I applaud our sporting clubs and community groups for coming together and speaking with one voice.

If clubs are struggling with rising costs, ageing facilities, or fees that seem out of step with others in Tasmania, they are right to speak up, and our community should listen. If concerns have been raised for years and people feel they are not being heard, those conversations need to happen now.

These are the spaces where our kids make friends, volunteers give their time, families gather on weekends and communities are built. Good sporting facilities are as important to a healthy community as schools, parks, playgrounds and libraries.

But amongst that valid concern another argument was made that needs more scrutiny.

It was the call for our Council to allow signs promoting politicians who support their clubs. It was described as a loss of advertising revenue, then as sponsorship, and ultimately as politicians who “put their hand in their own pocket to support sporting clubs” should be allowed to display their signs at sporting facilities.

At first, that sounds fair. After all, if somebody helps your club, shouldn’t they be thanked? Of course they should.

But if someone is genuinely supporting a club because they care about local sport, why should that support depend on a political sign being displayed on public land?

A club can thank supporters on its website, in newsletters, at presentations, on social media and at club events. The support can still be recognised. The club still receives the benefit.

The only thing missing is the political sign.

So perhaps the real question is this: If politicians are truly putting their hand in their own pocket to support sporting clubs, would they still do it if their face wasn’t on the fence?

If politicians are truly putting their hand in their own pocket to support sporting clubs, would they still do it if their face wasn’t on the fence?

If the answer is yes, that’s wonderful. The club still benefits and the community still wins. If the answer is no, then maybe the support was never entirely about the sport.

Let’s be honest. A sporting ground is one of the most powerful advertising locations in any community. Every week it brings together children, players, parents, grandparents, volunteers, coaches, supporters, committee members, referees and visitors from other clubs.
Some people spend more time at their local sporting club than almost anywhere else outside home or work.

When a politician’s name or face appears around a sporting ground, it is being presented to one of the largest and most trusted community audiences available.

If that wasn’t valuable, nobody would be asking for it.

Clarence City Council is not unusual in having rules about political advertising on public land. When people say, “other councils allow it”, they may well be describing what they have seen. Political signs do appear at some sporting grounds around Tasmania. But that does not necessarily mean they comply with local policy, that the ground is council-owned, or that similar rules are being actively enforced elsewhere.

Public sporting facilities should not be used for political promotion at all.

Let’s have the important debate about affordable sport, fair fees and better facilities.
Let’s invest in our clubs.
Let’s support our volunteers.
Let’s make sure every child can afford to play.

But let’s also recognise the difference between acknowledging a generous supporter and giving a political figure ongoing visibility in front of thousands of children, players, parents, grandparents, volunteers, coaches and supporters who pass through our sporting facilities.

One is a thank you.
The other is influence.

Public sporting facilities should be designed to grow sport, strengthen community and support families. Let’s keep politics off the fence and keep the focus where it belongs: on the kids, the volunteers and the future of community sport.

READ Clarence clubs rally against $63k council fee hike | The Mercury

LISTEN to ABC Hobart Breakfast – Clarence Clubs Unite Over Council Feeshttps://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/hobart-breakfast/clarence-clubs-unite-over-council-fees/107228432?