New Zealand Councils support independent review into sportsground fees

Upper Hutt City Council, Wellington City Council and Hutt City Council have all committed to reviewing sports field charges with Upper Hutt Mayor Wayne Guppy yesterday announcing his Council’s full support for an independent review into regional sportsground fees.

Back in June 2022, the councils came under fire from a lobby group - Affordable Sports for Greater Wellington - campaigning for lower facility and ground usage costs, which they claimed made up around 60% of clubs' fees.

Affordable Sports for Greater Wellington is made up of the regional hockey, rugby, basketball, football and cricket bodies, as well as College Sport Wellington.

Affordable Sports for Greater Wellington group spokesperson Lisa Jones advised in June 2022 “club subs have been driven up by the prices councils charge sports codes to use sports fields and facilities.

“Up to 60% of a player’s club membership fee goes towards charges from Councils for the maintenance of grounds.

“An analysis of one sports turf showed that despite council claiming fees are subsidised, the cost of using a council owned turf is on par with privately-owned grounds.

“Additionally, we calculated that the Council’s initial build cost of the turf had actually been recovered, which means it’s making a profit.”

As such Jones wanted Councils to review facility charges.

In October 2022, the campaign for a review of fees charged for council sports facilities claimed victory, with an overwhelming majority of elected Councillors in the two biggest Wellington cities pledging support for a review during the campaign.

Upper Hutt Mayor Wayne Guppy, Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau, and Hutt City Council Mayor Campbell Barry all committed to a review into sports field charges.

The announcement this week that Upper Hutt Mayor Wayne Guppy and his Council is in full support for an independent review into regional sportsground fees follows Wellington City Council announcing this week that it will be commencing the independent review on 1st June 2023. Wellington City Council Mayor Tory Whanau had previously stated that the review would not be supported.

In late March 2023, Mayor Whanau wrote to the Affordable Sports for Greater Wellington group saying the review would not take place. The major sporting codes wrote back to the Mayor to reject her letter and advised they were considering their next steps.

Mayor Whanau’s first promise of the Wellington Mayoral campaign answered a campaign by sports codes to undertake a review of the way Wellington City Council calculates the fees it charges sports to use public parks and sport facilities. The campaign was supported by most other Wellington Council candidates.

Wellington City Council’s agreement to proceed with the review follows on from Wellington sports codes publicly releasing a joint letter to Mayor Tory Whanau on 29th April 2023 in which they refused to accept Wellington City Council’s intention to break an election promise to review the costs behind council sports facility fees.

Upper Hutt Mayor Guppy this week has shared “Sports are vitally important to the wellbeing of communities, and we need to ensure we’re offering accessible and affordable grounds for players to train and compete on—right across the region.

"We’ve heard that sportsground fees are hurting teams and their families, and we need the independent review to investigate how fees are set, what the fees go towards, and how there could be better alignment across the region.”

“Major sporting codes are telling us fees are too high and this review will tell us how we can improve access to grounds and support increased participation in sports.”

“Upper Hutt City Council is ready to take part in the review and the time is right as all the region’s councils are working on our 10-year plans for 2024 – 2034.”

Image. Maidstone Park Sportsfield. Credit: Upper Hutt City Council