Super clubs
We should have Super clubs, I'm talking about a sporting club like
Penrith Panther not just being a NRL club, having an AFL team and a soccer team, covering every sport and all ages. Not just ‘A’ grade but every grade and every sport.
Why!
Well the way I see it's like this, when I was a boy I played one main sport which was field hockey, but also gave a few other sports a try. I did a year of Rugby union and played Rugby league at school, tennis, squash, soccer, cricket and even basketball only to find I was too short, still enjoyed shooting hoops. But even through I've played quite a few I still would have like to played AFL and ice hockey, which was roll-a-hockey in those days in Sunny North Queensland and many others, always wondering how much fun this or that sport would be. Could I do that!
But I did ok in hockey, making town and state sides in my young days, and had many great trips away with so much fun and excitement. But I was one of 7 children and I know it was hard for mum and dad to afford the trips and fees, club fee in those days were only $70 per child x seven that $490, even our club shirts were second hand passed down from child to child. But we were still lucky; some of my friends couldn't afford the trips away or even the club fees.
A mate of mine Joseph Chiliburra who played backyard hockey with me, family and every willing neighbourhood kids for a number of years, he was good at times very good but his family couldn't afford even the hockey stick. He played with one of my old ones. Not that they were new, they were rebuilt older brothers broken sticks, glued together some time better then a new stick.
So how do I see theses “super clubs” working.
- One uniform cover n number of sports in the same club. Logo and advertising, marketing saving.
- Combine coaches and training procedure, ideas and techniques that are common across sports.
- Accounts and financial management and club facilities used all year round everyone gets to benefit.
- One registration process and stand forms and procedure.
- Being able to cross over into other sports easily, or on the advice of coaches.
- Sign up fees, cost of the uniform.
- A feeling of united, able to support your club in many sports. Just like how we support our state or country.
- Instead of just footy club member socializing you would have a mix of people all enjoying the club and a love of sports.
- An appreciation of other sports and get rid of this notion that this or that sport is better than another.
I'm sure there are many more great reasons but what I don't see is why not, or why it's never happen before.
I can remember playing for a hockey club called Commercial which we work hard and fund raised to build our club house, and at the same time we shared an area with a volleyball club who were also building their club house. That, if I can remember was right behind ours but facing the other way towards their fields. We never saw them much. They could have used our club house instead of building the 2.
This should start with small clubs (but it won't). It will start when the large clubs get better managed and see the economics of it and then it will be 'stop this super club taking over our little club’.
What if government funding or land usage was somehow tied in to merging small clubs.
Brothers hockey club Google map pictures and Commercial hockey had volleyball clubs images.
I also would put up the idea of sport benefit all Australian because of health (see my idea on heath), and financially. We are a small country and we have an impressive record in sporting achievements, we love our sport, let’s use this love of sport to create 10 Greg Norman's, 1000 Andrews Johns and thousand new great sport people to go out into the world and flog that in every sport and bring home the prize money with the national pride.
Building joining and growing sporting clubs; Penrith Panther sailing, scouts and league club.
By Damien Huxley.
Added on the Monday, 15/9/2008