Community sports participation in Hume has significantly dropped post-Covid, a new study has found.
Research conducted by New Federation and Victoria University revealed that more than 230,000 players left their clubs across Victoria in 2020, a decline of about 27 per cent from 2019.
The study led by Professors Rochelle Eime and Hans Westerbeek, examined membership records for the state’s top 10 community sports including Australian Rules Football (AFL), basketball, cricket, netball, swimming, and tennis across all 79 Local Government Areas (LGAs).
Community sport in Melbourne’s outer growth corridors was severely impacted, with the City of Hume showing a participation rate of 5.9 per cent compared to 10 per cent in 2019- a decline of nearly 50 per cent.
Professor Eime said participation rates in high-growth areas should be higher given their young populations. However, they are hindered by low socio-economic status and a lack of public sports and recreation facilities.
“There’s often the issue about whether or not there are actually sports facilities there. It’s sort of a chicken and egg, you need the population to be able to build the facilities to then pay for the facilities but then is there land available for those facilities as well?
So in these growth corridor areas where people are buying houses and land, it takes time to build that community,” Professor Eime said.
“Families have been negatively impacted through COVID. It’s not just the membership, it’s all the other associated costs, when you actually look at it, it does add quite a considerable amount to a family budget.”
Hume Bombers Football Club president Avtar Singh said numbers had dropped, particularly in the younger teams.
“It’s definitely declining, at least by 20 or 30 per cent in our junior sides,” Mr Singh said.
“We’ve tried everything to bring people in, we’re promoting on social media, we’re only charging a $10 registration fee at the football club at the moment. Nothing seems to be working.”
