More than one third of the vouchers redeemed as part of the State Government’s Ticket to Play initiative to date have been cashed in to allow Tasmanian children to enjoy football, highlighting the popularity of The World Game across the state.
New Government figures show that of the 5,200 Ticket to Play vouchers issued, 3,079 have been redeemed, with 1095 (35.56% of total) being used to play football. 584 vouchers were used to play football in the south, 252 in the north and 259 in the north-west showing a genuine state-wide interest in the sport.
Football Tasmania President Bob Gordon thanked the Tasmanian Government for implementing the initiative, which was designed to reduce the cost of participating in club sporting activities for Tasmanian children. Children listed on valid concessions cards can use the voucher to receive up to $100 discount on the cost of a sports membership or registration.
“We know cost can be a barrier to sports participation access for many families, and we congratulate the Government for addressing this issue so that more Tasmanians can reap the benefits of playing sport,” Mr Gordon said.
“It’s definitely pleasing to see so many young Tasmanians using the Ticket to Play voucher for football, but not necessarily a surprise as the figures reflect the status of football as the state’s favourite game.
“Nearly 35,000 Tasmanians participated in football between 2016-18, while across the same period, 25,000 played AFL.
“Instead of allocating funds to sports in an ad-hoc manner, the ‘user chooses’ system of Ticket to Play essentially allocates funding to sports based on their participation levels.
“This fair and equitable approach to funding should be applauded, and we call on the Government to continue to consider participation as a key performance indicator when allocating funding in the future.
“We are not in any way suggesting other sports don’t deserve funding. Quite the opposite. We are simply suggesting that in the interests of fairness and equity, there needs to be a transparent process for allocating funding.
“We accept that the State Government is limited in the amount of funding it can provide to sports in Tasmania – that is why it is even more important to ensure that there is a fair, performance-based and participation-based model for allocating recurrent funding between sports