Sportsville Partnership Feasibility Fund

About this funding

• The Sportsville Feasibility Fund of $40,000 per year has been established to support feasibility studies for sportsville projects.
• An additional fund - the ‘Sportsville Partnership Fund’ of $500,000 per year – is proposed from 2018/19 to assist with the design and construction stage of projects.  Applications for this partnership fund will open in mid-2018.

‘Sportsville’ brings economies of scale by providing shared facilities and services for sports clubs and codes, eg changing rooms, fields, administration, IT services, social areas.

Successful Sportsville projects enable clubs to focus on developing and improving services for existing and potential members. Background information is available within the hubs and sportsville partnerships section.

The feasibility fund aims to support projects in their developmental phase and acknowledges that projects may require the development of business cases, planning (e.g. developing constitutions and financial systems) and resource consent studies, and other information.

Priority sites

The Council has identified some hubs as priorities and is focusing its resources on these priority sites.

How to apply

Once you have met with Council officers, you will need to provide a detailed proposal by the closing date of 15 August 2017. Officers will then assess the proposal and make a recommendation to the Grants SubCommittee.

Council outcomes

Projects will need to demonstrate that they make a positive contribution to achieving the Council's strategic outcomes.

Towards 2040: Smart Capital strategy

• People Centred City: Contributes to healthy, vibrant, affordable and resilient communities, with a strong sense of identity and ‘place’ expressed through urban form, openness and accessibility.
• Connected City: Supports a city with easy physical and virtual access to regional, national and global networks.
• Eco-City: Allows the city to proactively respond to environmental challenges and seize opportunities to grow the green economy.
• Dynamic Central City: Supports a central city of creativity, exploration and innovation, helping Wellington to offer the lifestyle, entertainment and amenity of a much bigger city.

Our Capital Spaces – an Open Space and Recreation Framework for Wellington

Projects supported will contribute to the Councils’ strategic goals, as outlined in Our Capital Spaces – An Open Spaces and Recreation Framework for Wellington: 2013–2023. One of these goals is to have shared facilities in major sport and recreation hubs located in Wellington City, e.g. Kilbirnie Park, Hataitai Park, Wakefield Park.

Sportsville Partnership Feasibility Fund criteria

Projects must be Wellington-based and mainly benefit the people of Wellington City.

The project should show evidence of community support, collaboration, and building partnerships with other organisations, and:

• demonstrate that there is community need for the facility. The feasibility study must include a comprehensive needs assessment
• show alignment with Council service levels and provision (for sport and recreation facilities), and have support from regional and national sporting bodies e.g. Sport Wellington and Sport New Zealand
• demonstrate that the facility is identified as a major sport and recreation hub and is located in Wellington city.

Applicants must demonstrate that there are no existing facilities, or existing facilities are aging, unsustainable (no longer fit for purpose) and in need of replacement, and:

• that the new facility or partnership will improve and rationalise the sporting and recreation facilities in the area and region and generally support outdoor multipurpose sports use. It will improve community involvement and promote health and physical activity within the local and wider community.

Applicants will show evidence that the project can be partly self-funded. There needs to be over 50% funding that is independent from Council’s contribution for the design and construction stage (this is a guideline only and not an indication of the amount of funding the Council will provide).

Applicants must be a legally constituted not-for-profit community group, trust or organisation, ie Incorporated Society or Charitable Trust, and financially sound.

• Applicants will show evidence of good financial management and organisational practices, eg clear and detailed planning and reporting processes, or (for newly established groups/trust/organisations) evidence to show that processes are in place to support ongoing financial management. This information should be part of a Business Plan.
• Applicants cannot be individuals, commercial, or ‘for profit’ organisations.

These funds will not support retrospective funding applications, debt funding, or operation and/or maintenance costs.

Making an application

The detailed proposal will include the following:

• A description of the scope of the work, including:
  • a description of any existing facilities
  • site plans
  • stages of the project.
• An indicative budget for design and construction including an outline of how the balance of funding for design and construction will be sourced (from other income, grants, donations, bequests etc).
• At least one recent quote or estimate (within 3 months of the closing date) from a professional, that relates directly to the feasibility work applied for.
• Detailed planning and reporting processes, or (for newly established groups/trust/organisations) evidence to show that processes are in place to support ongoing financial management.

Please note that applications for this fund are made directly to Council’s Parks, Sports and Recreation team and not via the Council online funding portal.

To find out more about these criteria, see: Ordinary Meetings of Community, Sport and Recreation Committee (PDF 1.55MB)

How applications are assessed and decisions made

• Applications will need to meet criteria for the fund.
• Though there is no current design criteria, Council are engaging with Sport New Zealand for an ‘off the shelf’ design for buildings for ‘sportsville’ type projects, these types of design would be encouraged.
• Funding decisions will be made by Council’s Community, Sport and Recreation Committee.
• A signed Memorandum of Understanding with Council and the entity making the application will form part of the funding agreement.  This will set out intentions of each party and shared objectives and outcomes.
• Council may impose conditions when offering grants which might include staged release of funding or specify the involvement of a Council Officer in meetings and negotiations with contractors.
• Unsuccessful proposals can be re-submitted for consideration at a later date.

For more information about funding, see: How Funding Decisions Are Made

Grant conditions

Council may impose conditions when offering grants, as set out below:

1. Grants will be subject to availability of funds in any particular year
2. Only one grant will be considered for each project
3. Approval of the consultant
4. Council officers must approve the scope/brief for the feasibility study before work commences
5. Council officers must approve the draft feasibility study before the final report is completed