Sport Austria calls on politicians: sports facilities initiative and health initiative
Weeks before the election, Sport Austria asked all major parties standing in the 2024 National Council election for statements on urgently needed investment in sport and compiled a catalogue of demands. The Austrian Ice Hockey Federation supports Sport Austria's initiative and demands.
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The election will take place next Sunday. Regardless of which parties go on to form a government, Sport Austria has set out clear demands for the 2024–2029 legislative period. You can find the full catalogue of demands HERE!
These include:
- Financial security for organised non-profit sport
- Sport/exercise/health – "prevention instead of rehabilitation"
- Implementation of a sports infrastructure initiative
- Reducing the burden on volunteers – cutting bureaucratic hurdles and optimising the funding system
- Legal framework conditions and employment relationships in sport
- Commitment to elite sport
- Austria as a host of major sporting events
- Commitment to socio-political issues
- Sport and media
The Austrian Ice Hockey Federation supports these demands in order to strengthen sport in general.
In the area of sports infrastructure, for example, there is a call to invest 1 billion euros in the construction and refurbishment of sports facilities over the next five years. This is an urgently needed measure, as can be seen simply by looking at Austria's ice surfaces and ice rinks.
The most recent investment in ice rink infrastructure came in connection with the 2005 World Championship, which was held in Vienna and Innsbruck at the time. This saw the construction of the TIWAG Arena in Innsbruck. The Eisarena Kufstein opened in 2005, followed by the Sportpark Kitzbühel in 2006. Radenthein received its own ice rink in 2008, which hosted the U18 Women's World Championship Division IB in September 2022 and is now closed.
Sport Austria President Hans Niessl: “Sport is not an end in itself! If more people exercise, we will reduce the current annual costs of inactivity, which currently stand at 2,4 billion euros; if more people exercise, more people will have more healthy years ahead of them, and we will ease the burden on our healthcare system, which should really be called a sickness system at present. Put differently: anyone who wants to save the state money must invest in sport and exercise, in elite and grassroots sport. Politics must be there to improve people's lives and must create the necessary foundations for this: sport and exercise lead to wellbeing and health and should always be part of a positive approach to life. As an advocacy group, we must of course make this clear to people, as must politicians.”
Further information and statements from the parties can be found at:
https://www.sportaustria.at/de/interessenvertretung-und-sportpolitik/politische-forderungen-sportstaettenoffensive-und-gesundheitsoffensive
