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Otago Daily Times
3 days ago
- Business
- Otago Daily Times
Tide turning against clubs, codes fear
The country's sports clubs are battling mounting costs, funding issues and volunteer burnout. Reporter Adrian Seconi checks the pulse of the club scene in Otago. Sport Otago chief executive James Nation wonders whether we have reached a tipping point as sports clubs battle with rising costs and volunteer fatigue. Southern Football boss Dougal McGowan reached for the word catastrophic when describing the impact the Online Casino Gambling Bill will have if it goes ahead as proposed. Otago Rugby Football Association chief executive Richard Kinley is concerned that if the clubs cannot access adequate funding, they will have to pass on the extra costs and that could have a chilling effect on participation rates. Hockey Otago general manager Andy McLean said anything that made "funding harder to obtain was worrying". A report commissioned by the New Zealand Amateur Sport Association found national volunteer numbers had dropped 28% between 2018 and 2024. It also highlighted funding as a key issue, noting 72% of clubs were concerned about their long-term financial sustainability. Bill seen as threat The proposed Online Casino Gambling Bill looms as a major threat. If it goes ahead in its current guise, it will potentially undermine the funds available through class-4 gambling, which has propped up community sport since tobacco sponsorship was outlawed in New Zealand in the 1990s. Increased user charges for Dunedin City Council grounds and facilities have piled more pressure on clubs. It all paints a grim picture for community sport, Nation acknowledged. And neither do there appear to be many options. "Clubs are really loathe to put up their membership fees any more than they have, and so that's having an impact because all the costs for the clubs have certainly gone up," Nation said. The Dunedin City Council's sinking lid policy on class-4 gambling was starting to bite, McGowan added. "If you have a look at the types of organisations that get support from the class-4 gaming industry, it's such a broad spectrum of the community. "They help us with rent. They help us with insurance. They help us with staff salaries so that we can get staff out into the schools to support kids being active." "Without that, I think it will have such a significant effect on what it means to be a community in New Zealand." The proposed Online Casino Gambling Bill threatens to further chip away at the available pool of funds. The licensed online casinos would not be compelled to make community funding grants as the Bill stands. Former New Zealand Cricket boss Martin Snedden is leading the charge to get into the ear of the decision-makers. Submissions close on August 17 and McGowan encouraged sports organisations to engage in the process. "The flow-on effects for this could be catastrophic for community activity and sport," McGowan said. Kinley said it was important to impress upon the government the challenges "sport will face across the sector if this should be approved in its current form". "If clubs and sports can't access other forms of funding to support the community game, it'll be passed back to participants," he said. "So potentially the cost of participating in sport will increase, which is something that none of us want to see. "If we have less people participating in all sports because of financial difficulties, that could be potentially quite detrimental to society as a whole." McLean said hockey was in the same boat. "Class-4 gaming funding is really important in terms of supporting what we can deliver to the community," he said. "We want hockey to be as accessible as possible. "Anything that risks reducing the amount of class-4 funding that's available is obviously of concern ." Costs rising The other half of the battle to keep the books in balance is the rising expenses. Everything has gone up from the halftime oranges to the user charges for Dunedin City Council grounds and facilities. The latter has been quite a hike. McGowan said user charges have more than doubled since 2018. He has seen Southern Football's bill grow from $42,202 to $98,119 in 2025. It has been reluctant to pass that extra cost on to members and has instead opted to reduce the number of fields it uses to bring down the cost. Southern Football has budgeted a loss of $58,000 this financial period but that may double, McGowan said. The association cannot keep absorbing the costs. McGowan said he was going to have to have an awkward conversation with one club about its ongoing financial viability. It could lead to the club closing. He declined to say which one. Nation said the problem was widespread. "I think clubs are really having to have those conversations about their financials and how do we make sure that we are viable." Fewer volunteers The burden of helping bridge the gap between rising expenses and revenue often falls to volunteers, who are in dwindling supply. "They're there for the love of the sport and helping people out and not for the rewrite of their constitution and chasing up funding all the time," Nation said. "It's not a recipe for a great future. "I think there's a really core pool of volunteers that most clubs have. They may be ageing. "They may be struggling to bring people in. But I think the good clubs out there have got good structures in place, and they look after their volunteers, and they're doing well. "So it seems like for the level of people that are playing, it is pretty healthy across the board in Otago. "But I think there is a bit of a tipping point there ... and it's not going to take much to turn it to being a bit of an exodus." It is a gloomy assessment that Nation walked back a little by adding he does not believe the volunteer base has thinned as much in Otago as in other parts of the country. McGowan had similar thoughts. "We've got a very strong group of volunteers, some of them with considerable experience, who do an amazing job. And it's a big job now. "It's not like it used to be, where you'd just turn up on a Saturday and put the nets up. "They are running large organisations which have large cash flows. "We know our volunteers are required to do more and more, and it almost becomes like a second job for many of them. "I think it's got harder and harder, so I think we will start to see an impact on that pretty soon." Kinley said referee and coaching numbers were holding, but they did not keep statistics on overall volunteer numbers. "I would say that what I've found over the years, and this is a general comment, is that we tend to follow the things that happen in other areas of the country. "While we're holding OK, it's certainly an area that we need to focus on. I don't want us to see us following what the rest of the country has done."
Otago Daily Times
3 days ago
- Business
- Otago Daily Times
Clubs battling DCC charge increases
Higher ground and facility user charges could force a community football club to shut up shop, a Dunedin-based sports administrator says. Southern Football chief executive Dougal McGowan told the Otago Daily Times that Dunedin City Council charges have risen sharply since 2018 and the organisation is bracing itself for another price hike. Southern Football shelled out $42,202 to use the city's venues and grounds in 2018. But those costs have swollen considerably. This year, despite using six fewer fields, Southern Football was charged $98,119 and it expects the bill to climb to more than $100,000 in 2026. "You can't put the fees up to be able to cover all of that," Mr McGowan said. "It's just not possible because people can't afford to play the game otherwise." "We try to keep our game as cheap as we possibly can because ... we want to make it as accessible to everybody as we can. "But these price rises are making it really, really difficult." For one small community club in the region, who Mr McGowan declined to name, it could spell the end. "The amount we have to pay for the ground that they use ... is more than what we get from them in fees. "Next year this cost to the council will go up again for the ground usage and then lights and changing room costs on top. "So, we're going to have to have a conversation with them about maybe they might have to close. "That's a really sad indictment on what we're doing in our communities." Community sport is beset by other rising costs, and competition for funding has increased as the city's sinking lid policy on class-4 gambling starts to bite. The proposed Online Casino Gambling Bill could strip further funds from the community. But McGowan said every small increase was felt, and it was forcing administrators into making some tough decisions. "Even though we've got more people playing the game, we've had to cut the number of grounds we can use because we just can't afford it." Otago Rugby Football Union chief executive Richard Kinley said the main codes had met to discuss how they could work together to address the impact increased ground charges will have on clubs and "ultimately participants". "Most of our clubs actually operate really well, but they operate on a really fine margin," Mr Kinley said. "However, these potential impacts of fees going up and the Online Casino Gambling Bill just have more of an impact, and we know that class-4 gaming is dropping slightly anyway across the country." DCC group manager of parks and recreation Heath Ellis said staff were in contact with sports codes across the city and were always available to meet. "Councillors asked for a review of fees and charges for sports fields to ensure equity between different codes," Mr Ellis said. "Previously, some codes were paying up to 4.9% of total costs for sports field use, while others were paying as low as 3.2%. "Staff presented councillors with a table detailing the potential costs to the different codes — recovering 4% of costs from all sports field users, or alternatively 5%. "Councillors decided to consult the public on the 5% option, and later voted to confirm this amount. "Just two submissions were received raising concerns about potential increases in sports field fees." Sport Otago chief executive James Nation felt the savings to the ratepayers were minimal. "When you look at the actual money that the council's saving by going from a 4% to 5%, it's negligible in the grand scheme of things," Mr Nation said. "But the impact on an individual sports person is massive."
Otago Daily Times
30-06-2025
- Sport
- Otago Daily Times
Comments on homeless people spark feud
A Dunedin sports leader has hit back after a former mayor accused him of "punching down" against the city's homeless. Former Dunedin mayor and Otago Housing Alliance leader Aaron Hawkins made the accusations after Southern Football chief executive Dougal McGowan told the Otago Daily Times action was needed to address homeless people camping at the Oval. Mr McGowan said he and a group of people from Southern Football went to the Oval every weekend to clean up the grounds and the changing rooms before children arrived to play sports. The group picked up a variety of rubbish, including soiled clothing, needles and broken glass. In a Facebook response yesterday, Mr Hawkins said he was embarrassed at the comments. "As a fee paying member of its junior leagues, it's embarrassing to see Southern Football's leadership continue to punch down on our city's homeless whānau," he said. "If there were simple solutions we'd already have implemented them by now. "We now have a co-ordinated approach among local agencies, which is critical to getting a better understanding of the issue." Mr McGowan said "clearly" his comments were not an attack on Dunedin's homeless people, who were camped in a "river of water" during Saturday's rain. "We're just there trying to support those people ... all we're interested in [is] that they're safe, that our families are safe," he said. "This is not a beat up on those people because those people are the victims in this. The Dunedin Night Shelter did "amazing" work; it was institutions like the city, government and local MPs which had let down those living at the Oval, he said. "We can see by the comments from those in positions of power that they started blaming each other again and again, rather than doing something." "The issue has been going on for two years down there, but longer for the city. "Aaron is just another example of a politician getting sound-bites without producing results but blaming others." Mr Hawkins and any city leaders were welcome to join in collecting rubbish at the Oval on Saturday mornings, he said. When approached by the ODT, Mr Hawkins said it was frustrating seeing community leaders talk about "homeless whānau as an inconvenience to be gotten rid of". "It's not clear what Mr McGowan thinks the solution is. What does he want to happen? Have people trespassed from public grounds?" Southern Football were welcome to join Otago Housing Alliance — a collective impact network to help address critical housing needs, Mr Hawkins said. "I've already invited Dougal to attend the next of our regular hui."
Otago Daily Times
30-06-2025
- Sport
- Otago Daily Times
Logan Park turf wins Fifa award
The all-weather Logan Park turf has scored with Fifa, securing major international recognition. New Zealand Football and Southern Football have earned a silver award at the inaugural Fifa Forward Awards for member associations in Oceania in recognition of the work done to establish the facilities . Southern Football chief executive Dougal McGowan said it was an incredible honour for all the work done over the years. The turf was initially opened in 2019, but the idea to upgrade the turf was spoken about in 2012, Mr McGowan said. "There was the Fifa Forward money available for the project, which provided the base funding that allowed others to jump on board and support us." The project team eventually raised about $3 million. "That's without the calculation of people's time and energy and boards and stuff like that. "So it was a really big project, but one that involved large numbers of the community, the university, the polytech funders, other sports codes. "It was really an example of how partnership can make things happen for the community." The development delivered two all-weather artificial football pitches and a cricket wicket. The initial plan was for one football pitch, but the project expanded to two as consultation and development progressed, Mr McGowan said. "The hurdles are always about trying to make sure that people understand what's happening in a timely fashion and to see the benefits of that. "But I think right now the benefits are very plain to see for everyone — it's a massively used facility. "It's used most of the day all year round, and it has a variety of uses, both community and sports. So it's a fantastic venue and one which the city and the sporting community should be proud of." The introduction of the turfs increased accessibility to sport across a far wider range. "We all saw it over the weekend, when we had that astonishing downpour of rain — people were still able to use the artificial turfs and participate in sports. "These turfs are expensive, but what they give back to the community is amazing." New Zealand Football chief executive Andrew Pragnell congratulated Southern Football on its achievement, hard work and long-term vision to support the game in Dunedin. "Access to top-class facilities is a challenge across the game in Aotearoa, so it's important to recognise when progress is made, and that's exactly what Fifa has done with this award."
