| Sports to benefit from £300m emergency funding rescue package 14:56 - Nov 19 with 219 views | BringBackTheRedRoom |
The government has announced a rescue package of £300m of emergency funding for sports impacted by the absence of spectators because of coronavirus.
Both rugby codes and horse racing are among the beneficiaries, but not clubs in football's Premier League nor the English Football League.
Cricket was not on the initial list.
"Clubs are the beating hearts of their communities - this boost will help them survive this difficult winter period," said DCMS minister Oliver Dowden.
The government said the Sports Winter Survival Package, which will be largely composed of low-interest loans, will support rugby union, horse racing, women's football and the lower tiers of the National League. It added that rugby league, motorsport, tennis, netball, basketball, ice hockey, badminton and greyhound racing were also in line to benefit.
Sports minister Nigel Huddleston added that grants would be available where organisations were unable to repay loans. He also said "the door was open" to any sport requiring funding, including cricket which was not on the initial list.
The money available is for sports in England, with Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland responsible for their own budgets.
The Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) statement added: "Preliminary allocations have been made on a needs-based assessment process and reflect the submissions made from the individual sports, and the funding process will be overseen by an independent decision-making board and supported by Sport England."
It said the first tranche of funding will be distributed in the coming weeks.
A breakdown of funding distribution (preliminary figures):
Note: The final amount received by each sport/organisation may differ from the amounts set out when final decisions are made by an independent decision-making board, and supported by Sport England.
Rugby Union: £135m - Rugby Football Union: £44m; Premiership clubs: £59m; Championship clubs: £9m; Clubs below Championship: £23m
Horseracing: £40m - To racecourses
Football: £28m - National League (steps 1-2): £11m; National League (steps 3-6): £14m; Women's Football (Women's Super League and FA Women's Championship): £3m
Rugby League: £12m
Motorsport: £6m - Owners/operators of major circuits (Silverstone, Goodwood, The British Automobile Racing Club, MotorSport Vision)
Tennis: £5m - Lawn Tennis Association
Netball: £4m - England Netball: £2m; Super League Netball: £2 million
Basketball: £4m - Basketball England: £1m; British Basketball League clubs (including Women's British Basketball League clubs): £3m
Ice Hockey: £4m - Elite League
Badminton: £2m - Badminton England
Greyhound racing: £1m - Greyhound Board of Great Britain
'It's a bit of breathing room'
Kat Ratnapala, director of netball at Superleague club Saracens Marvericks, told BBC Radio Five Live: "This means a huge deal to us. The big thing for us is to make sure we are prepared and financially able to start our new season in February.
"It's been a tough year for us, financially, to make ends meet. We set up a funding page just so we could come through the first Covid lockdown. It's a loan and we need to pay that back eventually.
"We're definitely not out of the woods, but it's a bit of breathing room so that we can get back on to court at least and get a full season under out belts."
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/54998979 | |
| ‘Where there is harmony, may we bring discord. Where there is truth, may we bring error. Where there is faith, may we bring doubt. And where there is hope, may we bring despair’ |
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| Sports to benefit from £300m emergency funding rescue package on 15:11 - Nov 19 with 213 views | Imperial |
Who in the government plays badminton or netball because they must be plugging their sport for all it is worth. | | | |
| Sports to benefit from £300m emergency funding rescue package on 19:08 - Nov 19 with 202 views | spell_chekker |
I didn't know that.
When they refer to 'Rugby Union', they refer to the family of collective ball playing sports that evolved from the type of football played at the public school 'Rugby' in the early 19th century. | |
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| Sports to benefit from £300m emergency funding rescue package on 22:31 - Nov 20 with 189 views | BringBackTheRedRoom |
'Posh sports' priority row nonsense - RFU boss Sweeney
Rugby Football Union boss Bill Sweeney says it is "nonsense" to suggest the government prioritised "posh sports" in its £300m winter survival package.
The government's package, announced on Thursday, is set to give up to £135m to rugby union and £40m to horse racing.
Rugby league figures are among those to have criticised the allocation.
Sweeney said the amount was "the right level" and "very pleasing", though there are ongoing discussions about the proportion of loans and grants.
Of the £135m provisionally allocated to rugby union, the RFU - which governs the sport in England - is set to receive £44m, Premiership Rugby clubs are expected to get £59m, Championship clubs £9m and community clubs £23m.
By comparison, English rugby league as a whole is set to get £12m, prompting criticism from GMB, the sport's union.
Peter Davies, GMB senior organiser, accused the Conservative government of failing to honour a promise to reduce regional inequality in the UK.
Davies said: "This is hardly levelling up. The Tories have created a two-tier system that sees their rugby union mates getting a bung of cash, while leaving northern rugby league clubs to die."
Asked on Thursday if the government had favoured "more middle-class sports at the expense of more working-class sports", Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden told BBC sports editor Dan Roan: "I don't accept that characterisation at all."
Sweeney also dismissed the accusations rugby union had received more because it is a "posh" sport.
"I think it's nonsense, really," he told BBC Sport. "There are some very specific criteria why rugby union was perhaps suffering a little bit more than some of the other sports.
"Cricket, obviously, is not in season at the moment, so that's an obvious one, and there are different circumstances around football compared with rugby.
"It was based very much upon fact-based criteria in terms of why rugby union got that allocation. To say that we're a posh or Tory-based sport I think is absolute nonsense."
He added that "our clubs are a replication of the different social strata of the country" and that, in the England men's team, "70% come from a state school background".
'It's not inevitable Six Nations will go behind paywall'
Apart from at selected pilot events, there have been no spectators at professional rugby union in England since March, and none at any matches in the Autumn Nations Cup, currently being hosted by the Six Nations countries.
Sweeney, though, is hopeful of there being crowds at the Six Nations in 2021.
"I am cautiously optimistic that we'll be able to have a reasonable number of fans at Twickenham in February and March and it might be under the auspices of some kind of pilot, some kind of test scheme and those have been mooted before," he said.
In May, Sweeney warned that the RFU would lose £85m by having to play England's autumn international matches behind closed doors.
The body's finances were affected further when England's scheduled match against the Barbarians on 25 October was cancelled because of coronavirus protocol breaches, which Sweeney said is estimated to have cost "in the region of just over half a million [pounds]".
Thirteen Barbarians players were charged by the RFU with conduct prejudicial to the interests of the union or the game.
Sweeney said the RFU would be pursuing an "aggressive" commercial strategy to help the organisation through this challenging period, but insisted that the Six Nations moving to pay-TV "isn't inevitable".
The BBC and ITV hold joint rights until the end of the 2021 tournament, but it could move to a subscription broadcaster from 2022.
"We're very conscious that there are two sides to this," Sweeney said.
"One is the need to have the most revenue-generating option we can, in terms of broadcast rights and where they go to, but at the same time we are very conscious that we want to keep awareness levels up, and spectator viewership figures up, so it will be a balance of the two.
"It would be wrong to say it's inevitable that the Six Nations will definitely go behind a paywall but we'll look at all the options and make sure we come up with a balanced outcome."
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/55021129 | |
| ‘Where there is harmony, may we bring discord. Where there is truth, may we bring error. Where there is faith, may we bring doubt. And where there is hope, may we bring despair’ |
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