AO5

Describe sources of funding used to

support 2 sports 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 2 sports at local
level

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 didn’t have enough
money to cover all the associated costs that would come with it. But, after
applying for Sport Wales’s 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 Wales’s 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 won’t
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 it’s
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 referee’s 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 UK’s 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.
 Bibliography

Page 2
Information
OCR National Level 2 Sport (2005) Heineman Educational Publishers-
George Caplan and Phillip Smith- page 24
http://www.lottery.culture.gov.uk/

Page 3
Information
OCR National Level 2 Sport (2005) Heineman Educational Publishers-
George Caplan and Phillip Smith- page 25

Page 4
Information
OCR National Level 2 Sport (2005) Heineman Educational Publishers-
George Caplan and Phillip Smith- page 25-29

Page 5
Information
http://www.sportwales.org.uk/funding--support.aspx?tab=2