Supermarket chain, Sainsbury’s, is in talks with the UK Government to help to plug a £79 million hole in the London 2012 elite athletes funding programme, according to UK newspaper, The Times.
The paper reports that the supermarket giant is in final negotiations with Fast Track, the agency appointed by Andy Burnham, the Culture Secretary, to raise the missing millions from the private sector under a sponsorship scheme called Medal Hopes. It is thought that the discussions are about a £1 million-a-year package to be offered to five “tier one” sponsors backing 1,500 Lottery-funded athletes to the Olympics.
Medal Hopes is underpinned by a contractual obligation on every publicly funded athlete to give three days a year to promote the National Lottery. This time is to be packaged in three tiers of sponsorship, from national to regional and local level. Sponsors would have access to a pool of 1,500 athletes, from household names such as Chris Hoy, Britain’s most successful Olympic cyclist, to unknowns in low-profile sports.
The deal would offer hope to the 24 sports that receive lottery money as they await news of their allocations for the 2009 to 2013 funding cycle. More than a third are braced for cuts as UK Sport, the Government’s funding agency, juggles resources. It had budgeted for £300 million over the next four years as part of a £600 million package announced by Gordon Brown in the 2006 Budget.
An announcement is reportedly expected in the next few weeks.
