The Southern Hemisphere season is in full swing and, at the
conclusion of a very busy summer of sporting success for Great
Britain, I want to update you all on the successful progress that
British Ski and Snowboard has made.
Firstly let me address a matter that is central to our ability to
deliver the services that our elite athletes deserve, fund
raising. In our first year, which concluded at
the end of April 2011, we managed to raise just under £1m.
Over 60% of this came from sponsorship or three major donations to
our sport. Over 20% came from other fund raising events,
grants from FIS and other sports funding bodies with the remainder
being provided by athletes through licence fees, race entries or
contributions to programmes.
The Board of BSS are committed to raising increased funds from
Sponsorship and intend to reduce the costs of the sport to athletes.
I would personally like to make this happen immediately but the
reality is that it can only happen as we increase the commercial
funding and this is not an easy task in the current environment.
However, I am delighted that we have already, this year, secured and
announced sponsorship deals and donations which will provide around
£600k, more than was raised throughout last year. We also have
confidence that we will secure a further £500k in commercial revenue
in this financial year. I am confident that we will be announcing a
number of new deals between now and December.
In addition to raising funds the BSS Board have been focused upon
ensuring that our sport is properly Governed for future success.
We have created a draft Constitution which is based upon many of the
principles of good governance in sport and we have taken on board
comments from the British Olympic Association, the International Ski
Federation and the Home Nations. The next step is to get
feedback from all interested parties and to that end we are
publishing the Constitution this month together with an invitation
to all to provide us with your written feedback, via
BSSconstitution@teamgb.com.
We are delighted that the IOC has chosen to include additional
snowsports in the Olympic programme in Sochi in 2014 and the
inclusion of both ski and snowboard slopestyle give us hopes of
podium finishes. We are providing some funding for athlete
programmes for these disciplines and the achievements of British
athletes like Jenny Jones, James Woods and Katie Summerhayes provide
an example for others to follow.
To help develop all snowsports we are seeking a Performance Director
who will oversee the elite athlete development and training
programmes in every Discipline. We are seeking an individual
who can bring fresh ideas and help to develop our coaching and
support schemes as well as somebody who understands how to overcome
some of the funding difficulties that our athletes often face.
This is a model which I have seen bring great success to other
Olympic sports.
The creation of World Class training and development programmes for
snowsports has been at the heart of my aims since I first became
involved last year. A funded and properly governed sport was
my first objective. We have funding for the next season with
some funding for later years already agreed and the strong
possibility of funding up to 2014. The implementation of the
new Constitution with its new Directors and Committees, by May 2012,
will see the new governance structure implemented. I am now
turning my attention and hope that we will all strive to ensure that
our athletic performances this season results in public and media
interest, support and funding and the consequential implementation
of the programmes that our athletes require for Olympic success.
Have a great 2011/2012 season,
Colin
