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TWO HUGE STORIES ON FUTURE FUNDING
YOUR CHANCE TO HAVE YOUR SAY ON LOTTERY FUNDING
PLUS UK SPORT CONFIRMS FURTHER DETAILS OF BID FOR EXTRA £49.5 MILLION POUNDS PER YEAR FOR OLYMPIC HOPEFULS
As you know we have been supporting the call for additional funding for British Gymnastics, especially after the cuts to our Men’s Artistic and Rhythmic Programs and a complete halt in funding for our Sports Acrobats and Tumblers despite them winning World Championships Titles! Today we bring you 2 important news items which many Coaches, Clubs and gymnasts might be unaware of, plus British Gymnastics Press Statement supporting U.K. Sports bid for an extra £49.5 million pounds per year to be spent on supporting our Olympic hopefuls!
19 February, 2006 - NATIONAL LOTTERY NEED YOUR VIEWS ON FUNDING!
ONLY 9 DAYS LEFT TO SUPPORT BRITISH SPORTS COUNCIL’S BID FOR ADDITIONAL LOTTERY FUNDING
U.K. Sport have announced on their Web Site that the Government’s consultation on the share of Lottery income post 2009 closes on 28 February. This means there are just 9 days left for everyone interested in ensuring the future funding for sport to take part and have your say!
The Public Consultation is being run by the Department of Culture Media and Sport. It is seeking views on how Lottery money should be distributed amongst the existing good causes - of which sport is one - beyond 2009, and what the priorities should be for that funding. UK Sport is one of five distributors of the Lottery Sports fund, allocating around £15.5million a year to 37 sports through the World Class Performance Programme and £1.6m to attract major sporting events to venues across the UK.The remaining 90.8% of the annual income from the Lottery Sports Fund goes to other valuable sporting projects via the home country sports councils in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
Since Olympic and Paralympic sports started receiving Lottery funds to support their top sportsmen and women, the results have been stunning. Our Olympians have won 20 gold medals over the last Games in Sydney and Athens - compared to just the single gold that Pinsent and Redgrave won for Team GB in Atlanta where Team GB came 36th in the Medal Table before Lottery Funding was awarded. GB's Paralympians have also done the nation proud by winning some 225 medals and finishing second in the medal table in 2000 and 2004.
Since the introduction of World Class Performance Programs the results speak for themselves:-
Sydney 2000 Olympics - Great Britain finished 10th in the Medals Table with 11 Gold Medals and 28 medals overall, the best Olympic performance since 1920, and an increase of 187% in the medal haul compared to Atlanta 96! In the Paralympics Team GB won an incredible 41 Gold Medals winning 131 medals overall. our best ever performance!
Athens 2004 Olympics - Team GB repeated our 10th place in the Medals Table winning a further 9 Gold Medals and 30 medals overall. In the Paralympics our athletes performed superbly finishing 2nd overall, winning 35 Gold Medals and 94 medals overall.
Sport England, U.K. Sport and the Sports Councils submitted a joint report in October 2005 reveals that the income from the new lottery game which the public widely believed would go to support our budding Olympians and fund elite athlete’s preparation will in fact be spent on infrastructure and facilities and NOT on World Class Performance Programs! The report states “Further, while the new Olympic Lottery game is vital to the success of 2012, it is focused entirely on infrastructure and facilities, and most of that will be with regard to the Games’ site in East London. The money raised through the new game will not fund any athlete-centred programmes, such as UK Sport’s World Class Performance Programme and the Home Nation talented athlete programmes, or any talent identification and recruitment programmes. This funding has to be found solely from existing Sports Council income from the National Lottery, based on the percentage shares outlined above. The Sports Councils therefore firmly believe that more income will be required from the Lottery post-2009 to ensure that the full legacy of the Olympic Games in 2012 is delivered.
The consultation has already attracted over 4,000 responses from across the UK, from both organizations and individuals. It is very important that all sporting bodies across the UK see this consultation as vital to ensuring sport’s future support from the National Lottery. UK Sport and the Home Country Sports Councils have worked closely together to promote the consultation, and they have received active support from CCPR, BOA, BUSA and the British Athletes' Commission among many other organisations.
This is your opportunity to make your views heard in the public consultation of how lottery money is awarded for the period from 2009 onwards!
This is a hugely important subject as during the 10 year period between 1995 and 2005, the National Lottery have invested an incredible 2 billion pounds in British Sport, and yet we still see funding from Sport England to British Gymnastics cut by one million pounds per year!
For more information and to access the Government consultation questionnaire, please visit the dedicated website
If you would like to know more about sport's response to the consultation process, you can read the joint response from the five sports councils and UK Sport's additional submission, also posted on the consultation website. Extracts from the additional submission appear below, but please take time to read the report as it contains a passionate plea for our future hopes of Olympic success.
The Government will make it’s decision on future Lottery allocations in June 2006
RELATED LINKS
U.K. SPORT BIDS FOR ADDITIONAL £49.5 MILLION POUNDS PER YEAR TO BOOST OLYMPIC BID!
U.K. Sport have also announced details on their Web Site of a further report which they have submitted to Government which was revised on 17 November 2005. The report contains the following statement which will bring cheers from every sports loving supporter, athlete and Coach across Great Britain and around the World:-
“The momentous decision to award the 2012 Olympics and Paralympics to London provides a once in a lifetime opportunity to put sport forever at the heart of British public life. Staging the Games in London will give a massive boost to performance sport in the UK. Young people up and down the UK can dream of a place on the podium in 2012. UK Sport’s role is to work with Government and our partners in sport to put in place the world class structure, systems and support needed to give young people the opportunity to achieve success at London 2012 and beyond.”
This follows the report which U.K. Sport submitted last year where they called for an additional average of £49.5 million pounds per year to be a report to the Government “ Additional Funding to Support Team GB Success at the London 2012 Olympic Games. The report stated that “ With fewer than 7 years to go until London 2012, there is already a clock ticking at the heart of sport in this country. As host nation, there is heavy expectation that alongside staging magnificent Games, Team GB will enjoy significant medal success in competition
The report goes on to state “U.K. Sport’s ultimate goal , in consultations with BOA and other organizations is to finish 4th in the 2012 Olympic Medal Table, finishing as top European nation, and retain our second place in the Paralympics whilst aiming for the top spot. To achieve this ambitious target will require a quantum leap in performance over the next seven years. To achieve it our sports and athletes will need a far greater level of support than is currently the case. Our submission based on our medal targets is for an average of £49.5 million pounds per year of additional funding to be invested from 2006/7 to 2012/13
The report sets our 5 options for future funding beginning with the lowest option 5 Standing Still on Medals but improving our position to 8th in the Medals Table and 2nd in the Paralympics Table with funding for all sports except football and tennis ( which are considered to be able to self fund ) at a cost of an additional average of 28.8 million pounds per year. The ultimate approach which British Gymnastics has endorsed in their Press Statement is Option 1, where the target is 4th in the Olympics with 65 medals and aiming for 1st in the Paralympics, with representation and funding for all sports.
It was hoped that the Chancellor would announce the decision on future funding in his pre-Budget statement in November, but nothing has been announced. The Government has been severely criticized for the delay as it is now over 290 days since London won the Bid, and national newspapers including the Daily Mail, Daily Telegraph and The Guardian have been very critical of the impact on preparation for our Olympic hopefuls with further articles by the Sunday People revealing that over £400 million pounds promised to British Schools Sports has still not been made available to British Schools more than 2 years after the deadline passed! The Government was further embarrassed by revelations that the British Olympic Association has been forced to seek a loan to help support existing programs while the Government continues to delay funding. And finally last week’s news that Ben Brown the gymnast featured in London 2012 posters has been forced to quit due to lack of funding!
U.K. Sport also state in their report dated 17 November that :-
“ The Government invests in sporting success through the National Lottery because it realises the importance of achieving a ‘feel good’ factor that reaches every community. The unparalleled success at the Sydney and Athens Olympics produced a cascade affect across all communities through watching it on nationwide television, causing many to want to emulate their sporting heroes and others simply to take the first steps to a healthier lifestyle. Capturing this interest and turning it into a lifetime commitment is the task of sport in the UK, the Government, the Lottery distributors and their partners.
- The most important lessons learnt are:
- • The need to sharpen our focus and invest in those sports and individuals who demonstrate that they have what it takes to deliver on the biggest stage. UK Sport inherited over 700 athletes on the WCPP when it became a Lottery distributor, nearly all of whom received an athlete personal award. By 2001 it had dipped below 600. It became clear that many of the athletes had reached a plateau performance wise. Tough decisions have been made with the total number of supported athletes expected to be around 455 in the lead up to Beijing 2008.
- • The need to reinforce the best performing sports, support those that are developing and have potential, and look for positive change in those that are under-performing. UK Sport has resisted the temptation to spread its funding too thinly and has consciously taken a “no compromise” approach to its investment strategies.
- The Beijing cycle: 2005-09
- The medal target for Beijing 2008 is for about 35 medals and moving towards 8th in the medal table. UK Sport also has an ambitious target of breaking into the top 5 in the medal table at London 2012, while retaining our top 2 status in Paralympics. It is challenging, but possible with a sustained and increased Lottery investment. Only through supporting more sports and athletes to reach world class standards and compete successfully on the world stage, can this target be realistically achievable.
- 1.5% of the total National Lottery net income is allocated to UK Sport to support world class performance sport, and the staging of world class events in the UK. This represents excellent value for money for the level of investment. However, the step change required to meet the challenge of a successful Olympics and Paralympics in London 2012 in medal terms, will require a major re-think on the level of investment required to meet the public’s expectations.
- By creating a single performance framework, by using Exchequer funding to underpin World Class Performance, and by un-ring fencing UK Sport budgets, UK Sport has managed to increase the total World Class Performance investment to £97.8 million in the period 2005-09. With the addition of our World Class Operations budget, that figure rises to £121 million.
- However, UK Sport budgets are already extremely tight. Notwithstanding the recent reversal in the decline of Lottery income, UK Sport will struggle to maintain the world class level of support required to compete against the world’s best beyond 2009, given significant calls on Exchequer
- The U.K. Sport Web Site also contains details of funding for the Beijing 2008 Olympics with the following statement”
Olympic Games Beijing 2008
UK Sport has designed a four-year programme of support to the British Olympic team, designed to build upon the success of Athens. Overall investment totals £75 million in the Beijing Olympiad, an increase of £5 million on the four years leading up to the Athens Games.
Using a 'no compromise' approach the Lottery funds distributed through UK Sport's World Class Performance Programme is targeted to ensure that athletes with the potential to mount the rostrum in Beijing are offered all the support they need to perform and win at the highest level. This is estimated to be worth an average of £45,000 per athlete per annum in addition to their Athlete Personal Awards.
More details on UK Sport's investment can be found here.
A sport-by-sport breakdown of funding is available to download here.
Here at Gymnastics Online, we too have been very critical of the Government as we believe that our sportsmen and women should be given the best possible opportunity of Olympic success. We call once again on the British Government to support U.K. Sports and British Gymnastics proposals and support our young Olympic hopefuls in their quest for Olympic Medals.
We also call on the Government to restore the cuts in BG Funding of £1 million pounds per year in Performance Level Funding which would allow our Coaches and Gymnasts to do what they do best - perform at their peak come 2008 and 2012 and win the Olympic Medals for Great Britain that we all dream of!
The official Press Statement from British Gymnastics in response to the U.K. Sports proposals and the news of the million pound cut in BG’s funding last year appears below. We want you to tell us your views on the cuts and we will publish some of the best here on Gymnastics Online! We are especially interested in the views of International Gymnasts and Coaches who have been affected by the cuts or continuing uncertainty over funding!-
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