10,000 Victorians can't play football
"For example, in Victoria this year, Football Federation Victoria had to turn away more than 10,000 people from playing football because of the lack of available facilities."Taken from the FFA
submission to the Government Sport Panel report
When you look at the Statistics showing which states boys and girls play football in, the numbers in NSW are huge compared to Victoria. Indeed the number of females playing in Victoria is almost the same as for the whole of the ACT!!
I'd suggest the AFL media and social dominance is a key reason but also the AFL's ability to keep grounds for themselves even if they don't have the juniors.
Ground issues continue to become an issue and with the expected continued growth in football, it will remain an issue for years to come. We need to use our networks in all States to improve the health opportunities for our young people.
2 comments:
The problem with access to grounds is cronic in Victoria...and its not just the AFL biase to blame. I think local councils have a lot to do with this issues (something the ACT doesn't have to deal with).
Just to give you an example of how bad the situation is, my club (in Melbourne) has been unable to do any pre-season training on our home ground (which is owned and managed by a council). They have not let us use our ground claiming drought and maintenance upgrading (however they have allowed social summer soccer and touch rugby competitions??!)
We have struggled to get training space anywhere else as other councils will not allocated training space to clubs outside their municipality or they are trying to maintain what little ground cover they have due to lack of rain. We have been using a FFV facility which costs $120/hr which is a cost our players have to foot (on top of their club fees).
Many players who began training with our club have dropped out as we can’t guarantee training times and the cost has become prohibitive. We had enough players to field an extra womens team but with no where to train we have had to turn players away.
I use to play in Canberra and I miss the nice green pitches and the stability that existed between our club and the owner of the grounds we played on. The AFL bias is probably part of the problem but I think councils would rather spend their money on a trendy festival or a play ground and not on sporting facilities that require up-keep etc. Shame because if this lack of access to decent grounds is not fixed football is going to suffer.
Thanks good to get a Victorian insight.
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