Page 4421 - Week 14 - Tuesday, 22 November 2005
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As well as that funding, like major sports events in the ACT, additional funding is being provided through the Australian Capital Tourism Corporation. A commitment of up to $90,000 is aimed specifically at marketing and promotion of the event, particularly to interstate markets, to maximise the visitation benefit to the ACT. We expect this to be a very well attended event.
Hockey is a fairly popular sport across Australia and a very popular sport in the ACT. It receives, on an annual basis, regular peak body funding of around $42,000 and has received additional funding so that they can rationalise their former men’s and women’s associations.
At the same time as building up the hockey centre we have been able to maximise the benefit that will accrue by building what they call a very large athlete-conditioning centre. I keep calling it the gymnasium. There is a big one of those under the northern stand. It is available to the ACT Academy of Sport for conditioning. What we have now is a facility of international standard. It has been compared with the world’s best by people involved in hockey just this week. We have that world-class facility and we have an extension of the capacity to provide for the Academy of Sport, in particular, a gymnasium that is readily accessible to athletes with a disability.
In the overall context, it has been a fantastic project for the ACT and for hockey. I hope members avail themselves of any invitations they have to pop out and look at some of the champions trophy.
MS PORTER: What media exposure will the ACT attract from hosting the women’s champions trophy?
Mr Hargreaves: There is nothing in the Canberra Times.
MR QUINLAN: Not quite. The Canberra Times has covered the champions trophy and the build-up to it pretty well. You wouldn’t reckon the ACT government made any commitment. That bit drops off the coverage. Nevertheless, the major point is that the event is getting publicity. There will be a worldwide focus on Australia.
I am advised that this will be the most broadcast women’s champions trophy. There will be something like 14 hours on the ABC. Korea’s games will be televised live by a cable network with 10 million subscribers. There will be ACT radio broadcasts of Australian matches. The hockey federation has negotiated broadcasts through Malaysia, Beijing, Argentina, Eurosport to London and Paris, Guangdong, the Netherlands, Shanghai and Dubai. It will get very considerable media coverage while it is on. It is certainly a much better investment than this territory has made in the past in sporting facilities in terms of international coverage.
I close by saying that there are several sports in the ACT where the ACT does fight above its weight. That includes both rugby codes, rowing, cycling and hockey. It is our intention to make sure that, over the years, we build on that capacity and make Canberra a genuine centre of excellence for those sports where we have some edge and build on that edge. I expect to see a continuation of representation from the ACT in national sides—in hockey and in other sports.
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