"Cup-Noodle-Contracts" appear to be becoming a part of professional sport in New Zealand as COVID-19 financial strains start to impact the balance-sheets of sporting codes struggling to manage costs of recruiting, retaining and paying players.

Given that the prospect of earning-a-living by "playing the game" for most participants is simply illusory, perhaps more needs to be done by sporting codes to ensure that sporting youth are making the right choices in terms of their future adult lives and financial livelihoods.

$30 million will go a long way to saving community sport. One-third of the Government’s short-term support package of $83 million should be applied to a new “Kids in Clubs” programme, providing vouchers enabling children of families experiencing COVID-19 related financial hardship to join their community sports club.

The Government's $265 million Sport-Recovery-Package is a significant financial promise to sport in New Zealand. While a welcome development, what it is actually used for, how it is accessed and distributed, and who benefits, are all still largely unknown.

The impact of two World Wars on New Zealand community sport was profound. The values of sport were seen as creating the foundations of military victory, with the inter-war years seeing a flourishing of sport participation and club membership.

Over 75 years later, many of the challenges facing community sport may well require a revival of post-War values, as New Zealand society grapples with the social and financial impacts of COVID-19 on membership of, and participation in, community sports clubs.

Community clubs will need to lead the recovery of sport post COVID-19, with amateur values based on volunteers essential for organised sport’s survival. Hurricanes Chairman, Iain Potter, is in no doubt that the current crisis has emphasised the value of community sport and its importance in bringing communities back together.

Noting that 2020 is likely to be “a bit of a disaster” in terms of community rugby being played, Potter is clear that the current crisis will be a timely reminder that “rugby starts at the community level”. “The reality is that the nature of every rugby club in Wellington and the spirit of every rugby club across the country is volunteerism”. 

Is it wise to co-mingle the finances and operations of not-for-profit sport organisations with for-profit affiliates? Formal separation of entities may ensure the commercial failure of one, will not result in the community failure of the other.

Given the current financial challenges for community sport in New Zealand, the risks of “co-mingling finance and operations” are worth considering.

On both sides of the Atlantic, major sporting codes are suffering from COVID-19, with traditional commercial models exposed (perhaps fatally) by social isolation policies implemented in most countries, (apart from the Belarusian Premier League, or “Vysheyshaya Liga” which is continuing to play to packed stadiums, regardless).

In the United States, Major League Rugby has been cancelled for 2020, with franchise-owners honouring salary payments to players, while in the UK, Premier League Club owners are looking to the Government for a financial hand-out. Without money, it seems, the sporting world’s engine has seized. The Association spoke with Scott Lawrence (USA Rugby) and Andrew McKenna (TalkSport) about the new world of sport in America and the UK.

The Association says there is an urgent for a COVID-19 relief package to be provided to incorporated community sports clubs from local and central government.

The relief package proposed by the Association comprises: an immediate cash-injection; regulatory relief from section 23 of the Incorporated Societies Act; and a waiver of local authority fees on use of sports grounds.

Conventional sporting wisdom suggests that community clubs experiencing financial difficulty arising from increasing costs, reducing income, (or a combination of the two factors), amalgamate with a neighbouring club to remain viable.

In many cases, the stronger of the merged entities declares the amalgamation to be a success, while the entity acquiescing to amalgamation experiences disappointment (and disappears). While amalgamation generally infers an "equal merger", it can quickly become an "unequal takeover" by the stronger of the amalgamating parties.

When it comes to longevity, Japan holds a number of unique records when it comes to the game of Rugby Union. The game has been played in Japan for over 150 years, with the Yokohama Football Club formed in 1866, four years before New Zealand’s first recognised game featuring the Nelson Football Club, and more than 20 years before the New Zealand Rugby Union was even conceived.

At the Golden-Oldies Rugby Tournament held in Christchurch this week, “For The Love Of The Game’ had the opportunity to talk to 80 year old Koichi Seino. Seino-san is certainly one of the oldest active rugby players in the world in the current era and he was the oldest player at the Christchurch Tournament.

Te Upoko o Te Ika radio has teamed up with the New Zealand Amateur Sports Association to produce and broadcast a new programme called ‘The Amateur Sports Hour’, on 1161AM and via the internet on tunein.com.

Click on this story to read more and listen to the latest programme.

If you'd like to have your amateur sport club, personality or story broadcast on the show, contact the Association for more details.