The Australian Sports Foundation, a non-profit sports fundraising organisation and charity, conducted a national survey and estimated the country’s 70,000 grassroots clubs need $1.2bn to survive the economic fallout of the pandemic. “This is not just a sporting crisis, but a national crisis,” the ASF’s chief executive, Patrick Walker, said of the prospect of about 16,000 clubs – a quarter of clubs nationally – being unable to recover. “Our survey shows that without financial support, thousands of community clubs risk insolvency in the months ahead, which presents a real risk to the physical and mental health of our communities,” he said. It found $400m would be needed to save those clubs, while the most at-risk clubs – those which need support within the next three months to stay afloat – require an immediate injection of $300m. “These clubs are about more than the sport itself – they are the lifeblood of communities all over Australia.

Source: The Guardian July 21, 2020 18:56 UTC