On 10 Feb 2022, the McGowan Government launched its $77 million Safe Transition Industry Support Package to support businesses and individuals in sectors most affected by the decision to delay the full reopening of WA’s borders. The package includes nine support programs for the international education, tourism, aviation and events sectors.

This includes a $10 million extension and expansion of the Getting the Show Back on the Road+ Program. The extended and expanded GTSBOTR+ program provides support through sharing the risk of lost ticket revenue or registration fees for sporting-related events due to event cancellations resulting from:
Cancellation due to:

• Impacts of the border opening delay;
• COVID-19 infection or direction to isolate for event key personnel;
• Quarantine requirements for key personnel entering WA making the event unviable; and
• COVID-19 capacity restrictions or social distancing directions.
• Support for events that proceed but incur a substantial impact on the number of tickets sold (minimum 50% lost ticket sales/registrations) due to the impact of COVID-19 requirements.

The GTSBOTR+ program will provide three tiers of support to cover lost ticket revenue or registration fees due to the causes listed above as follows:

• 75% of gross ticketing/ registration fee value for cancelled events resulting from a COVID-19 direction;
• 50% of gross ticketing/ registration fee value for self-cancelled events linked to COVID-19 requirements and/or border opening delay impacting on the viability of the event; and
• 30% of gross ticketing/ registration fee value for events that proceed but incur a substantial impact on the number of tickets sold/registrations (min 50% fewer tickets/ registrations) due to COVID-19 requirements.

The program funding caps remain at $150,000 for most events. For events that experience significant box-office impact, support of up to $500,000 is subject to Ministerial discretion.

Key eligibility criteria for sport and recreation events includes, but is not limited to:

• Mass participation sporting events such as state championships or recreation events (regular season sporting events are not supported)
• Metropolitan or regional WA
• Minimum 100 participants
• Minimum $5,000 revenue from sporting-related registration fees
• Events must be held in WA
• Applies to events scheduled until 30 June 2022
• Applicants can be an organisation, company or individual

For more information: https://www.dlgsc.wa.gov.au/funding/arts-funding/getting-the-show-back-on-the-road/getting-the-show-back-on-the-road-guidelines