Govt cash splash to help keep sport alive

The sports industry has been thrown a $265 million lifeline to help it survive the fallout from the Covid-19 crisis.

The focus of the package is to help the sector survive the initial impact, which saw every sport cancelled and funding dry up, rebuild with new models and more collaboration and modernise to survive into the future.

In a post-Budget announcement yesterday, Sports Minister Grant Robertson said the package would support sports at all levels to “remain viable, get stronger and adapt”.

The sports and recreation sector contributed about $5 billion a year to New Zealand’s GDP and employed more than 53,000 people, Robertson said.

The $265m package over the next four years will be broken into:

● $83m in short-term support to help sport and recreation organisations at all levels get through the initial impact of Covid-19.

● $104m to help the sector rebuild in the medium term. This includes helping national and regional organisations make changes to operate successfully and support new operating models and more collaboration.

● $78m to modernise the sector by finding innovative ways of delivering play, active recreation and sport by using new technology and research.

Robertson said Covid-19 meant much of the sector’s funding had dried up and put sports under “immense strain”, particularly at a community level.

Professional sports and athletes weren’t immune to the fallout. Competitions across the board had been cancelled or postponed because of social distancing restrictions and closed borders.

At a hearing of the Epidemic Response Committee this month, various sports bodies expressed concern that women’s leagues and community sport would be the first to go.

Netball NZ chief executive Jennie Wyllie said the rebuild provided the opportunity to address the “systemic underinvestment” worth hundreds of millions of dollars in women’s sport and reset the funding model that depends on gambling proceeds.

“New Zealand should not squander this chance to address the systemic inequities across sport,” Wyllie said.

Robertson yesterday said funding would be provided across all three focus areas to support women’s sport and groups under-represented in sport, such as people with disabilities, Ma¯ori and those from low socioeconomic groups.

Sport New Zealand and High Performance Sport New Zealand would work closely with sport organisations and professional teams and clubs to ensure the new funding was allocated “fairly and appropriately across the system”, Robertson said.

“This funding will get sports from community clubs to elite level athletes back up and running.”