SSC announce funding plan for upcoming year
and reveal new scheme for smaller NSAs
FOR the first time, Singapore ’s sailors qualified for three events at the Olympics, with athletes featuring in the men’s 470, Laser Standard and Laser Radial events at the 2008 Beijing Games.
The sailing team won four golds at the SEA Games last December and on Tuesday, at the Sentosa National Byte and Optimist Championships, 292 youngsters (up to 15 years of age) competed in the latter event.
With success in high performance and a flourishing youth development policy, it was no surprise when SingaporeSailing was once again bracketed in the top category (more than $2 million) when the Singapore Sports Council (SSC) announced funding for the 60 National Sports Associations (NSA) for the upcoming financial year yesterday.
The total funding pie for FY2008 has grown by around two per cent, rising from $31.9 million in 2007 to $32.4 million this year.
There will also be a separate supplementary provision of $1.47 million and $14.93 million in indirect grants — :athlete development ($3.47 million), sports medicine and sports science ($4.75 million), sports education programme/sports partnership programme ($3.98 million) and subsidies for facilities ($2.73 million) — to support viable programmes and new opportunities that NSAs may have.
The top band of NSAs (see graph) receiving over $2 million are badminton, bowling, sailing, swimming, shooting and table tennis. But just like in 2007, it is believed sailing will be the top earners, receiving over $3 million.
:Overall, using the outcome-based funding model, 29 NSAs saw an increase in monetary support and 27 suffered cuts, 14 of which were due to “less than satisfactory” performance. Two NSAs saw no change in funding.
:For the upcoming year, two new NSAs have been formed — Muay Thai and Ice Hockey.
:Speaking at the press conference yesterday, SSC chief executive officer Oon Jin Teik said: “There will be a need for us to channel limited resources to areas where there’s potential to achieve more.
:“NSAs are beginning to understand (the outcome-based model), and many are in support. Some NSAs that have had their budget cut have said, ‘Help us move forward and get better’.”
To help smaller NSAs, the SSC have come up with the matching grant scheme. Under it, the SSC will match dollar-for-dollar funds raised by NSAs that receive up to $300,000 in annual funding.
The SSC have set aside :$200,000 for the scheme and NSAs can claim up to $20,000 per annum each on a first-come-first-serve basis.
The SSC’s funding for FY2008 does not include the amount that will be allocated for each NSA for the 2010 Youth Olympic Games. A taskforce — outside of the Games’ organising committee — will be set up to help youth athletes prepare for major Games, including the Youth Olympics.
For the upcoming year, key considerations in the assessment of NSAs include achieving continued success at major international meets, including the 2008 Olympic Games and 2008 Commonwealth Youth Games, improving the quality of high participation and continued emphasis on youth participation for the majority of their programmes and events.
The SSC are also looking to improve the quality of NSA secretariats by studying best practices overseas and employing a human resource consultant to assess headcount needs and salary benchmarking for them.
Said Oon: “The funding from SSC could continue to increase, but if the opportunities get bigger, then the money has to come from other sources too, and we want the NSAs to go forward and present good value proposition to sponsors.”
“Everyone wants more funds, so let’s work together to get it, and not say (to SSC) ‘Give me more’,” he added.
“The SSC will drive at every angle to help the NSAs, but they must help themselves too.”
One of the NSAs that saw a huge leap in funding was the Singapore Motor Sports Association (SMSA), who will be helping to organise the Singapore’s inaugural Formula 1 race, :this September’s SingTel Singapore Grand Prix.
The SMSA are now in the $50,000-$100,000 band, receiving slightly over double what they got for the last fiscal year.
“It may not be the biggest amount, but that is not important,” said SMSA president Tan Teng Lip. “We are very appreciative of the support from the SSC and we plan to use the funds to increase our administrative capabilities and manpower, as well as develop our high performance events.
:“It’s come at a very opportune time. Motorsports is gaining a lot of momentum in Singapore.”
The Singapore Sports Council (SSC) named the Archery Association of Singapore (AAS) amongst their list of most-improved :National Sports Associations (NSAs) here in terms of high performance, alongwith gymnastics, sailing, shooting and swimming.
The AAS were assessed by the SSC, who yesterday announced funding for NSAs for the Financial Year 2008, as having huge potential for major games.
Singapore archers won two bronze medals at the 2007 Junior Asian Grand Prix, a gold on the 2007 Senior Asian Grand Prix and a bronze at the 2007 SEA Games.
.While pleased with the recognition, AAS president Wong Loong Tat is already eyeing the hard work to come before the 2010 Youth Olympic Games here.
“To be honest, I don’t feel we have a lot of results to boast about,” Dr Wong demurred. “But what is very encouraging is that the standard of our junior archers is fast improving — many in the recurve bow category are getting scores comparable or better than our senior archers. This bodes well for the Youth Olympics in 2010.”
Presently, about 300 students from 10 schools practice archery and Dr Wong said the AAS hope to increase that figure to about 1,500 by 2013, as well as develop a training squad of 20 boys and 20 girls for the Youth Olympics.
Presently, the national squad train at the National Archery Range at Zhenghua, which was built at a cost of $80,000 and opened last year. The AAS plan to open up another four or five similar ranges to help popularise the sport.
“Having the national range helped tremendously. We plan to open up more ranges to attract schools to use it,” he said.
“The main challenge instead is to change mindsets, especially at schools. For some reason, most schools are hesitant to take up archery. Without them, it will be difficult to raise mass participation levels.”
Dr Wong estimates the AAS will need at least twice of what they received last year — believed to be about $150,000 — to achieve their aims. For the Financial Year 2008, the AAS will receive between $100,000 to $300,000.
While archery was a surprise inclusion in the SSC’s list of most improved NSAs in high performance, it was no surprise that sailing was on it.
The sailors enjoyed another fruitful outing last year, winning three titles at the Optimist World Sailing Championship, the boys’ 420 title at the European Junior Championship and scoring four gold medals at last December’s SEA Games.
They also qualified for three events — the men’s 470, Laser Standard and Laser Radial — at this August’s Olympic Games sailing competition in Qingdao, China.— Tan Yo-Hinn
