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Describe sources of funding used to support sport at local level

Funding In Sport
There are several ways in which a sport and specific clubs in that sport can receive funding. These range form The National Lottery Membership Fees Sponsorship form Media/Local Businesses Fundraising Activities Grants

The National Lottery

Launched in 1994, the National lottery has regular draws, and the bulk of the money it receives goes to good causes. Apart from all of the money going in the prize fund, some of the money is retained by lottery operators, but the majority is passed onto the government for distribution to various agencies concerned with promoting the arts, heritage, or sport. A total of 23,168,586,775 worth of grants has been awarded by the lottery, including 4,150,777,952 to sports related causes since it was launched in 1994. Organisations can make an application for funding but, in most cases, must match the amount applied for. For example, if a local rugby club applied for money to build a new club house and changing facilities, it would need to fund this project partly from its own finances. So if the cost of the project was 70,000, the lottery fund would only be prepared to fund half this amount, (in this case 35,000). For applicants to obtain a grant, a certain criteria must be met. For example, the cost of the project will be compared with the benefits it will bring to the community. If the cost seems too high compared to the numbers of people who will benefit, it may be refused a grant. The New Opportunities Fund Since 1998, the New Opportunities Fund from the National Lottery has supplied grants for projects in deprived areas of the country. A total of 750 million has been spent on a number of projects, including: The building of new indoor and outdoor facilities and the refurbishment of existing ones. The building and modernisation of outdoor adventure facilities, primarily those for young people.

Funding the running costs of some community facilities

The projects aim to bring long-term benefits to these areas, such as the promotion of healthy living and encouraging participation in sports activities, especially among children. The funding is also used to encourage participation in sport as well to provide facilities.

Membership Fees
All around the U.K, most local clubs will charge a membership fee to join. This fee may be a single, one-off payment or an annual charge. Some clubs also charge match fees or weekly subs to help with the cost of equipment, kit, administration and any necessary funds the club may need, such as pitch hire. Some clubs even have a life membership scheme, but the large injection of funds this produces must be measured against a reduction in membership income in future years.

Sponsorship
An extremely popular way for a local club to raise funds is to approach a local business for help with the clubs funding. The club will receive money or goods in return for promoting the business in some way. For example, football teams have the name of a sponsoring company across their shirts in return for financial support. Local businesses appreciate seeing or hearing their names in the media (e.g. match reports in local newspapers or, even better, photographs). The sponsor would expect to have its image enhanced by its association with the club. For example, a club is unlikely to attract a sponsor if it has a reputation for foul/dirty play, or if team members are known for causing trouble in pubs, night-clubs and around town. The financial assistance a club receives from sponsorship is very important, and many clubs would not survive without it. Sportsaid As well as clubs receiving financial support through sponsorship, individual sportspersons can also benefit from sponsorship through various schemes. One of these schemes is Sportsaid. Sportsaid helps aspiring young sportsmen and women to develop their sporting potential. With money from individual donors, corporate partners and other bodies, Sportsaid is able to work with national governing bodies to identify potential elite athletes. Financial support is given either through TASS, the Talented Athlete Scholarship Scheme where the individual combines training and their

studies in Education, or through a more traditional grant where money is used to fund equipment, travel to competitions and participate at training camps.

Fundraising Activities
Sports clubs can also generate funds by various activities, such as sponsored walks or car boot sales. New and inventive ways of raising money are always being found. A club may organise a series of one-off events to raise money for a special project, such as the redevelopment of facilities, or to help send the club on tour. Such events may include knockout tournaments, races or more social activities such as discos, themed evenings and raffles.

Advertising
Clubs may also sell advertising space in a variety of locations. These include pages in the match day programmes, signs on the playing area or advertising hoardings around the pitch. The overall income gained from advertising will vary from club to club. Some of the factors which influence the amount of money are: The number of spectators or players who use a facility The location of the club The success of the club The coverage a club obtains in the media

Grants
Grants are sums of money, usually handed out by the government and the National Lottery to a public organisation for a specific purpose. In sport, funding for grants are distributed by the government and the National Lottery usually to specific sporting governing bodies around the UK such as Sport Wales. Applicants can then apply to the governing bodies for a sum of money that will benefit their sporting club/activity, usually to help build playing facilities, changing rooms and anything that a local sports club may need.

Sources of Funding Used to Support Sport at Local Level

Funding In Local Football
Local level football is a huge sport right across the U.K with over 4,850,000 people playing for a team. With such a large number of people playing team football, finding money can be a big issue for many local clubs. Most clubs rely mainly on: Membership fees from players Fundraising Activities Sponsorship from other organisations

Grants
Development Grant Sport Wales offers a Development Grant, which can help establish a new team, develop training facilities and purchase new equipment. A grant of between 1,501 - 25,000 is available to cover all of the above projects as well as:

Coach education Floodlighting for training purposes Purchase of land or rights in land to develop activity areas Start up grants to support new enterprises A local example of this grant being used in Swansea is with Sketty Rovers FC. In 2009, after playing a series of friendly games, Sketty decided that they wanted to join the Swansea Junior Football League but didnt have enough money to cover all the associated costs that would come with it. But, after applying for Sport Waless development grant scheme, they were provided with 3,000 to cover the cost of applying for the league, training equipment, kit and pitch hire. This example goes to show that Sport Waless development grant scheme makes a big difference to clubs when they are in need necessary money that they just cant get. Community Chest The Community Chest from Sports Wales offers a grant of up to 1,500 in any 12 month period for activities that:

Encourage more people to become more active, more often Raises the standards of existing activities For example, this grant could be used to fund schemes (such as football holiday camps) to get more people, especially children, into playing football and living a more active lifestyle.

Sponsorship
Sponsorship is one of the main sources for generating money that a local level football club needs. In the professional game, big clubs gain millions of pounds in sponsorship deals per year, but obviously at local level clubs wont receive a huge sum of money from sponsors. Many local clubs will gain sponsorship from near by businesses such as an electrician or butcher and in return for a sum of money, will place their sponsors name on their kit. The money received from the sponsor will usually be used to purchase kit, training accessories and help with paying for any pitch renting. Also the leagues that local clubs are in will usually be sponsored. For example, The Swansea Junior Football League is sponsored by Unison, H Sports and Switchthenation.com. The funds that the league receives from its sponsors will be used to subsidize the cost that its clubs has to pay for a game, (which is usually about 40), help pay for qualified referees to officiate games, and to pay for any costs that are needed to keep the league running smoothly. The Swansea Local Football Leagues also gain a lot of recognition in the Evening post. The post does a 2 page summary every Wednesday of all the leagues happenings on the weekend including results, tables and selected match reports. With the league featuring in the newspaper every week, potential sponsors may be attracted and more people may be interested in setting up new teams and making a stronger league.

The National Lottery

The National Lottery is a major source of funding for many local football teams and other sports. Since 1995 the lottery has paid out 4,150,777 worth of grants to the UKs sporting industry with 21,000 of which going to local sport in Swansea. The funds paid out by the lottery to local football in Swansea are generally used to improve football facilities in the area. For example in 2006, Garden Village AFC, a local Swansea football club, needed funding in order to build new changing facilities, After receiving a grant from the lottery, they were able to build four full-size changing rooms a treatment room and toilet facilities. There are many other examples of cases like this in Swansea and around the UK and the National Lottery continues to improve the quality of grass roots football of all ages throughout the country.

Membership Fees
Usually all local league football clubs will charge a yearly fee or subs to their players. These are usually paid monthly or annually and can be anything from 5 a month to 250 a year. The money that the clubs receive from subs will go towards kit, training accessories and to help pay for pitch hire and refereeing.

Bibliography
Page 2 Information OCR National Level 2 Sport (2005) Heineman Educational PublishersGeorge Caplan and Phillip Smith- page 24 http://www.lottery.culture.gov.uk/ Page 3 Information OCR National Level 2 Sport (2005) Heineman Educational PublishersGeorge Caplan and Phillip Smith- page 25 Page 4 Information OCR National Level 2 Sport (2005) Heineman Educational PublishersGeorge Caplan and Phillip Smith- page 25-29 Page 5 Information http://www.sportwales.org.uk/funding--support.aspx?tab=2