Push for sport to kick tourism goals

The Mid West Sports Federation is keen to explore sport tourism opportunities throughout the Mid West.

In a meeting last week, federation chairman Mike Bowley met with stakeholders across a number of sectors and outlined the federation’s vision for a newMid West Sports Tourism project.

Over the next year, the federation and a designated project team will collect data from a variety of sporting events in a bid to identify the relevant economic and social benefits and long-term legacies of each event.

Once collected, it is hoped current events can be strengthened and there will be a greater likelihood of the Mid West successfully bidding for new sporting events.

Mr Bowley said he felt the meeting was productive and all contributions from attending stakeholders were positive.

“I think we’ve got good representation,” he said.

“We’ve got to address the governance of the project, so that was one of the major things we needed to do today.

“Put in place a governance structure around the project — how we are going to manage it, how we are going to manage implementation of the project.

“I was pleased that it went pretty well.”

Mr Bowley said there were some simple things Mid West residents could do if they wanted to help with the project, or were keen for new major events to be held here.

“I believe the person who most wants to make a contribution to this (the project) is probably a member of a local club or association now,” he said.

“We know everyone is struggling at the moment. It’s tough to run clubs and associations, and both volunteer and participation numbers are dropping.

“Look at this as an opportunity to get involved in what might turn out to be a collaborative event — a collaboration between a whole range of sports which can be good for everybody down the track.

“Any little contribution by anyone is going to be really accepted. As we roll out the tool and start collecting the data, that’s when we want people to be engaged.

“Getting engaged with your local club and association is what we really want them do and helping us get through the next 12 months in collecting the data. The intention is if we identify opportunities to empower clubs and associations better, or build capacity somewhere along the line, then we’ll take every opportunity to do that as we go along.”