Football has embraced masters grades while netball is tailoring its competitions to its younger member base. Sports writer Adrian Seconi looks at two different approaches to the one problem - how to keep people involved in club sport.
Rugby, cricket and netball are the big three when it comes to New Zealand sport but football is more tenacious.
Since 1985, rugby, cricket and netball clubs in Dunedin have been losing members but football has marginally increased its presence in the city from 74 senior club teams to 77.
The key has been embracing masters football.
Football South has 18 master grade teams split into two grades.
Former Football South general manager Bill Chisholm believes it has helped keep the sport relevant in the city.
"The bigger picture is football is still the No1 game in the world,'' he said, which helped to insulate the sport.
"But masters football has become more popular. You've got an ageing population [in New Zealand] and you've got to cater for the plus-35 age group.
"It has certainly kept a lot of them in the game in one form. But sometimes in getting that participation, you miss out in other areas. You might not get them volunteering or coaching and stuff.
"But, from a participation point of view, masters football has been a growth area. And in the last 10 years or so, junior numbers have been improving so you get a bit of a flow-on effect to keep the competitive grades, you might say, reasonably strong as well.
"We are pretty pleased that the numbers for traditional winter football have held up so well.''
That said, football still has its challenges.
The city's premier club, Caversham AFC, has financial concerns.
Early last year it took out a $10,000 loan to meet its commitments and it may have to move from its base.
It has become a struggle to maintain the clubrooms at Tonga Park.
Netball has not held up well at all. There are just 38 senior club teams compared with 181 in 1985.
Even if you include the city's 116 social teams, the sport has still declined dramatically since its zenith in 1980, when there were 315 team entries across all grades.
Dunedin Netball general manager Lee-Anne Anderson said Netball New Zealand was looking at ways to keep people involved.
One of the universal problems sporting organisations face is finding ways to keep school leavers involved.
There is also a drift towards midweek social leagues, which Dunedin Netball has embraced.
Premier club netball, for example, is moving from Saturdays to Thursday nights next season.
"You have to look at who your members are and what they are wanting to do and adapt your competitions to suit your members,'' Anderson said.
With so many premier players struggling to juggle university, work and sports commitments, the clubs felt a shift to Thursday night was worth a trial.
The premier A competition will expand from six to eight teams and Anderson hopes the new time slot will free up more players and top umpires and perhaps even more spectators.
Asked about the drift towards casual sport, Anderson said what was important was keeping people involved and not what level of sport they were playing.
However, being part of a team is not the same as being part of a club.
If clubs are going to remain the backbone of the New Zealand sports system, they will have to find ways to attract people back.
"It is just figuring out what people want and running competitions that suit the lifestyles of those that want to be involved.
"I think we are a very proactive centre in looking at what we currently have and reviewing that so it works. And that is what we have done with the premier grade for next year.
"You have to continually look at what you offer and make changes, if you need to make changes, to ensure you still have people playing sport.''
TOMORROW: We conclude our series with some final thoughts.
