UK Sport To Review Sponsor Strategy
Funding body UK Sport has confirmed that it will conduct a review to maximise the chances of signing up private sector sponsors for Olympic athletes to help bolster the confirmed finances announced this week.
In making the promise UK Sport insists that it will not abandon the ‘Medal Hopes’ scheme started by the government and sports marketing agency Fast Track which was set up to bring in private sector investment and thus far failed to deliver.
The government’s announcement of a £550m package to fund athletes ahead of the London 2012 Olympics was £50m short on the amount it had promised to deliver after winning the right to host the Games, due principally to the failure to derive finances from the private sector.
In announcing the allocations of the funding for the various sports this week, eight sports were told they would have to wait for extra finances to come in or be faced with sharing the £12.5m that was left in the original pot.
These sports included shooting, volleyball, table tennis, fencing, weightlifting and handball.
UK Sport has taken over the responsibility to raise the missing money in the athletes funding from sponsors.
A UK Sport spokesman said: ‘On the back of the public investment announced yesterday, UK Sport is now taking the lead in seeking ways to develop further fundraising to support all sports in their ambitions for 2012.
‘This will require us reviewing where we are and the opportunities available, and we shouldn’t be ruling anything out at this stage. But it absolutely includes moving forward with Medal Hopes, and the scheme and name are very much part of the plans.
‘In partnership with DCMS and with the benefit of LOCOG’s expertise and experience, it also very much includes Fast Track in the ongoing development of the programme and they remain an integral part of Medal Hopes.
‘Fast Track have already put a tremendous amount of work into the planning and potential activation of ‘Medal Hopes’ and have involved us throughout the entire process in working to develop the best product we can to market.’
