Originally Posted by cavernmech
If you look at the amount of money each gov't puts directly into sport it isn't even close. The 2 countries have similar populations. For the years preceding the Sydney olympics the Australian Government starting putting much bigger dollars into sport federations. The result....Australians are kicking ass all over the place.... not just in Kangaroo riding and Koala Bear chucking.
Word to that. Infrastructure is what's missing. As a member of a Provincial Sport Organization, we get money based on what we spent in the past year (ie. deficit financing). If you want to try to grow, you have to increase your numbers and cross your fingers the funding formula will pay you off they year *after* you fork out $ for infrastructure. Even initiatives like Active 2010 are weak ass, IMO. Each sport looks out after themselves (no surprise) and there's little incentive to work together instead of competing for $. New sports getting funded (eg. ultimate) is exceptionally difficult. As well, these are volunteer organizations. Some have the capacity for paid staffers etc., but there's little enough of that. Volunteering wears pretty thin, pretty quick.