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In my last piece I looked at the pokie funding situation around football. Of course in this country the oval game of football is preferred. But how does that relate to pokie funding? DIAs 2022 review of pokie data shows Rugby Union who got $23.4m.
One thing to remember: with pokie grants the DIA is quite firm (well, at least on their website) on the fact proceeds can only be used for amateur sport. From the DIA website: “Professional sports are not authorised purposes, except where a professional is involved in coaching, training or development for junior sport. Grants could be made for short term coaching courses, not a full-time salary.”
I have used Granted.govt.nz and pulled out the amounts going to the regional bodies which I reckon is quite interesting.
One thing to remember: with pokie grants the DIA is quite firm (well, at least on their website) on the fact proceeds can only be used for amateur sport. From the DIA website: “Professional sports are not authorised purposes, except where a professional is involved in coaching, training or development for junior sport. Grants could be made for short term coaching courses, not a full-time salary.”
I have used Granted.govt.nz and pulled out the amounts going to the regional bodies which I reckon is quite interesting.
Some big blobs of cash in there right? And one teeny tiny one. Poor old Otago. The difference is of course is based on the gaming trust that’s operating in the region.
Lets look at 2022 data. North and South are the sole funder of Auckland and Grassroots the vast majority of Waikato. Wellington have to work a bit harder for theirs with grants from ten different pokies: NZCT, One Foundation and Four Winds are the three that gave over $100k. Canterbury’s all from Mainland Foundation, and Otago’s some small amounts from Grassroots Trust Central, Aotearoa Gaming Trust, The Lion Foundation, The Bendigo Valley Sorts and Charity Foundation, and NZCT.
Its really hard to see how these funds are used. Many of the accounts are pretty summarised. The accounts do exclude the likes of the Crusaders as they are a separate legal entity: the direct activities of some of the Unions do seem to be NPC down, although some have NPC teams as a stand alone entity. Further, not too many actually disclose the numbers of players. However I have pulled this together:
Lets look at 2022 data. North and South are the sole funder of Auckland and Grassroots the vast majority of Waikato. Wellington have to work a bit harder for theirs with grants from ten different pokies: NZCT, One Foundation and Four Winds are the three that gave over $100k. Canterbury’s all from Mainland Foundation, and Otago’s some small amounts from Grassroots Trust Central, Aotearoa Gaming Trust, The Lion Foundation, The Bendigo Valley Sorts and Charity Foundation, and NZCT.
Its really hard to see how these funds are used. Many of the accounts are pretty summarised. The accounts do exclude the likes of the Crusaders as they are a separate legal entity: the direct activities of some of the Unions do seem to be NPC down, although some have NPC teams as a stand alone entity. Further, not too many actually disclose the numbers of players. However I have pulled this together:
Of course money also flows through to the smaller unions and of course the clubs. Looking at the NZ Rugby Union 2022 annual report, they state there are 147,847 players. If we look at the total grants to rugby, that’s a community pokie subsidy per player of $158. Which actually compares well to football: I just looked at player numbers from the 2021 annual report and the number there is $180 per registered player.
It would be quite interesting to dig in a bit more around how these funds are used, but there is very little clarity through the accounts.
I write about this stuff as I believe that we need to understand where funding comes from, where it goes, and how it gets there. No one else seems all that interested. As a citizenry we allow both those supplying money and those asking for money to operate, and as a community we need to ensure we have oversight over the organisations they choose to fund. Love to talk with you if you think this is at all interesting, and if you want to dive into the data a bit more than happy to do so. Check out my website http://www.delfi.co.nz/
It would be quite interesting to dig in a bit more around how these funds are used, but there is very little clarity through the accounts.
I write about this stuff as I believe that we need to understand where funding comes from, where it goes, and how it gets there. No one else seems all that interested. As a citizenry we allow both those supplying money and those asking for money to operate, and as a community we need to ensure we have oversight over the organisations they choose to fund. Love to talk with you if you think this is at all interesting, and if you want to dive into the data a bit more than happy to do so. Check out my website http://www.delfi.co.nz/