This week, Hockey NZ confirmed $1.5m per yr in core funding from Excessive Efficiency Sport New Zealand (HPSNZ) for the lads’s and ladies’s Vantage Black Sticks for the following 4 years 2025 – 2028 – a discount from $1.75m per yr in 2024. This funding helps crucial prices like journey, occasions, and training.
Moreover, HPSNZ has determined to not present direct athlete funds or help companies for crew sports activities, which totalled $1.44m for hockey in 2024. Mixed, this represents a $1.69m discount in funding for hockey.
Whereas disappointing, this choice displays the aggressive nature of high-performance funding. It does pose instant challenges to how we help our programmes, and we’ll work to steadiness sources throughout our programmes to minimise the influence.
We’re significantly dissatisfied for our athletes who make huge sacrifices to signify New Zealand.
This choice by HPSNZ additional reinforces the significance of our high-performance technique and the necessity to permit our athletes to steadiness work, research and importantly, to decide on the place they’re primarily based. Crucial to that is guaranteeing a high quality nationwide high-performance system and persevering with the work already underway, together with the event of the Premier Hockey League, revised home competitions, clear pathways, and rising younger expertise by distinctive teaching and talent growth.
Our males’s and ladies’s groups have proven good progress, with rising gamers which means the longer term is wanting vivid. As we plan for long-term change, we’re additionally targeted on guaranteeing our athletes have alternatives to develop and carry out proper now.
To ease the transition, HPSNZ will present funding for the primary quarter of 2025 underneath the earlier mannequin, giving us time to regulate.
Planning for these adjustments is already underway. We’re actively exploring new funding alternatives to help our athletes, coaches, and workers whereas refining our technique to function inside our means. Your continued help is crucial as we navigate this era of change.
