KEY POINTS:
Government sports agency Sparc has ushered in the sporting new year with a sobering message.
In a post-election briefing to Murray McCully, Minister for Sport and Recreation, Sparc hierarchy, led by chief executive Peter Miskimmin, has outlined some significant challenges facing New Zealand sport, including:
*Poorly developed infrastructure.
*Barely competent
administrators.
*The decline of clubs.
*Poor talent identification.
*The increasing difficulty of winning on the world stage.
"Without attention to these challenges, it is likely that participation in sport and recreation will start declining," the report warned.
One of Sparc's key objectives, since its incarnation as an entity in 2003 in the wake of the Graham Report, has been to improve the administration of the approximately 80 national sporting organisations it recognises.
It found some, even in high-profile professional sports such as rugby league and football, to be badly run and reports that many are still struggling.
"Some national organisations have poorly-developed infrastructure and are not delivering adequate support to their regional or club network," the report stated.
"Organisations also face challenges attracting and retaining qualified and competent staff."
The term 'grassroots' is applied like a mantra in New Zealand sport but it is the embodiment of grassroots sport, the clubs, that face a massive challenge, says the report.
"New Zealanders are participating in more informal sport and recreation - such as 'pay for play' where they may not belong to a club but take advantage of events or activities on an irregular basis. The traditional club structure is struggling to find its place in this new environment."
Sparc repeated its belief that winning on the international stage has become increasingly difficult due to the tyranny of distance - something it hopes to overcome with the creation of a European-based Institute of Sport - and a small talent pool.
That pool, crucially, has been made even smaller, Sparc believed, due to poor talent development in high-performance sport.
"There is a lack of integrated and well-resourced pathways for identifying and developing talented athletes into world champions."
Expenditure at Sparc is expected to increase for this financial year to $115 million. That will mean a deficit of $3.36m funded from reserves.
McCully may have some fences to mend within the organisation before he sits down to chart a course to sporting glory.
While in opposition, Prime Minister John Key was highly critical of Sparc and campaigns including Push Play, Mission On and Healthy Eating, Healthy Action.
He accused the agency of wasting money on administration and said a third of its funding never left the office.
That was misleading in the extreme, with administration costs actually set at $12.7m, or 12 per cent of total expenditure.