The Minister of Sport and Recreation Murray McCully is welcoming the agreement in principle to form a new entity to focus on high performance sport. The proposal to merge the high performance unit of SPARC and the two New Zealand Academies of Sport is the result of discussions between the three bodies over recent months.
"Today's announcement is a very positive response from the sector to the injection of new capital and operating funding by the Government last year. I indicated at the time that we wanted efficient delivery mechanisms that focused the maximum levels of support to athletes and provided them with a simple point of connection with the system," said Mr McCully.
"While there are clearly important details to be worked through over the coming weeks I welcome the fact that leaders from the three key bodies have so clearly placed the delivery of support for athletes to the fore in making the in principle decision to merge."
"I also welcome the close involvement of the New Zealand Olympic Committee and the representatives of the national sporting organisations who have a significant stake in the final structure," he said.
"This is an important development in the government focus on making New Zealand athletes the best of the best. The strategy is to have a single entity dedicated to high performance sport with world class training facilities available," said Mr McCully.
"A merger of these three organisations will simplify and streamline our high performance system and give it an increased focus on excellence, which will benefit athletes, coaches and sports organisations," he said.
"It is expected the high performance sport entity will use shared services where possible to avoid duplication and ensure that overhead costs are minimised," said Mr McCully.
Work is underway on the design and transition plan for the new high performance unit with the objective of having a July 1st start date.
The working group is made up from representatives from the two NZ Academies of Sport and SPARCs higher performance board as well as representatives of other national sport organisations and the NZ Olympic Committee.
