Professional sports and ballet classification units

The Minister proposes to, from 1 April 2025, simplify and modernise the classification structure for sport that better reflect the risks of injury. 

Distinction between community and professional sports 

Many sports clubs and players are currently levied under different classification units based on whether they are considered community or professional.  

Where a sport is covered by more than one classification unit, local clubs that don’t employ players are grouped into community sport classification units, while clubs with employed players or players who are self-employed are commonly grouped into professional sport classification units. These players are sometimes cross-subsidised by businesses who do not employ players in the sports activity.   

What is the proposed change? 

Under this proposal, all players who are paid to play their sport (at either a community or professional level) would come under a single classification unit for their sporting code. This would simplify the process of choosing a correct classification unit and the classification units would apply to all self-employed players and all clubs that employ players. The new and renamed classification units consolidate smaller sports where appropriate, while recognising growth sports. 

In line with the standard levy calculation, a community player earning a lower income would still pay less in levies than a professional player with higher earnings.

Clubs and administrators who don’t employ players 

Currently, some purely administrative sports clubs and their support staff are levied at the same rate as sport participants, despite not facing the same risks. 

ACC received feedback that this approach is unfair. It doesn’t reflect that some professional sports teams are solely administrative, don’t employ players, and therefore face a much lower risk. 

What is the proposed change?

A new classification unit would be created for all sports clubs or sports administrators that don’t employ any players. The new classification unit is named ‘93100 Sports club or administration service — all sports (no participants)’.  

This new classification unit would include coaching and other support staff, but not the sporting participants (players) themselves – as players face a different level of risk. These groups have a lower risk profile than players and clubs that employ players, and their levy should reflect that.

Group higher risk sports participants and their employers and their national organisation together

The classification unit structure hasn’t been updated to reflect changes in sport playing trends. For example, we don’t have a specific classification unit for football (which has grown in popularity), but we do have classification units for smaller sports, such as softball and baseball. Sports without specific classification units are grouped together when setting levy rates.   

Additionally, by creating a separate classification unit for purely administrative sports clubs, some sport participants will pay significantly higher levies due to their national organisation’s office-based employees no longer being included in their classification unit.   

What is the proposed change? 

Higher risk sports, participants and their employers, specifically football, rugby, rugby league, cricket and motorcycling, and their national organisation would be grouped together for the purposes of levy setting.  

This recognises that in the case of higher risk sports, national governance bodies who control the sport play a significant role in the safety of players and should contribute to the cost of injuries that occur in the sport they control. In some cases, this will allow ACC to charge a lower levy to these participants.   

Lower risk national sports clubs or teams and regionally based sports clubs or teams that do not employ players would remain classified under the new administrative classification unit.

Levy professional ballet at a more appropriate level for the risk 

Ballet shares a similar exposure to risk and claims experience as some sports players. However, ballet is currently classified as a performing art alongside less risky activities, such as theatre and opera, and therefore pays a lower levy. 

What is the proposed change? 

The Minister is proposing to create a new classification unit for ballet, separate to other performing arts activities. This classification unit would be assigned to a levy risk group consistent with the risk exposure of ballet performers, which is in line with sports participants rather than other performing artists.  

Professional ballet companies would pay a significantly higher levy under this proposal, as this better reflects recent claims experience. 

Impacts of the proposed changes 

The impact of our proposal for each business will depend on both the risk of the individual sport and the employment structure in each code. For example, the appropriate classification unit will consider whether the sports club or team is the employer of the players, or whether they’re contracted as self-employed. 

The table outlines all proposed classification unit and levy risk group changes and impact for 2025/26 levies.