The average number of club volunteers - who volunteer for at least three hours per month - is down to 18, compared with an average of 31 five years ago. File photo. Photo: ©creativenature / 123RF
Community sport is under pressure, with fewer volunteers putting their hand up to help run local clubs.
The head of the Amateur Sport Association says the sharp drop in numbers poses an existential threat to New Zealand sport.
A recent survey undertaken by the association showed the average number of community sport volunteers had almost halved since 2019.
Association chair Gordon Noble-Campbell told Nine to Noon the survey results were significant, and if nothing changed, the consequences for New Zealand sport would be dire.
"Let's be frank, this is a big, big change in terms of our metrics that we've been looking at over the past seven years of this survey.
"If this continues, then there will be huge concerns in New Zealand around who is going to be delivering community sport."
Sports clubs struggle as volunteer numbers continue to fall
The survey showed the average number of club volunteers - who volunteer for at least three hours per month - was down to 18, compared with an average of 31 recorded in 2019.
While a handful of sport codes had seen an increase - including cricket and netball - others such as athletics, football and rugby union had been negatively affected.
Noble-Campbell said volunteer numbers had not recovered since Covid, and that a scarcity of resources - people's time and money - were key factors contributing to the decline.
"It's a tough time for the country economically... (and) people are a bit more time pressured in terms of their availability... to lend a hand to their local club."
He claimed an increasing "wave of complexity" in governance - specifically from the Incorporated Societies Act - was a major drain on club resources, and he blamed the red tape for discouraging volunteers.
The new Act puts in place a modern legal, governance and accountability framework for incorporated societies and those who run them.
Community sport organisations have until April 2026 to re-register under the new Act, or face involuntary dissolution.
"There is a fair degree of regulation which goes with meeting the obligations.
"[The Act] is more complicated for people who are not expert in a lot of these areas to actually do the right thing and be encouraged to get actively involved."
He said people were "absolutely" running scared.
"The question is: 'Why would I bother if the risks to me in terms of getting it wrong mean that I'm going to have a sleepless night worrying about this, that, or the other thing'."
Nobel-Campbell said age was also a factor and the bulk of volunteers pre-Covid - who were mostly retired - had not returned five years later.
Conversely, anecdotal evidence indicated younger people were less inclined to roll up their sleeves, he said.
"The focus has gone away from the values associated with lending support to your community sport club and the benefits that they brings.
"The pool of people is less and this really is an existential threat to the fabric of sport delivery in New Zealand."
He said something needed to be done to encourage people to get actively involved.
Part of the solution, as he saw it, could be found with employers.
Noting that it was a tough for many people right now, Nobel-Campbell said if employers had the capacity to give their staff more time away to participate in kids and junior sport, it would go a long way to ensuring a stable and viable sport framework.
He said national sport organisations would face consequences in the long run, if they did not consider how the benefits of the elite arm, could support their codes at the grassroots level.
"(They'll) find that the number of new people coming through, which are their future superstars, will also diminish."