A major step forward in the raising of private sector funds to support Olympic and Paralympic sport has been welcomed by British Swimming.
The groundbreaking new partnership – Team 2012 – involves all the major organisations involved in supporting British elite sport and they join forces to pool their collective rights and align their fund-raising ambitions through to London 2012 and beyond.
The new partnership is between the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games, the British Olympic Association, British Paralympic Association and UK Sport.
It offers sponsors access to a unique package of rights that brings together branding, access and events surrounding the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games with the opportunity to engage over the intervening years with athletes and sports on UK Sport’s World Class Performance Programme.
Chief Executive of British Swimming David Sparkes believes the partnership can aid all sports including those such as water polo which did not receive it’s expected funding levels leading to 2012.
“We welcome the partnership and the strengths the organisations bring towards helping our athletes excel in London 2012.
“We are committed to working tirelessly with them to raise the much needed funds for Water Polo and the other sports which sit outside the current London funding programme.
“This is a bold and imaginative step and exciting for sport and for the commercial sector .”
The concept was presented for the first time to official London 2012 worldwide partners and domestic sponsors by Andy Burnham, Secretary for State for Culture Media and Sport, today. It was his challenge in December last year to all parties to develop a strong commercial proposition that would generate a third stream of private income, to sit alongside substantial exchequer and National Lottery funding, that has led to Team 2012 being formed.
The programme will be offered as a unique sport activation scheme to London 2012’s sponsors. It will also involve other potential fundraising schemes, including a Small & Medium Enterprise programme and an opportunity for individual patrons to support Britain’s elite athletes.
Money raised will be targeted primarily at UK Sport’s World Class Performance Programme, which currently supports elite athletes in 24 summer Olympic and 20 Paralympic sports, but there will also be money for an initial trial of the BOA’s elite Olympic coaching programme.
The aim is to provide a long-term legacy of private funding for elite sport in a co-ordinated fashion for all of the major organizations, with BOA/BPA leading on fundraising and UK Sport responsible for the strategic distribution of funds.
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For further details contact Dave Richards, British Swimming Media Manager, on 01509 632237, 0778 992 6136 or email dave.richards@swimming.org
British Swimming is the National Governing Body for Swimming, Diving, Synchronised Swimming, Water Polo and Open Water in Great Britain. It is responsible internationally for the high performance representation of the sport. The members of British Swimming are the three Home Countries national governing bodies of England (Amateur Swimming Association), Scotland (Scottish Amateur Swimming Association) and Wales. (Welsh Amateur Swimming Association) British Swimming seeks to enable its athletes to achieve gold medal success at the Olympics, Paralympics, World Championships and Commonwealth Games.
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