The economic value of sport and recreation to the Waikato region

Abstract

Sport and recreation are highly valued in New Zealand. Individuals and communities invest considerable amounts of time and money in sport and recreation. A number of government agencies invest in sport and recreation and local councils invest billions of dollars in sport and recreation facilities. Community clubs and private businesses complement these public facilities by providing their own goods and services to New Zealanders engaged in sport and recreation. Given this high level of public and private investment, it is important to understand the benefits (minus any costs) resulting from participation in sport and recreation. Consequently, SPARC commissioned Professor Paul Dalziel to prepare a comprehensive framework to value the benefits of sport and recreation for New Zealand as a whole and for thirteen regions. This report presents the results for the Waikato region. It begins by summarising what is known about participation and volunteering in sport and recreation in the region. The rest of this section explains in more detail the reasons for valuing sport and recreation, how the sport and recreation sector is defined for this work, how the contribution to regional gross domestic product (GDP) is estimated, and the content of the report.