a chance now to look at what does a sports recovery package look like all the way from grassroots and community to regional sports trusts, how we organise sports nationally and then up to our elite level as well, and we do need to take a bit of time to think about it,’’ Robertson said.
The cancellation or postponement of all sport from international, professional to grassroots competitions and the closure of community facilities due to the global spread of Covid-19 has had a massive destabilising effect on the industry.
National sports organisations in particular have lost significant revenue streams with broadcasting rights and sponsorship deals placed in jeopardy by the sporting shutdown, while income from sports betting, class four gaming and membership fees has dried up overnight.
Several major sports have already announced major cuts to its competition offerings for 2020.
Netball NZ announced last week its second-tier competition, the Beko League, which underpins the ANZ Premiership has been cancelled for 2020, along with its age-group tournaments and national open championships.
NZ Rugby followed suit this week in announcing that it was axing all provincial competitions below the Mitre 10 Cup and Farah Palmer Cup level.
These organisations have traditionally got by without major government investment, but now with their commercial revenue expected to take a major nosedive, they are in need of significant cash injections.
Robertson hasn’t ruled out support for these sports.
‘‘There’s no doubt that they’re very affected and while they’ve traditionally had good revenue sources of their own and only had small amounts of government funding go into them relative to their size, we certainly want to think about ‘what’s the shape of elite sport from here’? And that’s a pretty big question.’’
As part of the immediate financial support for national sport and recreation organisations, Sport NZ’s new four-year investment plan has been deferred so that current levels of investment remain through to 30 June 2021.
Grant Robertson