Australian Sports Foundation report on coronavirus’ cost on community clubs

A report by Australian Sports Foundation has revealed the cost of coronavirus on community sports clubs.

AUSTRALIA’S community sporting organisations have lost an estimated $1.56 billion to date due to coronavirus.

That is one of the key findings of a report released today by the Australian Sports Foundation, which ran a survey across the country to gauge the impact of coronavirus on community sports clubs.

About one quarter of survey respondents cited organisational solvency as a major challenge going forward.

The report found that Australia’s community sports clubs — estimated to number 70,000 — needed funding support of about $1.2 billion to survive the effects of the virus.

“Our survey shows that without financial support thousands of community clubs risk insolvency in the months ahead which presents a real risk to the physical and mental health of our communities,” said ASF chief executive Patrick Walker.

“To solve a problem of this scale requires a collaborative approach, so we are calling on all who cares about the role of sport in creating healthy, inclusive communities to help us fund grassroots sport’s recovery.”

The survey, which opened for five weeks from May 19 to June 22, attracted 4337 responses from 4127 organisations, covering 99 different sports. Ninety-one per cent were community sports clubs, which the report focuses on.

Of the responses, 370 came from Australian rules organisations, ranking second only to soccer with 444 responses, while there were 189 responses from netball organisations.

The report found financial losses to date, an ongoing decline in revenue and increase in new costs post-COVID, such as cleaning, put the sustainability of clubs at risk since many did not have cash reserves to take a prolonged financial hit.

Other concerns such as the ability to retain participants and volunteers were also expressed by respondents.

Wodonga Bulldogs, which plays football and netball in the Ovens and Murray league, was one of the clubs that took part in the survey.

Club treasurer Rod Damm, who is also a club trainer, said concerns of the mental wellbeing of their young players had been discussed at the club.

He said while some costs such as umpire and affiliation fees, and trainers and players payments did not apply because of season cancellations, others such as ground leases and bills still needed to be paid.

He said the club would be focused on retaining its players for next year and how it could ramp up interest among the group.

“The biggest concern we have at this stage is the retention of kids going forward, and the impact it has on the social aspect,” he said.

“Financially, from our sponsorship side of things, those sponsors that are paid up for this year have really had no return for their money. It’s going to be difficult to get them back on board next year and provide the sponsorship dollars that we rely on to keep running, and I think everyone is going to be in that same boat.”

But Damm said it could also be “resetting country Victoria football back to where it should be”.

“Getting it back to where country footy used to be is you played for a club, you played for a jumper, you didn't play for the money,” he said.

“The AFL is looking at downsizing salary caps next year — which is going to put a few clubs in a quandary and it’s probably going to have a lot of players questioning whether they play for the money or they play for the social aspect and play for their team

“It’s also going to be difficult to recruit high-profile players or coaches. But in saying that it’s probably long due to have that reset.”

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