By Alexandra Brothers
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
August 11, 2023 Edition
Cuts in funding from the City of Mount Pearl has made for significant changes to the Mount Pearl Sport Alliance this year.
The first such organization of its kind in the province when it was established years ago, the Sport Alliance unites 13 different sporting clubs within the city.
It was originally established, explained Alliance chairman Roy Locke, to lessen the workload of the organizers of each of the sports bodies, which include groups such as Mount Pearl Minor Hockey. Mount Pearl Minor Soccer and Campia Gymnastics. The Sport Alliance has offered a valuable service to the community of Mount Pearl over the years according to Locke.
“It’s been a long time in existence, and it serves a lot of purpose,” he said. “Most of the sports organizations, of course, are run by volunteers, so the Sport Alliance takes some of that workload when it comes to fundraising (and) special events.”
A few years ago, the Alliance raised some $300,000 for the sporting community through its Chase the Ace fundraiser. The organization also played an important role in organizing community recognition initiatives like the Focus on Youth Awards, the Sports Hall of Fame, and the Athlete of the Year awards.
Last year, the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the City and the Sport Alliance which governed its funding was nearly double what it is this year. The grant was awarded in two installments. The first, in the amount of $87,000, was an operating grant sanctioned to cover administration costs for the Alliance, which operated in offices above the Glacier with two staff people. The second installment, in the amount of $80,000, was earmarked for sharing among the 13 Sport Alliance member organizations.
This year, the City granted just one installment in the amount of $87,000 for sharing among the sports groups. The funds were allotted for the period of July 1, 2023, to December 31, 2024. The motion to grant reduced funding was passed unanimously at a public council meeting on July 25.
Mayor Dave Aker said that although the City decided to reduce funding for the Alliance as part of its 2023 budget, it will “continue to support all the sports in the City of Mount Pearl, along with all the Sport Alliance, its board of directors and the like.”
The cut means the loss of two jobs and the full time efforts and fundraising, organization and help with logistics and special events that those people provided.
“Ideally the impact will be on administration before it would be directly on the youth sports here in the City of Mount Pearl,” said Aker.
The administrators involved with Sport Alliance will likely have to restructure their operation, allowed Aker, but their office will not close altogether. Aker said that decisions regarding how the Alliance will allocate its reduced funding are essentially up to its board members. The staffing, Aker added, “will be by way of a different model, and it’s up to chairman Locke as well as the board of directors to decide exactly how that goes forward.”
Locke confirmed the Alliance’s restructuring. “Last December, we were informed by the director of recreation, Jason Collins, that the funding that has been provided since 1994 for the administration of the Sport Alliance has been cut, which resulted in our full-time staff positions being eliminated,” he said.
Locke, who has been volunteering with the Sport Alliance since 1998, said the organization will now rely entirely on volunteers like himself to keep its operations running. Locke thinks this shift could present some challenges to individual local sports teams in Mount Pearl. Eliminating full-time positions puts a strain on volunteers, he explained. The volunteers who have taken over the responsibilities of the Alliance have their own personal and work lives, so their contributions to the Sport Alliance might not always be their top priority, he allowed.
Aker said the City is committed to continuing to support Mount Pearl athletics through its contributions to the Sport Alliance.
“We won’t see the Sport Alliance not supported,” said Aker, who added the City is prepared to provide additional administrative support to the Alliance and individual sports teams in order to make up for the reduced administrative funding to the Alliance. “The City is prepared to step in and our department of recreation will essentially provide some of the back-office stuff and the administration support that the Sport Alliance requires to operate on a daily basis,” he said.
The Bob Hillier Volunteer Centre, where the Sport Alliance was based and which was named after the group’s late catalyst, will also remain open.
“We did not want to see any impact negatively on the sports, we support our youth recreation in the city,” said Aker, noting the grant funding for individual sports has not changed due to the budget cuts. He said the City will continue to support sports organizations in Mount Pearl, large and small.
“With the bigger sports within the City of Mount Pearl,” he said, “we want them to know that we will support them with infrastructure, and we’ll support their existence through a grant program.”
The smaller sports groups on the other hand can rely on both the City itself and the Sport Alliance, said Aker. This is why the Alliance is important, he added, because it offers additional managerial support to smaller teams that may not be able to hire managers full-time. He added the City is “really grateful” for the existence of the Sport Alliance and that its efforts are needed to keep the sports community united.
In spite of its new challenges, “the Sport Alliance is still alive and well,” said Locke and will keep making presentations to council every year to justify its need for continued funding.
“Hopefully we’ll be successful in the future and keep going,” Locke said.
