Written by In this golden age of plenty, we are surprisingly lacking the essentials more profoundly that ever before.
I read an article which bemoans the increasing lack of sporting facilities in modern urban Australian cities. Obviously covid put paid to many sporting plans, venues and pools were closed, new construction not commenced, sport like everything suffered greatly. Victoria University’s Professor of Sport Participation, Rochelle Eime asserted that sport and recreation facilities for public use should not be an ‘afterthought’ in the planning of new estates and suburbs. She continues that sporting participation will be dramatically adversely affected in the future because of this lack of accessibility and forethought.
The larger issue of course is that areas of high growth are forging ahead regardless of the lack of suitable infrastructure to support them, and with hospitals and schools being obvious priorities, sporting venues are lower on the list and more reliant on alternate funding/fundraising unless they benefit from politically motivated decisions like gender-based election platforms for example.
A key component of the federal government’s Sport 2030 plan devised to ensure that funding was allocated to where it was most needed has been quietly neglected by the current government, despite being ratified by all key official stakeholders less than two years ago. Sadly, now funding will not be awarded based on merit or need.
How can we expect our communities and our youth to become involved in healthy and positive activities if we make it too hard for them? Perhaps this issue should be addressed laterally, are we supposing that fancy facilities are a necessary requirement to physical activity. Swimming pools and specialized centres like gyms aside if the issue is approached with ingenuity and inventiveness sporting teams like baseball, cricket etc, walking, running groups, athletics, boot camps for equipment free workouts can be held in any suitable park or civic area. Perhaps the issue maybe made easier with funding for venues, but at the heart of it good coaching and community involvement is what underpins good projects and makes the most of what is available to ensure that youth are kept healthy and engaged in positive pursuits. Is money really the cornerstone of community, it didn’t used to be?
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-04-10/fastest-growing-outersuburbs-federal-sports-funding/100959626
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-06-02/sport-government-funding-rorts/100183028