campusreview.com.au
FACULTY FOCUS
Kick it, thump it, pump it
The return to sport is a
chance to focus on health,
not just competition.
By Hans Westerbeek and Rochelle Eime
The disruption to community and
professional sport is among the most
deeply felt casualties of the COVID-19
pandemic. Business models that were once
considered untouchable and perennially
healthy were exposed as utterly vulnerable
when forced to shut down overnight.
Without weekly competition and
development activities in community sport,
cash flow from player memberships and
registration fees quickly evaporated. In
professional sport, there was no business
without players, paying spectators and
media to report on the game.
At the same time that we’ve been
restricted from regular sporting activities,
Australia’s overriding government and
health messages urged us to remain
physically active, with exercise being one of
only four reasons to leave the house during
stage four isolation.
This reinforces a focus that health
promotion experts have long waited for
politicians to support: that physical activity
is a public health priority that can combat
the chronic diseases now crippling our
health systems.
Many Australians already accept this.
Never before have so many people longed
for the days when our parks and sporting
fields could be used at will, with more
families and individuals than ever engaged
in walking, running, cycling or park fitness
during forced isolation.
The pandemic has revealed that
physical activity and sport are vital to tired,
anxious, impatient and stressed individuals
and communities as we emerge from
lockdown. Sport is now in the best position
it has ever been to claim a fundamental
place in society.
But how will sport return? What are the
risks, rewards, opportunities and challenges
inherent in this transformation?
RESTARTING SPORT REQUIRES
A STAGED APPROACH
The Australian Institute of Sport has
developed the pragmatic Framework for
Rebooting Sport in a COVID-19 Environment.
It details how organised sports can restart
operations and recommends a staged
approach (Levels A, B and C) where every
level requires risk assessment management,
an analysis of safe environments, and
participant education.
Community sports clubs, largely run by
volunteers and parents, have the capacity
to get participants quickly back to training
and informal competition. They will likely be
the first to return to a base level of operation
without requiring massive funding injections.
Meanwhile, researchers at Victoria,
Federation and Flinders Universities are
surveying thousands of Australians about
their physical, mental and social health
before, during and after social-distancing
measures. This study aims to provide
further scientific evidence about the
importance of sport and physical activity,
and is a unique opportunity to show what
happens when active sports participants are
forced out of their sport.
With nearly 5000 study participants
already, early signs are that a significant
number of people report that their general
physical and mental health is somewhat
worse than a year ago. A majority say that
socialising and playing with friends are key
to their enjoyment of sport, and much
more important than winning.
This suggests that clubs that return to
the core business of community sport – to
play, socialise and connect the community
– will thrive and outperform clubs and
associations that focus on performance,
premierships and player payments.
Government, but also the health
insurance and education sectors, can use
this opportunity to realise the value that
sport delivers to their own businesses.
Resilient communities, lower health costs,
and higher education and job outcomes
resulting from physical activity may
stimulate structural investment.
Perhaps we will see government taking
over some roles now held by sport
governing bodies to ensure community
sport delivery can be safeguarded from
further external shocks.
Elite or professional sports will have their
own challenges as they return. The AFL’s
current debate about the size of player
lists, and the need for extensive specialist
football coaches, trainers and back-office
administrators, will be the same debate
taking place in other professional leagues.
Lean, mean and agile may well become
the key concepts for professional sport to
transform towards a new business model.
As social-distancing measures are
relaxed, individuals and communities will
return to sport to build not just their health
and wellbeing, but resilience and resistance.
As with any good crisis, professional and
community sport should not waste this
opportunity to include a ‘new’ focus on
health that has been largely neglected at
the expense of promoting highly paid star
players or striving for premiership flags.
Time will tell which sports can ride this
wave and which drop off. This will partly
be based on sports’ governing boards and
executive managers, but also on the particular
structure and format of individual sports.
In the short term, which sports survive
may well depend on how easy they are
to play within a new social and economic
environment, including if they offer scope
for social distancing. These sports may well
be the ones that rise to prominence and
demonstrate they are most fail-proof in
times of disruptive crisis. ■
Professors Hans Westerbeek and Rochelle
Eime are researchers at Victoria University.
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