UK SPORT FUNDING

[Gross]

Looks like today is the day for funding announcements for sport until 2013. Predictions seem to be that there is a 79 million shortfall & that the sword will fall on sports not likely to deliver medals in 2012... basketball, table tennis & handball for example... even athletics expect a cut.

What hope orienteering?????

And the head of the BOA is now saying a top 8 in the medal table is the best to expect with projected funding:)

[DIDSCO]

so what decision was made regarding orienteering?

the other sports (olympic sports) didn't seem to suffer as much as they thought

[Patrick]

I don't think orienteering was involved at all - the press release only mentions Olympic/Paralympic sports.

In fact, looking at the UK Sport website makes me wonder if orienteering exists for them at all. All the info on the main funding streams mentions only Olympic sports, and the most recent item in the news archive specifically about orienteering is from October 2005! Presumably no one at UKS noticed the WOC Relay this summer.

Some interesting reaction to the funding decisions in this article:
http://www.theherald.co.uk/sport/headlines/display.var.2472825.0.Olympic_anger_over_anomalies_in_funding_for_London_Games.php

Cheers,

Patrick

[distracted]

Just seen the Sport England funding has been announced for 2009-2013, Orienteering has been awarded £2,275,000. Don't know how this compares to previous awards...

[mharky]

Oh my god!!!

Now I aint sure of the ins and outs of this, or even in the past, but isn't that a massive increase??? That's 455K per year!

How much of that will go to the International programme, I don't know, but it's bloody good news.

I actually had to check that for myself, incase you got your decimal point wrong!

[mharky]

Cricket, £37million
Cycling, £24million

We are jobby at cricket, even though it's played by about 4 countries. We are the best in the world at cycling... hmm.

Mind you, football is getting £85million. It's not like there is any money in that sport!

[Mrs H]

This sounds very significant and most unexpected - I'm surprised there isn't a "Happy Christmas to all our members and here's your present " type announcement on the BOF website.

How is this funding likely to be used - anyone know?

[mikey]

Heres the full list if anyone is interested.

http://www.sportengland.org/ngb_funding.pdf

[Scott]

My understanding is that the Sport England funding goes mostly on the development programme - I imagine a fair amount of that is going to go on paying the national development staff's and RDOs' wages for the next four years, and on funding the Increasing Participation project.
The international squads are mostly funded with the UK Sport money, I think (though no doubt somebody will correct me if I'm wrong).

[Mrs H]

Oh - i hope that doesn't mean pouring even more money into the bottomless pit which is schools work.

It would be interesting to hear how the participation scheme is going does anyone have any info?

It would be good to see some of the money going on bolstering University Club development - oh and MADO family style initiatives

[Scott]

It would be interesting to hear how the participation scheme is going does anyone have any info?

There was a report attached to the last set of Development Committee minutes - that was back in September, though, so I'd guess that quite a bit more has happened since then.

[SeanC]

The aims of the participation scheme seems something we can all agree on, even if the concept of regular orienteering from the same venue is a bit different to the local league model (ie different orienteering areas each time).

Anyone from the 5 clubs care to comment? (or is it too early yet)

[PKJ]

Isn't it for 4 years - 2009-2013?
Anyhow - yes, compares well with other better known sports. BOF must have submitted a credible sport plan, and pushed many of the right buttons
And, from my punterish viewpoint, I'm now pretty confident it will be well used.

[DaveK]

Yes, well done to Mike Hamilton and the rest of the BOF team.

[mharky]

2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013

that's 5 years