With the furore this week about the ‘burgeoning budgets’ for 2012 filling the back and front pages, it was great today to see the IRB ‘quietly’ getting on with the business of investing back into the game by announcing a £23m investment into world rugby for next year…at least £6m+ of which looks headed into ‘development programmes’.
Football is the most visible sport when it comes to its community investments (thanks in part to the huge impact of the Football Foundation), but rugby union has taken big strides in the ten years since it went pro to ensure money is channelled into its grass roots development and communities – looking after the future, so to speak. Investment has come from the RFU, but also from the Premier Rugby Clubs, who recently picked up a % Club award from Business in the Community.
Sport is trying really hard to invest back in the development of sport. Government is trying to drive elite success and grass roots participation. The problem is that there isnt enough media attention, especially TV, focussed on the ’soft’, grass roots. This means the traditional ‘value’ (awareness) is low, so the price stays low, so the investment stays low, so the impact stays low….ad infinitum.
Solutions: (1) The BBC should dedicate a channel to grass roots community sports (2) Business leaders should put greater emphasis on sports as a mechanism for delivering their CSR policies or programmes. With health in the workplace a critical and coming issue for employers and society, sport clearly has a powerful role to play both ‘on the park’ and ‘in the workplace’.