Obtaining Funding for Sports Facilities - Research Paper Example

?Running Head: Obtaining Funding Obtaining Funding [Institute’s . Introduction Sports are a human physical activity that requires specific physical skills to compete with others, having some predefined rules and should have public recognition (Fried & Shapiro, 2008). Relationship between sports and finance is necessary and from the ancient times when the Olympics started firstly, need of resources was there to arrange the event. Just like any other industry, the industry of sports also needs finance to continue its growth and survival. For continuous growth and survival, sports business needs increase in their cash flow. Sports industry needs finance to carry out their events, promotion, and development of sports, general expenses, training expenses and salaries of the employees. For this purpose, obtaining funds is necessary for maintenance of sports industry. Sports associations can get money through fund raising programs but mostly the government and corporate sponsors fulfill their financial assistance (Fried & Shapiro, 2008). The department of sports gives finance in the form of grants and scholarships to facilitate sports and recreational activities. Funding has prime importance for supporting the industry of sports as it provides opportunities for the new ones to join along with the players who are already participating (Srisiri, 2008). Mostly media, corporate companies and banks are interested in providing funds to the sports industry as they can use the sports as a means of publicity and can use its image, famous sports figures come in the commercial advertisements of the large companies’ products the through which consumers will buy more of their products. Such a tendency of the media has given the sports associations to transform themselves into profitable organizations form a non-profitable organizations and sometimes into a shareholding partner (Srisiri, 2008). These funding helps the players to excel in the sport industry. These funding have helped in the establishment of many professional franchises, college athletics programs, and local clubs that introduces new talent in sport industry ((U.S.) N. I.-R, 2009). Discussion There are many sports funding programs that are currently existing all over the world to obtain maximum funds for the sports industry. Some of the components of funding are organizational development, people development, developmental programs, and performance check ((U.S.) N. I.-R, 2009). Organizational development includes income support to the players, information, and risk management awareness. People development includes coaching facilities to the players, volunteers, and club administration. Development programs include competitive events and international sports collaboration. Performance checks include talent identification, provision of travelling expenses for the international events, establishment of sports academies, and other related developments for coaching of players to enhance the performance level (Rosner & Shropshire, 2011). A descriptive discussion of sport funding organizations is as following: Country sports enrichment is one of the most applicable ways to obtain fund. The goal of this scheme is to obtain so many funds that are enough to promote sports all over the country by supervising mega events of sports. These funds are initiative in the way to bring sports as a major source of getting national revenue. These funds will help to conduct blocked developmental plans (due to lack of funds) of sports in the metropolitan cities (Rosner & Shropshire, 2011). Sports Development Program (SDP) works in partnership with the government to prosper the sports industry. This program provides financial assistance to the sports industry that is in accordance wit the governmental rules and policies. The benefits of this type of program are as follows: The government authorizes this program therefore there is no chance of ban. Fully fledged funding for three consecutive years Players get a chance to affiliate with national sporting organization. The associations getting funds have compliance with the governmental policies. Fund receiving associations get recognition a national level. This program has influence over the sports sector due to governmental support. “Kids sports” is another way of promoting sports. In this program, children will get a chance to excel their career in the field of sports regardless of their financial condition. The eligibility to get “Kids sports” fund is good playing and age limit between 5-18 years. This financial assistance will help them to get admission in any sports club and buy sports goods of their own. The regional local government will help to carry out this program (Rosner & Shropshire, 2011). Organizational sustainability program (OSP) is another way that can help to control and monitor the funding program. This program helps the funding organizations by leading them to the way that can most efficiently yield maximum output from their resources. Following are some of the responsibilities of the OSP: To see that the funding department is assisting all the governmental and non-governmental sports associations on equal terms with out any personal biasness. To use the gained information to further develop the sports industry. To see that the funding department is investing its resources in the correct place that can give long-term benefits. To make benchmarks to monitor the efficiency of every funding association based on its resource utilization, sports development, human resource management and monitoring of all other specific areas. By determining the working of each funding organization, OSP helps them to improve their working on he basis of their benchmark and give these information to the government to fulfill the sports requirement in terms of training and development (Rosner & Shropshire, 2011). Another sport-promoting step is “Sport 4 all” which is made to increase the participation in sports. The target is to get more children in the field of sports that can help them to be more mentally and physically healthier. “Sport 4 all” consists of four programs: Kid sport, Community volunteer program, club talk, and nature play. Kid sport provides financial assistance to those children that cannot afford to participate in sports due to their poor financial conditions. Community volunteer program helps the sports club in their recruitment sessions. Club talk provides information to the sports clubs about the application of latest technology that can enhance the working of the club and are cost effective as well. Nature play is the last program of “Sport 4 all” that promotes the outdoor paling of children, as parents usually prefer the indoor games (electronic screen based games) for children to save them from potential accidents that can take place outsides. The motto of nature play is to inform parents about the merits of outdoor playing that makes children healthier and happier (Rosner & Shropshire, 2011). “Sports Lotteries Account” is another means of funding. The amount of subscription of the lottery allocates the expenses for sports. The estimated amount is 10 million that allocates the expenses for sports. Following are some of the objectives of the Sports Lotteries Account: Maintain a secure sports environment and risk management techniques. Improve the participation of the players. Increase the number of participants in the sports industry. Provide opportunities to people to maintain their physical and mental health. State Sports Associations play major role in the allocation of funds to the deserving ones. These associations make long-term strategic plans for the development of the sports industry and direct the regions where government should allocate funds on priority basis. These associations provide funds on signing agreement that examine the performance measurement (Ming Li, 2012). Besides international level organizations, some sports funding is specific for the regional areas. A brief description of these regional areas funding is as follows: Active Regional Communities (ARC) is one of the regional associations for funding sports. It takes grants and sponsorships through Sports Lotteries Account and Sports wagering Account. Regional Flight Assistance Program helps the native of a regional area to participate actively in the sports activities. These regional programs give training courses that help the regional people to get knowledge about the latest information in the sports industry, enhance performance, and best practice management (Ming Li, 2012). Regional Grant Schemes provides opportunities to the local people to excel their sports capabilities. The basic aim of these schemes is to improve the living standard of the regional people by providing careers through sports. This project will enhance the sports talent within the regional people (Ming Li, 2012). Regional Talent Development Program (formerly Regional Academy of Sports Program) enables the State Sports Associations (SSAs) to make a platform where a sequential pathway is available on which athletes can excel and improve their sports capabilities. The basic principle of this program is to provide best coaching to the talented athletes with out biasness based on color, creed, or religion. This program gives financial assistance for entry fees, membership fees, travelling fees, uniform and for buying sport goods. The basis of selection of the athletes for financial assistance is a clear recruitment process, based on judging authentic high performance (Ming Li, 2012). Sport and recreation grant programs have the primary duty to arrange funds for the development of sports at the local and regional level. The basic objectives of these programs are: Availability of Sustainable sports facilities. Improve safety measures in sports. Access the people from regional areas who are capable for playing internationally. Identify the barriers that are stopping the people from participating in sports. Increase the sports participation opportunities for the people and carry out the events on continuous basis. Another way of obtaining funds for the sports industry is the frequent and bulk selling of tickets of the matches. This method is highly responsive in conditions when a certain sort is at its peak or during world cup season. The selling of ticket depends on the condition of the stadium as well. Good stadiums with proper seating arrangements will give opportunity to the viewers to come again (Stewart, 2007). Giving discounts on the purchase of several tickets may also attract the audience to come and see the match live in the stadium instead of watching it on the television. Charging more prices for the seasonal tickets like during the world cup increases the revenues largely. Adoption of different pricing strategies based on date, day, timing can lead to earn maximum revenue. Similarly, charging more prices on best-known team’s opponents can yield good amount of fund for sports industry one of the best example is India and Pakistan’s match. Electronic media is also playing a significant role in obtaining funds for the sorts industry. Television channels and radio pay huge amount of money to get the right to show the live sports events. T.V shows broadcast the major sports events like Olympics and world cup events lively and for this purpose, the media is ready to pay large amount in lump sum. Sports associations utilize this earned money in the promotion and development of the sports (Stewart, 2007). The well known players can obtain funds in a number of ways that can benefit themselves and sports industry largely. Some of the sources of obtaining funds are as follows: Famous player can get the money for coming to formal ceremonies as chief guests. Well known players can charge for coming on the television shows to comment about the matches. Private companies usually hire the famous sports figure in their product advertisement to get maximum value by the customers. On winning a particular match, the player may get price money. Many colleges are also providing scholarships to the students interested in sports to enhance their sports capabilities. These athletic scholarships are not an easy task to get. Eligibility is the only criteria on which fund is allocated to the athletes. The college offering scholarships require portfolio of the applicant athletes only that give a complete picture of their sports career. Different colleges offer scholarship for different sports. Financial assistance is usually available for the sports like cricket, hockey, baseball, basketball, football, golf, gymnastic, tennis, skiing, soccer, volleyball, wrestling, boxing, polo and for martial arts. All these sports require different eligibility criteria to get the financial assistance (Stewart, 2007). Another interesting point to note is that gender discrimination is present in the allocation of the sports funds as well. Think of the government’s annual fund allocation for the men’s’ sport needs and for the women sports need. There is no quantifiable data available anywhere that can show the statistical results of the availability of funds to both groups. The government has totally ignored the need for the women sports financing and only the allocation of the fund is for the men sport’s associations. This biased behavior of government has raised the complaints of women organizations and corporate women who are constantly complaining about the government’s intentional ignorance of women sector in the economic development. This unfair governmental funding is increasing the complaints day by day, as women are not getting their fair share in the sports funds. Women associations have demanded the government to prepare the annual budget based on equal allocation as it is the duty of government to allocate equal funds to both the categories with out any biasness based on gender discrimination and monitor the usage of the allocated funds over time (Stewart, 2007). The most contradictory behavior of corporate funding is that women mostly buy their product but when the time come to sponsor sorts, the companies allocate the funds to the men’s sports associations instead of their potential buyers. Women are the prime customers of the products of flourmills, super markets and other food industries but their financing budget never allocates money for the women’s sports promotion. The biasness does not stop at the allocation of fund but neither media support is available for women sports association nor is mass media coverage available for their events. No advertisement, no radio, or T.V announcements or corporate sponsors are available for the women’s sports. It is the need of time that sports women should raise their voice to get their fair share in the allocated sports funds. Fighting to get their part in sports funding is their right that the government and corporate sponsors must give. This availability of fund will enhance the sports talent in women and will prosper the women sports association to bring more talent form the regional areas on to the platform. When the talk is about getting funds then the sports industry get it by hook or crook. Therefore, ethical risks are increasing in this aspect as well. Media give funds to promote the sports and sometimes ask the required result of the matches in return. This leads to corruption and embezzlement. On the other hand, sports is a leisure activity so it is necessary that fulfillment of necessities is on the first basis (Fried & Shapiro, 2008). However, unfortunately in the recent years, the sports expenditures have gone beyond the household expenditure. This massive financing in sports is decreasing the governmental assistance towards the necessities that might result in the outbreak of the poverty-stricken anger. There are many side effects of this sports financing as well. A major side effect that may look least serious is that financial assistance interfere the sports rules. This interference degrades the credibility of the game and makes the result suspicious. The media intervention may also compel the sports associations to adjust the timings of the sports according to the media requirements. Associations may change the gaming rules to get the required results as told by the media partners. T.V shows the hierarchy in which some matches are preferred over others to get maximum audience and make more money through advertisements. The break time in matches is more and more to give more advertisement of media partner. Another side effect is of embezzlement. He players get illegal money through fixing the matches on the demand of the sponsor. Due to these match fixing, the audience thinks that essence of the sports lefts behind somewhere. Media attraction that comes from the victory of a game is something that has influenced the sports teams so much that they leave the fair playing and fixes the matches just to obtain maximum sport funding (Rosner & Shropshire, 2011). There are also many evidences available that shows that players use medications to get unusual power that can help them to win the match as the media, sponsors or organizers pressurize them. Doping is another illegal act that players use in many matches and sorts events. It falsifies the result and results in the unfair victory of the opponent. The most dreadful side effect is that it causes long-term health issues in players that decreases the life span of the player and sometimes may lead to death as well. Therefore, it is necessary to do unplanned and unannounced anti-doping tests that will prevent the players form its use. The last side effect of funding the sports is that it increases the risk of unlawfulness. Although it is immeasurable but once corruption will completely engulf it then the complete sports professional system will spoil. Abrupt actions are required to overcome this corruption problem as soon as possible o that the financer will not leave this field for good (Srisiri, 2008). In the light of financial crisis, today the sport financing requires to be clear from the dirt of corruption. Day by day, corporate financers are getting awareness about the importance of global financing and therefore people want to maintain ethics in the sports financing as well. Investors want to invest money in the clear and ethically played sports at least for the sake of sports itself. Conclusion The financial crisis has shrunk the excess to money in every industry. Like all other businesses, sports industry also has adverse effects due to worse economical conditions. This is the reason that the corporate sponsors have reduced the financial assistance to promote the sports programs. Sports clubs have expensed more than their available resources that result in extreme debt burden in many cases. There is low sale of tickets because of less interest of the audience in many other cases as it is difficult to maintain the fondness of the viewers always. In many other cases, proper funding is not available to the sports club or the available funds are not enough to meet the need (Mangan, 2003). Sports financing also need to have a deep observation of environment, competition, and demand fluctuation. Investment in the sports industry can be beneficial if the sports association properly manage the resources and enhance the players’ performance. Keeping all the above points in mind, sports associations must take some, preventive measures to maintain their survival (Mangan, 2003). They should make careful financial plans to meet their expenses and bring some innovations to attract the audience like construction of new stadiums or renovate the old ones. (Fried & Shapiro, 2008). References (U.S.) N. I.-R. (2009). Campus Recreational Sports Facilities: Planning, Design, and Construction Guidelines. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics. Fried, G., Shapiro, S. J. (2008). Sports Finance. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics. Mangan, J. A. (2003). Sport in Asian Society: Past and Present. London: Routledge. Ming Li, B. G. (2012). International Sport Management. Champaign, IL: Human Kinectics. Rosner, S., Shropshire, K. L. (2011). The Business of Sports. Sudbury, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning. Srisiri, S. (2008). Attitudes Towards Sports Sponsorship at Srinakharinwirot University in Thailand. London: ProQuest. Stewart, B. (2007). Sport Funding And Finance. Amsterdam; Boston: Elsevier, cop. Read More