Many Australians have in recent times been impacted by the cost-of-living crisis, but what about sport participation?
While many Australians, and their children, enjoy participating in sports, it could possibly be a costly passion, hitting the hip pocket with costs corresponding to equipment, registration, coaching and accident insurance.
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Which sports are hottest in Australia?
The activities with the highest participation by Australians of various age groups are shown within the table below.
These findings show some obvious differences between age groups – school-aged students take part in more team-based activities that require speed and agility, whereas Australians aged 55 and over prefer to take part in less intense aerobic activities.
Many of those sports are popular across genders and have been for many years. Examples of activities more popular with women and girls include netball and yoga, whereas cycling and Australian football are more popular with men and boys.
The popularity of online/virtual-based physical activities corresponding to Zwift or Nintendo Wii have increased dramatically up to now decade, with nearly 1.5 million Australians estimated to have participated in 2023.
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What are the advantages of playing sports?
Participating in sport can have quite a few advantagesincluding higher physical health and reduced risk of disease and improved mental health, self-esteem and life satisfaction.
Studies from countries corresponding to Australia, Japan and the United States have also reported sports participation can improve academic performance and academic outcomes.
What does it cost to play sport in Australia?
The Australian Sports Commission estimates Australians spent A$18.7 billion on sport and physical pursuits within the 2022-2023 financial yr, up from $10.7 billion five years earlier.
While the population of Australia has increased by nearly two million during this time, this spending raises questions on the rising cost of participation.
So, what does it cost to take part in sport in Australia?
Many sports could be played without spending a dime but the vast majority of children engage in organised sport, which incurs costs. Various sports that require expensive equipment (corresponding to golf, browsing or sailing) or are undertaken indoors (corresponding to swimming, gymnastics, dancing) are already too costly for some lower income families to have interaction with.
Injuries may involve substantial rehabilitation and treatment funds.
The Australian Sports Commission estimates Australian adults spend a mean of $1,304 annually for his or her sporting endeavours, up from the $796 five years ago.
They are also accountable for the prices incurred by their children’s sport participation – a mean cost of $1,369 per child, nearly doubling from the typical cost five years ago.
These figures don’t include indirect costs corresponding to recent training outfits and footwear, transportation and parking fees.
An identical report of 696 Australians found they were paying a mean of around $1,500 to play a sport each season, with major costs including transport, uniforms, footwear, coaching, lessons and equipment. More than one-third of respondents on this study said that they had larger bank card debts due to sporting fees.
The table below indicates expenditure on some popular activities in Australia.
Have cost-of-living pressures impacted participation rates?
The cost-of-living pressures in recent times have contributed to the increasing cost of sports participation and the power of families to pay them.
A recent report by UNICEF Australia stated that greater than half of Australian families are making sacrifices of their household budget to pay for youngsters’s sport, or having to take their children out of sports as a consequence of rising costs.
An identical report from the United Kingdom stated that while overall activity levels remained relatively stable after lockdown restrictions eased, the vast majority of people had adapted their behaviour by substituting paid activities with free alternatives, corresponding to walking or cycling as a substitute of driving, and cancelling gym and sports memberships and doing home-based activities as a substitute.
The report stated people from lower socioeconomic backgrounds were probably to need to change to lower-cost behaviours.
It’s not only individuals and families who’re struggling, either. Recent “Your Sport Your Say” research shows one in 4 small Australian sporting clubs were on the point of collapse from cost-of-living impacts corresponding to declining registrations, increased operating costs (corresponding to power bills) and reduced volunteer numbers.
Some clubs described participation plummeting to almost zero throughout the pandemic, and now the rising cost of living has made it even harder to get better.
There are concerns that community sporting club closures, and families having to prioritise sports based on affordability, could have a huge impact on Australia’s talent pool ahead of the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
What could be done to assist?
As we approach these home Olympics, the demand for sporting facilities and opportunities is more likely to surge.
Governments need to seek out sustainable solutions to make sure all Australians can proceed to take part in the sports they love, regardless of economic barriers.
Subsidising sport-related costs corresponding to coaching sessions and equipment through increased funding of grassroots clubsresourcing of informal sport (self-organised, outside of formal participation structures), tax advantagesand vouchers have been suggested as potential strategies for reducing inequities concerning sporting opportunities.
The expansion of grant schemes corresponding to Sporting Schools may additionally help schools increase sports participation amongst their students and connect them with area people sport clubs.
