Bay of Plenty sporting organisations receive almost $250,000

Tauranga Target Rifle Club president Alan Dickson says the Community Resilience Fund helped get the club back up and running after a delayed start to the season. Photo / George Novak

At the start of the year, Arataki Sports Club had big plans.

Next year will be the club's jubilee year so as well as preparing for another busy winter of sport, with two senior rugby teams, four netball teams and 10 JMC teams, they were making plans for the big celebration.

That all took a back seat when Covid-19 forced the country into a lockdown. Players and membership fees were lost, as were opportunities for fundraising, meaning revenue dried up while fixed costs remained.

Arataki is one of 81 Bay of Plenty sport and recreation organisations which have received a total of close to $250,000 from the Sport NZ Community Resilience Fund so far.

The fund, administered locally by Sport Bay of Plenty, is open to regional sports organisations, sports clubs and recreation organisations, and aims to help them remain financially viable through the immediate period of disruptions caused by Covid-19.

Clubs can apply for $1000 in support. Regional Sports Organisations (RSO) can apply for up to $40,000. A total of $248,034 has been given out in Bay of Plenty so far.

Arataki secretary Jakalah Roderique-Trask said the funding received had helped the club get on top of its fixed costs and start planning for the future again.

"We can refocus now on building a good foundation, have our Covid plans in place so we can maintain what we have as a community club and go forward to have a strong jubilee year next year.

"We didn't have to worry how we were going to pay our overheads because of that fund. We were able to focus on those things like our Covid plan, our communication with players and getting them back for the 2020 season."

Arataki's Tamarau Karepa passes the ball. Photo / File

She said there was a lot of positivity around the club now, thanks to the fund helping them stay afloat.

"As a community club, we don't have our own clubrooms so we have to pay hireage to hold our equipment and things like that. We had to keep those sorts of payments up over lockdown, which is what the fund helped with. It was phenomenal."

Another Tauranga club who applied for and received funding was the Tauranga Target Rifle Club.

Tauranga Target Rifle Club president Alan Dickson says the Community Resilience Fund helped get the club back up and running after a delayed start to the season. Photo / George Novak

Club president Alan Dickson said they faced a loss of revenue when the start of their season was delayed by two months.

"We were only allowed to open for the first time on June 2 whereas we'd usually open up on the last Tuesday of March. A lot of events were cancelled as well.

"How it affects us is we rely on subscriptions and we haven't collected any of those prior to lockdown so we're just catching up with that now. There will be members who might decide to wait out the season because it's short anyway.

"Then, of course, there's the public, up until level 1 we can't share the equipment we have. The public use club rifles and we just can't have that happening yet. The loss of revenue adds up and we have all the fixed costs throughout."

Dickson said any extra funding helped the club get going again so they were "very grateful".

"That $1000 we got puts us back in the position we would've been before the Covid crisis."

Everyone is going to have to do things slightly differently now and if they were having to worry about doing that as well as how to pay the ongoing bills they have, that could be a recipe for not the best outcomes.

Sport Bay of Plenty community sport manager Nick Chambers said the Community Resilience Fund was crucial in terms of trying to provide relief for local sporting organisations.

"Effectively what it does is it buys the clubs an extended timeline to be able to try and re-imagine what their sport is. Everyone is going to have to do things slightly differently now and if they were having to worry about doing that as well as how to pay the ongoing bills they have, that could be a recipe for not the best outcomes.

"For the clubs and you can get the $1000 or you're an RSO and most of those fixed costs are covered, the benefit is it buys you a three-month window to start thinking about what things will look like moving forward."

While pleased that Bay of Plenty clubs and organisations were taking up the offer of funding, Chambers encouraged more to apply.

"I'd like to see a lot more, we do still have money to give away. I'd like to see more applications coming from clubs because we can really help them. As long as they can fill out the form and show they have a need we can get those funds out as quick as possible.

"I'd encourage anybody to just get in touch because our job is to make sure as much of that money goes out to the community as we can."

To apply for funding or for more information go to: sportbop.co.nz/communityresiliencefund