Here is some food for thought.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
As we enter another month of lockdown, the effects COVID-19 will have on sport are becoming clearer by the day.
In the National Basketball League, salaries have been slashed, players are opting out of contracts, while other competitions like the A-League hang on a knife's edge.
What the standard of play will look like post coronavirus is unknown, but with less money at the top, a drop off looks imminent.
But could a decline at the national level mark a new era for elite community sport?
Basketball Ballarat chief executive Peter Eddy is bullish it can.
"In the wash up we'll need to make decisions about the structure of our teams," Eddy said.
"What I'm excited about is we had a youth league men's team win a championship last year and we have some great emerging talent coming through.
"They are capable at playing at the NBL1 level and I think it's a great opportunity for the athletes and Basketball Ballarat as an entity to provide more opportunities and stronger pathways for kids in our western region who want that opportunity."
After studying the numbers, Eddy anticipates a 30-50 per cent drop in revenue once business gets back up and running after COVID-19.
With the majority of funding for its elite programs coming from corporate and community sponsorship, the model for both senior and junior elite squads will be impacted across the board.
Player salaries will likely take a hit in order to accommodate for in-season travel, accommodation and coaching. The question of imports will also be considered - whether to reduce numbers or to play without any at all.
The reduction of imports would no doubt impede the standard of play, but the ability to have more local talent also comes with a pay off, said Eddy.
As the long-time boss of the organisation, Eddy has seen a number of teams capture the hearts of the Ballarat community and and not all of them boasted championship credentials.
"Engagement ebbs and flows on the characters within the team, more so on how engaged the players are themselves," he said.
"I think back to that first couple of years where we took a group of Ballarat kids who had never played above state league, division two and enabled them to compete.
"We didn't have a championship team but we had a competitive team, and they played their guts out.
"The community got to love that era and really enjoyed it."
Eddy said his vision for Ballarat's elite teams was always to have a bigger reliance on the regional pathway as opposed to having to recruit externally.
He is a firm believer that if engagement at the community level is strong, national competitions like the NBL and the A-League would take care of itself.
"The greater the depth out of our region, the better off the community and programs further up," he said.
"Good talent will always be identified, and if we can build a broad base I strongly believe we'll maintain it."
Eddy isn't the only subscriber to this theory.
Ballarat City coach James Robinson, who heads Ballarat's elite soccer program in the National Premier League implemented a fully localised model in 2019.
After losing Japanese import Riki Hosoai during last year's transfer period, Ballarat City played the remainder of the season with mainly local talent.
The results were somewhat mixed.
Although the club struggled in the win column, the model fast-tracked the development of a number of young players who would otherwise never have gotten the opportunity.
By the season's end the club was competitive. A handful even earned training invitations from A-League clubs.
"Going into the year we wanted to build on last year's experience," Robinson said.
"We were pleased where the players were at and it was really exciting and it was really positive to see the growth of the next batch of young players coming through."
Following the season, Robinson unveiled plans for the club to become a development hub for Western Victoria.
The vision aimed to draw players from the outer reaches of the state in the hopes of solidifying Ballarat as part of the pathway to elite football.
It is his hope that Ballarat can one day boast a program strong enough to compete in a touted national second tier competition.
And due to shortfalls brought about by COVID-19, such a competition might now be in play.
Chairman of the Australian Association of Football Clubs, Nick Galatas told Nine Media in April the crisis could accelerate plans to introduce promotion and relegation and a fully integrated pyramid system at state and national levels.
''I see it as an opportunity for the game to be recalibrated in a manner which reflects the real support and the real position in the community which the game holds - rather than an arbitrary level that was set some time ago which doesn't reflect the reality,'' Galatas says.
For Robinson, the crisis represents a chance to breath new life into community soccer.
"I think it creates a great opportunity for the whole of the game and that's the direction everyone is pushing towards," he said.
