Investing in Sport Background Information

SPARC (Sport and Recreation New Zealand) is the crown agency for sport and recreation in New Zealand. SPARC has an annual budget of $50 million of which $16 million will be spent investing in sport to support the aims of SPARC’s mission: to be the most active nation to have the most effective sport and physical recreation systems to have athletes and teams winning consistently in events of significance to New Zealanders.

Partnership Approach SPARC acknowledges that national sports organisations have the responsibility for developing all aspects of their code, and regards them as the primary deliverers of sport in New Zealand. SPARC will invest funds and resources in organisations that have the capacity to deliver their own programmes and to achieve the goals of SPARC. This investment will be negotiated with sports on the basis of their own strategic and high performance plans.

SPARC will focus on investing in sport. SPARC will achieve this by:

Being more than a funding agency: SPARC will offer the following services to sports: Financial investment Advisory services Information and research Advocacy and policy advice Training and development opportunities Access for selected sports organisations to the regional academy network of support services to sport

Offering flexible timelines SPARC recognises that sports have different timetables depending upon their season, planning cycles and financial year. Investing in Sport will encourage sports to set their own timetable for submitting their application to tie in with their organisation’s needs.

Providing longer term support Participation and Performance sports will be able to access funding for a 2-4 year period. Previously all sports had to reapply for support annually. This will enable sports to better plan for their development over time.

Creating Support Categories Each sport will be allocated into one of four categories according to their ability to achieve the outcomes of SPARC’s mission statement. The categories are: Recognition Development Participation Performance For full definitions of the categories refer to Investing in Sport on www.sparc.org.nz

Additional funds to ensure success: To ensure that SPARC supports potential Olympic and World Championship medallists across all sports several funds are available for high performance athlete and coach development: Personal Grants – High Performance athletes who meet specific criteria will be able to access funding to offset the expenses related to training and intentional competition not otherwise covered by their national sports organisation or the New Zealand Academy of Sport. Prime Minister’s Scholarship – education scholarships available to selected high performance athletes to assist with the cost of tertiary education. Campaign Funding – will be invested to ensure that potential Olympic medallists or World Champions are adequately supported where the athlete’s national sports organisation is unable to provide support or is ineligible for high performance funding.

Points to note: Funding for Sport Development to all national sports organisations will be retained at least at the same level until the end of 2003. An appeals process will be in place for sports that wish to appeal the category they are placed in Performance and Participation sports will be invited to present their case for investment to SPARC Priority sports will also be allocated a category and will be required to meet with SPARC to present their strategic plans and negotiate funding and/or support. Sports that wish to defer their funding timetable until 2003 will receive transition funding based on their current levels of funding. Performance sports will be eligible to receive services from the New Zealand Academy of Sport network.

The full Investing in Sport document can be downloaded from the SPARC website at http://www.sparc.org.nz

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