Amateur sport is a social good.
In education
(whether primary, secondary or tertiary) and throughout life, amateur sport (based around the
pursuit of games which by definition exist for enjoyment through active
participation, as a player, supporter or volunteer):
- provides valuable lessons
on social interaction;
- builds social cohesion (creating community links between
those with common sporting interests);
- establishes goals and boundaries (within
which individual and team goals can be attained);
- teaches strategies to deal
with adversity and human frailty; and
- develops strategies to achieve collective
outcomes, (particularly in the case of team sports).
Amateur sporting
clubs have traditionally provided the framework for these benefits to be
developed, maintained and progressed from childhood, through adolescence and into adult life.
Among other
purposes, amateur sporting clubs have existed as a means to:
- organise games in
a safe, structured and competitive way;
- efficiently raise funds for this
purpose;
- maintain a set of rules around participation in an egalitarian and
meritorious manner; and
- create a safe environment in which social interaction
outside of the game can occur.
Increasing
professionalism in many New Zealand traditional sports has changed the purpose of
participation for many, particularly younger people, creating new incentives
(for those in pursuit of a sporting career) and new disincentives (for those
with life and career aspirations outside of sport).
In New Zealand,
professionalism has been primarily experienced in traditional sports, but is
certainly not exclusive to newer sports, where (to date) youth (in particular)
have gravitated to realise the benefits of participation without the
pressure of performance, selection, ranking and the associated impedance on the
other aspects of their lives.
Many sports currently preferred by today's youth are
those where, the weight of performance expectation is least and where the
opportunity for fun is perceived to be greatest. However the current state (for any sporting code) is not necessarily synonymous with its future state.
An unintended
consequence of increased professionalism has been seen in a marked drop-off in
participation rates in traditional sports and membership of sporting clubs,
where the arm and reach of professionalism is strongest, resulting in
traditional organisational frameworks coming under pressure and different
models being considered or created.
With
justification, people will question the purpose of becoming the member of a
club whose goals are not considered to be aligned to their own and where
organisational strategies are increasingly focused on creating achievement at
the elite level.
In this regard,
many amateur sporting clubs have fallen (or are falling) victim to the
conveyor-belt of professional elitism, with their core purpose becoming more
closely aligned to commercial goals. In doing so, they are
losing the fundamental connection to their local communities and the core
values on which they were formed.
It is tempting to propose that the "old world" is no longer valid and that a "brave new
world" is required. That may be a mistake, in that the organisational structure
of sport should not define its value proposition. Rather, it may well be an
organisational failure in maintaining the core sporting values on which the sporting organisation was formed.
In that respect,
an amateur sporting club is an organisational expression of the participant’s
desire to participate, with the benefits previously outlined. An organisational
framework is a mechanism for delivering these benefits, but must not become a
barrier to maintaining core values and increasing participation.
With the above thoughts and philosophy in mind, the New Zealand Amateur Sport Association Inc. was formed at a
meeting of Founding Members on Wednesday, 26 April 2017, in the Scott Room of
the Wellesley Boutique Hotel, Maginnity Street, Wellington, New Zealand.
The resolutions to
incorporate and adopt the draft Constitution were unanimously agreed by those
present, with the result that the Association was formally incorporated as the
New Zealand Amateur Sport Association Incorporated (2669211) under the
Incorporated Societies Act 1908, on 28 April 2017.
This is not the
first time that an Association for amateur sport has been formed in Australasia.
A century ago,
amateurism and professionalism in sport had an adversarial relationship.
In 1908, the
Australian Amateur Sporting Federation was formed on the basis of separating
athletes into two specific non-associated groups, with an “amateur” defined as
“one who never competed for money, whether in the form of a prize, stake, bet,
or declared wager, or knowingly competed against a professional, or taught,
pursued, assisted, or practised any athletic exercise as a means of livelihood,
or for pecuniary gain.”
The New Zealand
Amateur Sports Federation was formed in 1913, observing that “the difference
between a professional and an amateur was that one entered into sport for the
pleasure of the game, and the other was there to get what he could get out of
it.”
The formation of
the New Zealand Amateur Sport Association does not renew that historical
debate, given that amateurism and professionalism now co-exist across a number
of sporting codes enjoyed by New Zealanders.
Rather, in the
current era, the concept of an association to represent the interests of
amateur sports people is not unique, with a number of organisations globally, championing amateur
interests.
Among other goals, the New Zealand
Amateur Sport Association has been formed to:
- advocate, promote and support the role of amateur sporting clubs in fostering the growth of vibrant New Zealand communities;
- ensure the status, rights and well-being of youth considering professional sporting careers are well considered and represented; and
- encourage all professional sporting codes to maintain appropriate and distinct development pathways, incentives and recognition for their amateur participants.
“We see professional sport, but we live
amateur sport.”