Wellington councils risk pushing young people out of team sports, as they make sports codes, teams and schools bear the burden of funding sports ground and facility maintenance.

The region’s five councils are placing pressure on financially stretched families by charging high fees to schools for the upkeep of sports grounds and facilities. We want council charges to sports codes, teams and schools reviewed, and ultimately, reduced.

Affordable Sports for Greater Wellington has been unable to ascertain why sports codes are funding up to 60 percent of the cost to maintain grounds which are also used by the general public. Councils say they charge codes, clubs and schools only about 15 percent of what it costs to own and maintain the facilities. But, in at least one case, we have calculated a Council charges the same fee for using a public sports turf as an organisation that charges 100% of the cost of a privately owned turf.

The end result is that, for football, $99 of Capital Football $171 player sub is paid to councils. This just doesn’t compute.

In school sport the issue is most stark when we compare the costs of delivering our competitions using school facilities versus council facilities. For example, a school basketball team playing their games in school gyms pays $40 for the season. School teams that play at one of the large council venues pay roughly $450 for the season. That’s a ten-fold increase because of the costs passed on from councils.

At a time when families are under increasing pressure from the rising cost of living, it isn’t fair to make them pay the lion’s share of maintenance costs on grounds that are used by many for activities other than sports. On top of the competition fees, councils also charge extra to train at the facilities.

Sports are vital in creating healthy bodies, and healthy minds. Sport plays a vital part in mental health, and creating social connections. Councils should be supporting their residents to get active, rather than placing barriers in front of them.

Karen Morgan, Taita College principal, thinks sports are becoming too expensive for many families. “We want as many young people as possible to be able to access sports and push play in different settings, by removing any barriers that may make it harder for some to access,” she says. “Forcing families to bear the cost of maintaining sports facilities is putting sport out of reach for many; we all want to keep our young people active, and involved in sport; this is having the opposite effect.”

Affordable Sports for Greater Wellington wants transparency over the huge variation in fees and different models used by each council to calculate how costs are passed on. We’re asking Wellingtonians to get behind the campaign, and vote for the growing list of candidates in the October Council elections who support a review.

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