Clubs Contribution to Sport
The vast majority of community based clubs in the ACT are sporting clubs who have a charter to encourage and support sport in the community.
Sport is very much a bona fide community contribution (despite those that would argue otherwise) and is treated as such by the ACT Government’s Community Contribution Guidelines, which were confirmed by the new Gaming Machine Act.
Sport andrecreation are generally regarded as investments in socialcapital and act as preventative measures which over the medium and longer term reduce the needand demand for social welfare fundingby governments and the community.
Through the active support of clubs, Canberra enjoys one of the highest per capita participation rates in sport in Australia.
As well as the very significant infrastructure development which is evident throughout Canberra, clubs provide a wide range of sporting venues and make significant contributions to major sporting teams and to a large number of sporting organisations
In 2006/07 this support was valued at $9.3 million.
In addition, the ACT Academy of Sport is a major beneficiary of club support through the 1% (sports) levy - which is now embedded as part of the gaming tax.
ClubsACT, in our own right, are also the major sponsor of ACTSPORT’s Sportstar of the Year Awards - in 2008 it will be for the 10th year in a row.
Again these numbers understate the contributions the clubs make.
Sporting and community facilities like ovals, stadiums and bowling greens are primarily provided by clubs in the knowledge that the costs will not be recovered and, at best, there will be a low return on investment.
Private investors, for example, would baulk at investing in these types of infrastructure, but clubs do not because they have an obligation to their members and in turn the wider community.
Facilities like the Ainslie Oval, Viking Park, Belconnen Soccer Club’s McKellar complex, West Belconnen Leagues Club’s Kippax Oval, Eastlake’s Kingston Oval, Southern Cross’s Tuggeranong Basketball stadium are just a few that come to mind.
The beneficiaries include:
- club members - who have first class venues to follow their teams and be entertained
- the Government – who are relieved from the cost of providing such facilities and maintaining them, and
- the wider Canberra community - who have well-maintained and located facilities to watch sport, be entertained and to enjoy other events.
If it were not for the clubs, these facilities would have to be funded by the Government through higher taxes or not offered at all - and the Canberra community would be the big loser.
