Hockey ACT has lost $60,000 in ACT government funding, chief executive Terry Evans claiming "the carpet was pulled out from under us" by Hockey Australia's decision to condense the format of the Australian Hockey League.
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Evans remains confident Canberra's premier men's and women's hockey teams, the Lakers and Strikers respectively, will still be able to contest the re-formatted AHL competitions, from September 27 to October 5.
But the ACT teams, which include Olympians Anna Flanagan, Andrew Charter and Glenn Turner, have been forced to organise sausage sizzles, raffles and seek individual sponsorship to make up for the funding shortfall.
Traditionally staged as a home-and-away round-robin tournament over a number of weeks, Hockey Australia has condensed the AHL to a nine day tournament at two host cities – Melbourne for the men and Hobart for the women.
The decision has effectively made the ACT Lakers and Strikers ineligible for the ACT Government funding provided to national sporting teams, given Canberra will no longer stage home matches.
Evans was not critical of the ACT Government, which he said remained supportive.
But he feared Hockey Australia's decision would not only cut Hockey ACT's funding, but also "significantly diminish" the sport's flagship national event.
"That [funding] shortfall now, unfortunately, needs to go back to the individual athletes," Evans said, estimating an extra $2000 would need to be found by each player.
"I really want to stress this is in no way a criticism of the ACT Government, because they've been very understanding ... It needs to be a full national competition [to qualify for ACT Government funding], and we certainly met that criteria until, unfortunately, the carpet was pulled out from under us [by Hockey Australia]."
Ironically, one of Hockey Australia's key factors in condensing the AHL was because of the "financial burden" an extended home-and-away season placed on the states and territories.
A Hockey Australia spokesman cited the shorter format was modelled on international tournaments such as the Champions Trophy and World League, and also in response the limited availability of Australia's best international players.
He said Hockey Australia constantly reviewed competitions, but plans are to stick with the new shorter format.
"The decision to move to the revised format involved significant in-depth consultation with a range of stakeholders, including the CEOs of the state associations who were central to the process," the spokesman said.
Evans, however, felt it could restrict the development opportunities and make the step between domestic and international competition more difficult.
He said the ACT had been lobbying to try and introduce an alternate national club or regional competition to ensure development continued on the second tier, below the Australian Kookaburras and Hockeyroos.
"We need to reignite discussion of what this national competition looks like," Evans said.
"For me it's not just about the funding, it's about the growth of the sport, the profile of the sport domestically. This was our blue chip domestic event and it's been significantly diminished.
"The step now from domestic competition to international competition is significant, before we had one of the premier competitions in the world."