It’s exciting to see that the Federal Government caught Olympic fever and committed $31 million to sport and physical activity in last week’s budget.
As reported by Sport Matters, the government is providing money to fund the renewal of athlete development programs, provide training for high performance athletes, and funding for new initiatives from ParticipACTION and the Canadian Paralympic Committee.
Now its time for the rest of us to do our part, Sponsors, properties, agencies, NGO’s, PSO’s, NSO’s, CSO’s, professional leagues, you name it. We need to jump in… all the way in.
There has been a fair bit of speculation that post-2010, several corporate partners would withdraw their support for the sport sector. Of course with any domestic Games that is anticipated. But naturally the hundreds of millions of dollars that was splashed on VANOC will be hard to keep. Yet this blog is a plea to those decision makers, to keep as much of it as they can in the system.
This blog is a plea to all stakeholders in the industry to do the same. This blog is a plea to all entities seeking sponsorship to push even harder to ensure it doesn’t happen.
Why? I think Own the Podium proved unequivocally that investment could equal results. Great results.
I think the Games proved that investment can equal results. They united a country.
I think we may not get another shot if we don’t get this one right. This is the time for Canada to keep its momentum going forward on the world stage and on the local playground.
Because we aren’t out of the woods yet. Our kids are getting fatter. Our communities are getting more sedentary. Our belts are getting tighter… and that’s not an economic factor!
On the sport side we have leagues of work to do to become internationally competitive in soccer, basketball, and volleyball to name a few. (Here comes the hate e-mail!) Plus when was the last time we had any presence in the glory events like the 100 meters?
Yes Canada has a ways to go. We need to partner to get there. We need the sport community to understand they need to offer true value and results to corporate Canada. VANOC did it.
We need the corporate community to understand that their leadership and marketing acumen is absolutely necessary to assist those who don’t have the same experiences. Simultaneously we need corporate Canada to understand that building your brand will build your bottom line, so listen to the subject matter experts from the sport community.
Let’s become friends. Let’s become lovers. Let’s get married. Let’s create partnerships. Relevant partnerships. Responsible partnerships. Effective partnerships.
They can carry the day!