High costs remain a ‘significant’ barrier for children participating in junior sport

Kids from low income families are being priced out of junior sports as parents fork out thousands of dollars for fees, equipment and uniforms to support their child’s activities.

Families fear their children are being priced out of junior sports, with parents forced
to fork out thousands of dollars for fees, equipment and uniforms.

A combination of classes, gear, travel and competition entry costs can push the cost of participating in a season of junior sport in NSW to more than $2500 per child.

The true cost of kids’ sport.

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And despite a major push by state and federal governments, including a recent pledge by Premier Gladys Berejiklian to double the popular $100 Active Kids voucher, the high cost remains a significant barrier for many parents.

Only 58 per cent of children from families who earn less than $55,000 play sport outside of school, compared to 73 per cent of children from families with an income between $55,000 and $174,000 and 84 per cent of children from families earning above $174,000, according to the latest AusPlay data from the Australian Sports Commission. Parents spend an average of $675.95 annually on sporting-related activities for each child up to 14 years old, AusPlay found.

Fiona Kannengiesser said it costs almost $2000 for her daughter Christie, 13, to play representative football.

The true cost of kids’ sport.

“It’s fairly expensive compared to club soccer but you want to give your child the best chance they can to achieve their goals and Christie wants to play for the Matildas,” she said.

Ms Kannengiesser said her daughter also does dancing year round, and nippers and swimming in the summer.

“I think the $100 vouchers to help pay for sport is a great idea because I used to be involved in coaching and I remember some parents really struggled to pay for (their child) to play sport,” she said.

Mandy Inglis said it costs about $400 for her daughter Killarney, 11, to play club netball, which is just one of several sport activities she participates in.

“She plays netball, (does) a lot of dancing and does girls touch league,” Ms Inglis said.

“The cost would be into the thousands, and I have a younger daughter who is also very active, which can be difficult being a single parent but having my kids in sport is extremely important to me.”

Venti for karate kids sports.

Ms Inglis, a PE teacher, said sport improved her kids’ physical and emotional health, helped them deal with stress and socialise.

Already this year 470,000 $100 Active Kids vouchers have been created and 310,000 redeemed, prompting the state government to double the value of the scheme, making two vouchers available per child from July 1.

Sport Minister Stuart Ayres said the two vouchers could be used for two separate sports, or a winter and summer season of the same sport.

“If your child plays cricket in the summer and football in winter, you can choose to use a $100 voucher to pay for cricket registration fees and then use the second $100 voucher to help offset the costs for the football season,” Mr Ayres said.

The two vouchers cannot be combined to pay for a single program costing more than $100. Sport Australia deputy general manager James Ceely said the cost of participation was an ongoing issue, but urged parents to see the expense as an investment.

Where the money goes.

“We want to embed the value of physical activity in children … yes there is a cost barrier but it’s also an investment in their future as we want them to embark on a lifelong engagement with sport,” Mr Ceely said.

More than 84 per cent of schools have signed up to the federal government’s Sporting Schools program, which provides funding to hire professional coaches to train students for free.

“There are about 400,000 students doing 50 million minutes of sport activity every term,” Mr Ceely said.

And he said S port Australia was working to reduce all barriers to kids participating in sport.

“It’s not like sporting organisations are private companies with shareholders, yes there’s money going into the sport system but we’re focused on how to make that system as efficient as possible … and drive costs down,” he said.