State Sporting Organisations (SSO’s) in Queensland understand the value of sport within the community.
Sport develops friendships, social skills, teamwork and connectedness. Sport provides significant physical and mental health benefits and most importantly it builds strong communities. The games and teams we follow weave us passionately together, in times of celebration and hardship.
Queensland is a fiercely and proudly competitive sporting state. We love our sport which means we have many opportunities, as different codes vie for participants, volunteers, funding, commercial partners and more.
However, these tensions have been cast aside in Queensland as the SSO’s representing tennis, football, rugby union, netball, basketball and cricket unite to ensure that buoyant structures remain solid to organise future activity across all sports in Queensland following the current postponement of sport due to the COVID-19 crisis.
Millions of people around the world live and breathe sport and those who take to the pitch or court each weekend are feeling the effect of this unprecedented postponed period.
As the COVID-19 crisis continues to unfold, the financial impact on sport is expected to extend far and wide with clubs, associations and governing bodies alike now confronting a new reality.
Netball Queensland Chair Jane Seawright said, “Grassroots sports have historically been forced to adopt a bottom-up approach to funding whereby registration fees account for a large portion of the dollars injected into the game.
“Netball Queensland has been planning and investing in the 2020 season since last year on the premise that the governing body fees will be paid and collected. Membership fees enable us to support our network of clubs, coaches, officials, umpires and volunteers.
“Membership fees cover a range of essential services and programs which we continue to deliver now. We remain committed to getting back on court later this year once restrictions are lifted, and our communities will need the benefits of sport as we recover from COVID-19.”
All sports have stood strong and united in their support for measures imposed by government to slow the spread of COVID-19, and the health and wellbeing of all participants and the broader community will continue to be the number one priority for all.
Football Queensland President Ben Richardson said, “Sport plays a pivotal role in the health and wellbeing of millions of people across the state; it is crucial that SSO’s survive this crisis for sport to have future platforms to launch from to reactivate sport in Queensland, which is essential to having a happy, healthy and safe community.”
Queensland sport is an eco-system, operating at the amateur, semi-professional and professional levels; each one engages a unique, extensive spread of service providers who stand to suffer amid these extraordinary economic circumstances.
Tennis Queensland President Warwick Nicol said, “Sporting clubs play an influential role in keeping communities alive and thriving; if there is to be organised sport for people to return to post COVID-19, these local sporting communities are going to have to contribute in some small way, or the sporting landscape will look very different and the clubs and volunteers that we have all come to appreciate will not be there in the future.”
The aforementioned sporting organisations will be working together to assist government to ensure they can help reactivate sporting opportunities following the COVID-19 crisis that are both available and affordable to all Queenslanders.
The role of QSport is acknowledged as the representative body of over 70 SSO’s in Queensland, advocating in discussions with the Government on assistance to ensure the sustainability of state and local sporting structures through and beyond the current COVID-19 impacts.
