IMPORTANT MESSAGE TO THE SOFTBALL AND BASEBALL COMMUNITY Please read this message and please act on the request at the end of it to complete a public consultation survey being conducted for the British government agency UK Sport. Please ask your family, friends and colleagues to complete the survey as well. It may be one of the last chances we have to try to get public funding for our national teams in future. As someone who is involved with softball and/or baseball in the UK, you may be aware that our sports currently receive no public funding for our national teams from UK Sport, the agency that exists to provide funding other support to Olympic and Paralympic sports. UK Sport s policy has been to give more and more money to fewer and fewer sports those that it feels have strong medal potential. For the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, UK Sport will be giving money to only around half of the sports in Britain that will be on the Olympic programme. The other half will get nothing. This all or nothing policy has undeniably been very successful in winning Olympic and Paralympic medals. But it is having serious consequences for the unfunded sports. Elite programmes in many sports have been unravelling and in some cases may have to shut down altogether. Other sports, including baseball and softball, have been able to field national teams or maintain elite programmes, but not to the extent they would like and at a huge cost to athletes and their families. For our sports, it has been particularly frustrating to know that our main rivals in Europe have funding that allows them much more opportunity to train and prepare for major competitions, including the upcoming Olympic Qualifiers, than we have. For the past 18 months, however, baseball and softball have been part of a group of 12 unfunded Olympic and Paralympic sports that have come together around the concept that Every Sport Matters. This group has had recent attention in the media, and has met twice in the past few months with the leaders at UK Sport, where we have been listened to, but without much response. Our case has been that all Olympic and Paralympic sports should receive a baseline level of funding that will allow them to maintain their elite programmes and give their talented athletes the chance to fulfil their potential, while still giving most of the money available to the sports with current medal potential and thus maintaining GB s position in the medals table. The current system, the group has argued, will ultimately be self-defeating in terms of UK Sport s remit to win Olympic and Paralympic medals, because the sports without any resource
are unlikely to ever produce medal-winning athletes or teams and what happens when the sports that currently get all the money stop winning so many medals? The one concession that the Every Sport Matters group has had from UK Sport is the agreement to run an open public consultation on whether the current funding model should change after Tokyo. This online consultation was launched on 4 June and will close on 19 August. The online survey can be accessed here: https://survey.euro.confirmit.com/wix/1/p1865845301.aspx. You and your friends and family should of course answer the questions in the survey in whatever way you feel is right. But before you do so, please read a recent statement produced by the Every Sport Matters group, which is reproduced below. You can also read the Manifesto around which the group originally came together in 2017 here: http://www.britishsoftball.org/uploads/_documents/files/manifesto%20for%20unfunded%20 Sports.pdf. And at the end of this document are a few suggestions about the key points we hope you will include in your survey responses. The survey will probably take 20-30 minutes to complete, especially if you take the time to give your opinions in the comment boxes rather than just answer the multiple-choice questions. But it s important for our sports, and for you as a national team athlete, that you and others take this time, and use it to tell UK Sport that every sport including baseball and softball really does matter. Best regards, John Boyd CEO, BaseballSoftballUK EVERY SPORT MATTERS STATEMENT At the London 2012 Games, UK Sport invested the public s Lottery money into 70% of Olympic and Paralympic sports. At Rio 2016 this figure reduced to 64% and in Tokyo 2020, the investment is likely to be in the region of just 48%. No one can doubt the spectacular success of our British athletes since the advent of National Lottery investment. However, this high risk, no compromise policy is fast creating an exclusive club with fewer and fewer members allowed in.
This approach has to end, because, since London 2012, there has been massive collateral damage to many of Britain s other Olympic and Paralympic sports, whose programmes receive no funding at all: Talent systems and performance structures in these sports have been obliterated as the medals at all cost policy has started to unravel the opportunities, infrastructure and pathways for future medal success. Top athletes are retiring or leaving the unfunded sports because they cannot afford to compete. Coaching and management expertise is being attracted overseas because the systems they built for British sports and athletes are being closed down. Around 18 months ago, a group of Olympic and Paralympic sports came together around the concept that Every Sport Matters. The group strongly believes that: The existing approach to National Lottery funding of Britain s Olympic and Paralympic sports has created a two-class system that runs counter to Olympic ideals. Opportunities for elite British athletes in all Olympics and Paralympics sports need not run counter to the pursuit of medals. More sports competing and more athletes delivering more medals will make Great Britain even prouder. Medal targets alone should not be the sole criteria for funding because: o o UK Sport has a responsibility to ensure that all our Olympic and Paralympic athletes are encouraged to achieve their potential and that a system of development opportunities should be there for all of them. The popularity and levels of participation of a given sport are key to inspiring a nation and must be considered when funding decisions are made. An investment system should be developed whereby every Olympic and Paralympic sport would receive baseline funding this would protect the high-performance system in the UK across all sports. Sports would then receive individual investment beyond this based on their medal potential. If this approach were applied for the Tokyo Olympic cycle, the money required to provide baseline funding for those sports that are currently unfunded would represent a little over 1% of UK Sport s total budget of 550 million for the cycle. UK Sport s latest public consultation on the future funding of elite sport was launched on 4 June 2018, and an online public survey went live at the same time. However, the way the survey has been framed makes it clear that there is little appetite for change within UK Sport. This is best illustrated at the start of a section headed Future Strategy, where the following statement is made: With a fixed amount of investment to distribute to sports, a change to the current investment policy such as an equal distribution of funding for all sports could have direct consequences. For instance, it may include proportionately less support and funding for sports which are likely to deliver success and therefore the
potential for far fewer medals at international events such as the Olympic and Paralympic Games but it might mean funding sports which more people play but where historically medal success is more challenging. There has been no suggestion that equal distribution of funding for all sports is the way forward. But it seems clear that the current funding model all to some sports and none to the rest will eventually be selfdefeating. How can we ever hope to win medals in any of the currently unfunded sports unless at least a baseline amount of funding can be provided to sustain and improve their elite programmes, with more funding to be earned as results improve? What will happen to the British high-performance system if the current medal-winning sports stop winning medals and a generation of talent has not been able to develop and emerge from other sports? Surely, this is not the way to approach our future. We believe there is an opportunity to create a new, bold, inclusive goal to underpin the next 20+ years of participation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games: more sports (represented), more athletes (qualified) and more medals (won across more sports). This goal can be achieved without sacrificing our current medal success. But it will require a change in UK Sport s current approach to one in which the leading Olympic and Paralympic sports will continue to be rewarded but all sports and all Olympic and Paralympic athletes will have a chance to succeed. Have your say - https://survey.euro.confirmit.com/wix/1/p1865845301.aspx. Signed: Archery GB Badminton England BaseballSoftballUK British Fencing British Handball GB Luge GB Wheelchair Rugby Table Tennis England British Volleyball British Weightlifting British Wrestling
SUGGESTIONS FOR COMPLETING UK SPORT S ONLINE PUBLIC CONSULTATION SURVEY The consultation includes questions where you will be invited to select your answer from a series of possible suggestions as well as opportunities to freely write about your views. 1) In answering the multiple-choice sections, some of which are repetitive, it would be helpful to avoid giving high scores to the idea that Team GB and Paralympics GB achieving or beating medals targets at Olympic and Paralympic Games is the key priority, since that will encourage UK Sport to resist any change to its current funding model. 2) Please give high scores to concepts such as: Lesser known sports achieving success. The number and variety of sports being funded to compete internationally. British team sports being able to compete internationally (not necessarily winning medals) 3) The first section of the survey is called What Inspires?, and you will be asked to give example(s) of how an international sport, athlete, team or event has inspired you. If you can think of baseball or softball examples with which to answer this question, that would be helpful. 4) In the What Inspires section and in subsequent sections where you are given the chance to write comments, it would be helpful to reflect the Every Sport Matters point of view: That all Olympic and Paralympic sports should be given baseline funding so they can sustain an elite programme and give their high-potential athletes a chance to progress and succeed. Beyond that, additional funds should be given to sports with the greatest medal potential, as now, so that GB can maintain its place in the Olympic and Paralympic medals tables. 5) In the next section, called What is Success?, you will again be asked to give example(s) of how an international sport, athlete, team or event has been successful. Baseball or softball examples would be good! 6) The next section is called Funding Strategy, and you will be asked about the positive and negative factors in UK Sport s current funding policy with regard to both inspiration and delivering success. Clearly, the positive is that the policy has delivered Olympic medals, but the negatives include the decimation of elite programmes in the unfunded sports and the sacrifice of the hopes, dreams and careers of many Olympic and Paralympic athletes with genuine medal potential. Most importantly, providing some support for the elite programmes in all Olympic and Paralympic sports need not jeopardise medal-winning potential. It need not be a zero-sum game. 7) In this section, you will be asked a multiple-choice question about whether you agree or disagree that medals should be the primary focus of UK Sport funding. If you disagree by giving this a score under 5, you will be asked to explain why. See #3 and #6 above for potential answers. 8) This section also includes the following statement: With a fixed amount of investment to distribute to sports, a change to the current investment policy such as an equal distribution of funding for all sports could have direct consequences. For instance,
it may include proportionately less support and funding for sports which are likely to deliver success and therefore the potential for far fewer medals at international events such as the Olympic and Paralympic Games but it might mean funding sports which more people play but where historically medal success is more challenging. We feel that this statement is designed to frighten people about the consequences of any change to the current funding policy, whereas neither the Every Sport Matters group or anyone else is asking for an equal distribution of funding for all sports. Directly after this statement you will be asked again whether UK Sport s primary funding focus should be on medals, and then you will be asked about the negative effects of that policy. Please try to make your answers consistent with what you have said previously. Thanks very much for undertaking this survey and attempting to help National Team athletes in baseball and softball receive government support, as all our main rivals in Europe do!