Heath Mills: Some solutions to school sport broadcasting mess

There has been much recent concern expressed about the growing professionalisation of youth and school sport environments in New Zealand. Photo / Photosport.co.nz

The CEO of the NZ Cricket Players' Association and former secondary school teacher Heath Mills has been a consistent voice against the widespread televising of youth sport but has been criticised for identifying problems, not solutions. This is his response.

There has been much recent concern expressed about the growing professionalisation of youth and school sport environments in New Zealand.

The discussion is long overdue given the escalating issues that are starting to manifest. These include but are not limited to: the commodification of our young people, the professionalisation of school team environments, and the amplification through collective broadcast of performance failures, social media abuse, media scrutiny, over-training, burnout, identity issues and entitlement syndrome.

This isn't the case in a number of schools where many teachers and coaches work to ensure a balanced education is the primary focus of the students but it's happening enough to cause concern. The problem has been exacerbated by national sports organisations (NSOs) who, strapped for cash, have taken the money from the New Zealand Sport Collective (NZSC) and signed up their age-group programmes to Sky Sport to broadcast.

Sky has done so apparently with the intent of providing a "public good" by helping get kids sport out there but with what appears to be no consideration for the unintended consequences of their actions. If we have any lesson to learn from professional sport it's that as soon as you collectively broadcast it through a major platform you take the commercialisation of the sport, and all that comes with it, to a whole new level.

Peter Miskimmin, Sport NZ CEO. Photo / Tania Whyte.

This is a complex issue which has developed as a result of a number of factors, including the emergence of professional sport in the last 20 years, a youth and school sport environment that is largely unregulated, children and parents who see sport as a career pathway and a culture and high-performance funding ethos that places winning above participation.

The problem is exacerbated by the fact youth sport involves a disjointed collection of schools, clubs, regional sports organisations and NSOs, each having skin in the game. This complexity means there are few people or organisations you can point to who have an overarching responsibility for the environment.

However, there is one organisation who should be trying to fill that void: Sport New Zealand.

Sport NZ is the self-described "guardian" of sport and represent the Government; if any organisation should be standing up and trying to lead us to a better solution it's them. But sadly, they've been nowhere on this issue.

There is no doubt they have many good staff that are concerned and understand the issues, we know this because they talk to us. But as we saw from the recent OIA emails of their leaders, rather than sound the alarm, they have in fact been encouraging of the introduction and collectivisation of broadcast rights for youth sport, which was described as "a mighty piece of work" by the CEO.

They also appear to have fallen in behind the NZSC and Sky TV out of fear of the individuals involved and to have their own interests enhanced.

Most alarmingly, they appear to have taken this supportive position because they don't know what solutions exist to help lead this over-heated environment to a better place. This is hard to believe given they now have $150 million of taxpayer funding each year, two organisations, multiple directors and hundreds of staff.

Heath Mills and John Bracewell at the New Zealand Cricket 125th Annual General Meeting (AGM). Photo / Photosport.co.nz

There is much they can do to deal with the issue.

1. If the various NSOs have signed their youth events to the NZSC broadcast entity for profit it destroys the weak argument from Sport NZ that they don't have any control or influence over what is happening. The taxpayer significantly funds these NSOs, so put a stop to that funding until the various issues can be worked through appropriately, involving people who actually understand them.

2. With regard to the schools, walk down Lambton Quay and get the Minister to haul the principals from the "leading" sports schools into his office and challenge them on some of the negative consequences starting to occur and the impact on our youth. Influence them to understand the issues and to work together to find a better way. In my experience, these are extremely capable people who will understand the problems and will ultimately work together to find solutions – it's better that way than some form of regulation being imposed on them. Yes scholarships and money in school sport has been around for years but it's now going to a new level and I believe there are still a lot of good people in these schools who are starting to understand the issues and want to find a solution that's fair for all. You don't need to control something to lead and influence it if you have mana like Grant Robertson.

3. Provide all stakeholders with clarity. Get a legal review completed looking into the school and individual IP rights involved in these transactions to understand what these are and how they've been acquired for profit. Seek to understand if the organisations involved actually have the legal or moral ability to do so. This is a complex matter which cuts to the heart of the commodification of youth. Then disseminate your findings widely and in doing so challenge those who need to be challenged – you're the Government, people tend to listen. Maybe even support this piece of work by walking a bit further down the road and knocking on the door of the Children's Commissioner – they may have a take on the issue that no one in sport administration has considered.

4. Commission a group of academics to independently complete research into the impact of the current environments on our youth. What do they think when they exit? What can they tell us about their experiences? Where are they now? Lead the sector in getting access to peer-reviewed evidence about the environment and its outcomes.

5. Most importantly, use your considerable power, given you fund the entire sector, to challenge, advocate, cajole and influence. It's a mess out there; try to help people to tidy it up.

Work like this will help everyone get to better answers; perhaps even those who are benefitting from the professionalisation of youth might start to think about the consequences of their actions. They may even contribute to meaningful and constructive solutions instead of waving a toothless and ineffectual "Charter" at us; a poor attempt to convince us they are a bastion of values and virtue.

* Perhaps we might then get to a position where we only conduct professional broadcast of youth and school sport on isolated occasions, therefore limiting exposure of our youth.

* Maybe NSOs accept that if they're going to take taxpayer money they can't sell their youth sport events to the highest bidder.

* Maybe an understanding of the IP rights involved pre-empts work on policy or legislation that prohibits these being taken by third parties and exploited.

* Perhaps stronger collective rules can be agreed by schools where they limit the spend on their leading sports teams and this is subject to audit each year.

* Perhaps schools can ensure there is limited access to their environments by putting together meaningful accreditation processes so we know who's lurking in the shadows.

* Develop a professional code of ethics for coaches who operate in schools and hold to account any poor behaviours.

* Invest in communications to ensure every child and parent understands that we're a country of just five million and that you don't need to go to certain places to get noticed if you're any good.

* Continue to push the messaging so they understand the negative consequences of focusing on sport too early and the impact on well-being when things don't go well if you do.

* Develop an education programme that all schools can deliver with the support of professional athletes who know and understand all too well the issues at hand.

There are many other people who could contribute constructively to the conversation and get us to a better outcome, if only there was someone to bring them together.

But we hear nothing from the leaders of Sport NZ, other than public comments which tacitly normalise the professionalisation of youth and school sport – the complete opposite of what we need.

Sadly we are at the point that if we are to get meaningful and proactive contribution from Wellington on this issue, we need to either change direction at head office or change the people.

Over to you, Minister.