The former President of the International Olympic Committee, Avery Brundage was a controversial figure who frequently rubbed people up the wrong way. He was also a staunch advocate for keeping sport as an amateur event. Whether you liked him or not he had a point when he said “As soon as you take money for playing sport, it isn’t sport, it’s work.”
With the dawn of professional sport there are many who take that approach. As one former English Premier League and international footballer told this writer, ‘it is no longer about passion, it’s a job.’
Sadly, for some at the top despite being well paid they have lost the joy of playing. The game they played becaue they loved it, and would happily practice for hours for free no longer has the same magic now they are being paid vast sums of money to play. There are some players who will tell you that it is all about the money and being set up for life.
So if sport is indeed more about business and its players employees why is sport not run along the same lines as good business?
While there are many leagues in many sports around the world where players can earn a very good living it would appear that with the exception of the AFL, Australia may not be one of them for much longer.
Australian sports have become the proverbial Olivers, each of them queuing up cup in hand asking for more money. Money to cover huge losses that have been self-inflicted by poor management, and trying to keep up with the rest of the world.
In April this year Rugby Australia posted a $36.8m deficit, but as is often the case is hoping that the visit of the British and Irish Lions in the next month and the hosting of the 2027 Women’s and Men’s Rugby World Cups will see them reduce that debt considerably.
Rugby Australia CEO Phil Waugh stated at the time of the announcement of the deficit that “RA is forecasting a record surplus in 2025 which should provide us the option of exiting the credit facility with PEP.” This was an $80million loan agreement with Pacific Equity Partners (PEP).
In October 2024 Cricket Australia reported a net loss of $31.9 million for the 2023-24 financial year. This loss was the third-highest in the past decade. Once again the governing body was hoping to recoup much of that loss following the Summer’s Test series against India, and the Ashes Series on home soil later this year. They attributed the loss to a cyclical low point in the game’s four-year cycle.
In the past fortnight it has been reported that Football Australia is bracing for the worst financial result in its history. It has been predicted that the governing body will post a record loss of over $8 million, and be forced to write off millions in bad debt from the organisation running the A-Leagues.
In March 2023 people shook their heads when Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) chief executive Matt Carroll said at the National Press Club, that unless Australian sport received a $2 billion injection, Australian sport was in danger of failing the nation’s expectations during what he called the green and gold decade leading up to the Brisbane Olympic Games in 2032.
At the time everyone thought it was simply the AOC begging for more financial support from the Federal Government, however with so many of Australia’s mainstream sports posting vast losses his words are proving prophetic.
Not surprisingly other sectors of Australian life are questioning the constant bailouts received by sport when their organisations receive a pittance.
Others have been asking at what stage do these businesses – for we are constantly told told sport is now a business – become insolvent? After all would the banks allow many normal businesses to continue while being in so much debt?
The definition of trading while insolvent is described as being when a company “incurs new debts while already unable to pay its existing debts as they fall due. This occurs when a company’s liabilities exceed its assets, and it continues operating and accruing further debt.” Are any of the sports operating in this way?
Why are so many sports rupturing financially?
There was a wise man many years ago who said you should never pay a player more than your head coach. The reason they warned was it would shift the balance of power.
No one begrudges sportsmen and women the right to earn as much as they can in a career. Most people also understand that if you are offered a salary that is above what you were expecting few people will say, ‘ no please only pay me this.’
Of course there was one former Socceroo who returned to the A-League who did just that. He told the club in question money was not his motivation, and he did not need the money having played top flight football in Europe, so use the money elsewhere in the club.
Sticking with Football in Australia it is believed that the average A-League Men’s player salary is currently around $150,000 per year. This figure is an average, and is calculated based on a number of factors such as experience, role in the team, position etc. Which of course means that there are many players earning less than this amount, and one would suspect a smaller percentage above this figure.
The A League Men’s competition now runs for eight months of the year. This of course does not include pre-season for the players, so it is now very much a full-time job. However, when one looks at the fact that there are only 26 league games in 8 months, one has to ask if the league and the club’s owners can afford such wages.
When it comes to the national team, the Socceroos and Matildas are said to receive $10,000 per game. This is one of the highest rates of pay in International football. As one former FA employee said, “this kills the FA financially.”
While in sport there needs to be a body that protects the players, some in football are now questioning whether the Professional Footballers Australia have in fact pushed the game into the situation it currently finds itself in. While pushing for what they believed was best for the players have they in fact undone the future of the game at large?
Some would say that is not their concern. They are there to get what is best for the players. Yet this is hard to agree with, as without the A-League and international matches players will not be able to earn a living from football.
Soccer Australia before it went under gambled every four years on qualifying for the World Cup. That was going to save the game financially. They failed to achieve that goal, and had to shut up shop. Has Football Australia done any better?
Frank Lowy and John O’Neill were fortunate that the Socceroos qualified for Germany 2006 after an absence at a World Cup finals of 32 years. Yet what was put in place to secure the game’s future at that time? Only now a generation later we are seeing the results of what was or wasn’t done.
As for the “Golden generation” those were different times. Times when you had to learn your craft. Most had battled in the cut and thrust of the NSL(National Soccer League) before heading overseas. There they did not go straight to big name clubs, no, they gained experience and proved themselves in the lower divisions before earning that opportunity. All that experience made them better players.
That early success and the new regime in the early 2000’s saw the game fall prey to agents who were only after a quick buck off an ambitious player and unsuspecting parents. Many didn’t really care about the player’s welfare and building a lasting career, that is why so many have come back to the A-League so quickly. Settling for an easier career than the dog-eat-dog competition in Europe.
Also in the past there was never any money in football administration. Those who worked in this field prior to 2003 were often dedicated and passionate about the game. Some may not have had the expertise the game needed at that time, but the same could be said today as nepotism has become rife.
In 2022 Football Australia was reported as having 228 staff. Add onto that figures the number employed in each State body and the obvious question is can the game really afford such costs? Is the game being run properly? Is this structure really working, or is it in fact costing the game money it cannot afford?
While times have changed it is interesting to note that in 2000 Soccer Australia had just 39 staff! While there may be the need for more staff than 25 years ago is there a need for five times as many? How much is this wage bill costing the sport?
The same could be said of many of the Australian mainstream sports and even those in the tier below. Just because it worked 20 years ago is it the right way to operate today, and can these sports afford so many staff?
Those around sport are well aware that much of the Government funding does not reach where it is intended, because it gets eaten up by wages, so is it time that the Government or the Australian Sports Commission, who hand out the funding started to take a more active interest in where their money is being spent?
Maybe they need to step in and help re-structure some of these sports to be leaner and more efficient in the way that they are run.
One thing is for sure across many of these sports the impact is being felt at the bottom. The youth are the ones suffering as the cost to play continues to rise across many sports, it is becoming unaffordable for many families. Not only does that mean that sporting talent is being lost, but the health ramifications on the next generation could be huge.
As for the sports themselves we all understand that they need success at the highest level as that drives sponsorship, and the value of that sponsorship. It also make the sport more appealing to television stations, and enables them to gain a more lucrative television deal.
When football was booming Australia had ten or more Socceroos playing in the top leagues in Europe, these players were household names in Australia and the nations they played in. How many of those players do we have today? Again, the same argument can be made in other sports that the quality that Australia was renowned for producing is simply not there today across a number of sports.
While the A-Leagues are seperate from the FA they have to work in tandem. A crowd of only 5,186 in Friday night’s A-League finals match between Western United and Melbourne City is a devastating figure for followers of the sport. What it tells us is that the sport cannot stand on its own, it will not just pull in the fans. It needs marketing.
While the Paramount/Channel 10 television deal may have brought the league and the FA much needed funds, has it been good for the game and the League? Are people tuning in? Are the viewing figures what they used to be? Is the product attractive? Do the majority still watch terrestrial television?
There are many that believe that the A-League along with many other second tier sports are actually doing themselves a disservice by trying to televise every game. That they would be better served by having a match of the week and packaging a highlights show. Certainly one feels that a Match of the Day format as was used in the United Kingdom in the 70’s and 80’s would serve the game better.
There are many sports who appear happy to be relegated to a broadcaster’s streaming platform. In many cases they pay the cost of supplying the footage and receive little or no financial return, but they get their sport aired. Who really benefits from this? The platform that is showing the games is the winner.
One sport advised NTFS that one of their games aired on such a platform and according to the statistics they received only managed 75 viewers. Is that benefitting the sport, and how much are those 75 viewers costing when one takes n the cost of production?
What is abundantly clear is within many sports in Australia decisions are being made on issues where those making the decisions lack the expertise or knowledge. The decisions are being made for vanity reasons rather than what is best for the sport or the organisation in the long term.
What is concerning is that in some sports we are now seeing players being encouraged to go and play overseas, not to develop their game here.
The new Home of Hockey is due to be built in Western Australia at Curtin University. It was announced yesterday that the “Western Australian Government has boosted its investment for the purpose-built project with a $28 million funding top up, bringing the total commitment from $135 million to $163 million.”
While this is great for the sport one has to ask if Hockey were to have its High Performance players playing in Leagues in Europe, why is such a venue being created? Why do you need a centralised program if a third or more players are playing overseas? One would think that the players may be better off playing for the clubs in their home states and coming into camps when required. If you are investing so much into a facility such as this it has be utlized. Hockey has had a centralised program since the 1980’s, but if the players are not going to be there for six months of the year is this money well spent in a sport battling for financial support?
As has been discussed many times and was allegedly part of the proposal to fund the facility, are we going to see Hockey Australia move its head office from Melbourne to Perth? Is it going to be fiscally responsible to be paying rent on offices in two cities on either side of the country? What would be the annual saving per year to have everyone under one roof? Could jobs be shared between Hockey Australia and Hockey Western Australia to minimise costs?
In so many sports in Australia we have witnessed poor governance. Board members in one sport who hold positions within other sports. This should never happen. In many cases this is a huge conflict of interest; even if they step back from the table on certain issues. There was an occasion where the CEO of one sport, so a high-paid position, was being engaged as an expert commentator on another sport while holding that position. How can they not see that this is not helping the sport that is employing them? This is an area that again needs to be policed far better, and the levels of professionalism need to be lifted if Sport in Australia is going to reach the heights they were previously at.
While Matt Carrol was advocating the Government increase funding, a far more sensible suggestion is that the Australian Sports Commission invests in auditing many of the sports and analysis be carried out as to where the Government funding is being spent. There also needs to be a review of the staffing levels which appear to have ballooned to unsustainable levels, along with the salaries being paid in relation to the experience of the individual in that role.
For Australian sport to move forward and be successful on the world stage a way has to be found where the elite teams are self sustaining and the next generation, the youth, are heavily subsidised. The opportunity has to be there for every young child to play. As we are witnessing now across all sports, the best payers replacing the best players, and many are simply not good enough to match it with the best from other countries.
The system is broken. Why are parents being charged a fee for their children to attend a state trial? Then when they are picked why do they have to pay for everything to play for their state representative team, and even buy their own kit? This should be an honour and parents should not be asked to fund such trips. Is it any wonder that there is a level of resentment towards the elite side of some sports? If a State cannot afford to fund a representative side should they be playing in a National competition?
Success is no accident. It does not happen just because you throw money at it. To succeed in anything you need to be properly prepared, and persistently pursue the goals that have been set To achieve success there needs to be thoughtful direction and only then in time will it be achieved.
One can;t help thinking of the words of former baseball player, manager and Hall of famer Tommy Lasorda, who said in relation to his sport ““In baseball and in business, there are three types of people. Those who make it happen, those who watch it happen, and those who wonder what happened.” It is clear that there are plenty of the last type in Australian sport and we need a lot more of the first.
