End to hand-outs: Business plan for sports funding

Under a new funding model proposed by Olympic chiefs, the government would invest in sports rather than just provide hand-outs.

Olympic chief Matt Carroll has pitched a deal to the Government that would see sports have to submit a “holistic business plan” to secure funding, radically overhauling the traditional method of “hand-outs”.

Carroll, supported by Commonwealth Games CEO Craig Phillips and fellow sports leaders, has already met with Treasurer Josh Frydenberg, Sports Minister Richard Colbeck and Labor’s sports spokesman Don Farrell to float the new funding blueprint, which could monumentally change the way sport is financed in Australia.

“What we are proposing is that sports would put a business plan together, as you would do for a bank or investors, and present that to the government,” Carroll, chief executive of the Australian Olympic Committee, told The Australian. “And the government would fund a sport holistically; they’d fund their participation, their pathways and their performance.

“Rather than what is happening now via Sport Australia and the AIS — and this is not knocking Sport Australia because this is the process they have had to deal with — which is, ‘Oh, here‘s the money for a participation program and here’s another bit of money for a pathway’ and that’s only for two years.”

“This is a holistic funding blueprint, which will allow sports to invest over a four-year period.”

“It is time for a change. We believe this is just a better way of doing things.”

The AOC and the Commonwealth Games Australia — as well as key sporting officials — believe the new investment framework will mean sport can be funded more “holistically”, from its grassroots to the elite level.

It would encourage sports to seek more corporate support and be more financially minded. In turn, Carroll believes this model will address the national obesity crisis with more focus and arrest the drop in the number of people taking part in organised sport.

And the switch from a two-year cycle to funding for four-year periods will, they say, provide more certainty for sporting organisations.

“Sporting bodies like Swimming Australia will show how they aim to get corporate support and membership fees,” Carroll said. “They will present as a total business, so in turn the government is investing in their business to get the outcomes. But the outcomes must be measurable.”

Carroll believes the organisations’ new blueprint will also help counter the booming sports industries of the AFL, cricket and the NRL — who snap up potential female Olympians now more than ever.

“There’s a fair bit of competition now for female talent with the AFL, cricket and others, which is fine, but for the Olympic sports they’ve got to be able to compete in that space,” Carroll said.

Over the past six years — as participation investment has decreased from $23.7m to $16.9m — so have the numbers in sports participation.

Currently, Sport Australia and the AIS distribute funding over the shorter two-year period and the way funding has been distributed is with less “big-picture” intent.

Carroll has already informally consulted with Sport Australia chair and leading businesswoman Josephine Sukkar on the framework and this Friday sporting chiefs will take part in a roundtable discussion in Sydney to finetune the design.

Carroll will also meet formally with Sport Australia chief executive Kieran Perkins in early May.

Carroll said funding-wise, it was vital that sports shift away from the “mendicant mindset” to capitalise on the country’s run to the 2032 Brisbane Olympics and in turn improve the overhaul health of the nation.

“Sports are now fully integrated businesses and they need holistic funding support as distinct from a straitjacket of programs,” Carroll said.

“Because what’s been happening over the years and is not the fault of Sport Australia/AIS is that they’ve had to develop a model based on what funding is available … the only way to sort of increase funding for some sports is to take it away from others.

“The other issue has been that the outlook has been short-term, two years of programs where the sports can’t develop their own capability and capacity to improve their businesses. (Under the new blueprint) sports can build their businesses and perhaps get funding for or develop funding opportunities from others as distinct from just government. So what we’re putting together certainly gets away from what I call the mendicant mindset of the hand-out.”

The new funding proposal stems from the AOC and CGA’s submission to the Federal Government’s 2021 Intergenerational Report.

Between the two organisations, they have a total of 49 member bodies and around 13 million participants and their submission, titled Sport: Powering Australia’s Future (10+10), sets out the basis for the development of the new investment model.

The CGA and AOC report quotes research that shows the Australian sports industry “provides direct economic, productivity and volunteering benefits to a total economic value to the national economy of approximately $83bn annually, returning to Australian communities at least $7 for every $1 invested”.

“The Government must adopt a fundamentally new and different approach to harnessing the power of sport in meeting Australia’s generational challenges,” the report reads.

“The Sport Investment Framework needs to be redefined so that it recognises sports’ highly integrated operations – Participate, Perform, Promote and Provide, and that these need to be implemented in a holistic business plan so sports can develop their capability and capacity to deliver Sport 2030 and their own business outcomes in participation, pathways and performance.”