New Sports Professionals Association completing ‘State of the Sporting Industry’ survey

The new Australian Sports Professionals Association (ASPA) is set to release an industry survey on the state of the sporting industry for professionals in Australia.

Described as “the first wide-scale survey of employees, volunteers and those who work in sport in Australia as to what their challenges are, what their organisational challenges are, and what the future of the industry looks like” a summary publication, the State of Sport 2019, will be available toward the end of June.

Having invited anyone working in sport in Australia to contribute, the publication aims to offer a high-level outlook for the industry - and this will be available toward the end of June.

The ASPA is a new association for individuals who work, volunteer or study in sport in Australia - from club volunteers and paid administrators of small state/territory sports to executives and board members of large national sports.

Set up “by the industry, for the industry”, its vision is to strengthen the sporting industry through forming an individuals association to bring its workforce together.

Past attempts at creating an industry body for sport - including the Australian Society of Sport Administrators, the Confederation of Australian Sport and the Institute of Sport Management - have failed because of the disparate nature of the Australian sport industry, with the management experiences of local volunteers being very different to those of executives in major sports.

However, since its launch in February, ASPA has staged events across Australia with nearly 200 attendees and with 200 pre-registrations for membership.

ASPA has also partnered with over 40 national and state sports organisations, sports federations such as Sport NSW and Sport SA.

For more information on ASPA go to www.sportsprofessionals.co