United States of America - Federal funding and the collegiate system
America is without doubt the most successful nation in modern Olympic history. Since the break up of the Soviet Union, America has dominated in almost every sport at almost every Games.
While the USA has the most obvious success rate, its funding systems are closely guarded, with little information available for researchers. With this in mind, I asked American-born funding expert Michael Garroway from Cambridge Sport Lakes to explain more:
“I think relatively the amount of money available is similar except in America you have more funds being made available through the states as well as the Federal system. For example, the situation here would be for the Cambridgeshire County to make more of an investment in facilities within the county.
“There’s more of a balancing of the burden among the funding sources, and from a philanthropic point of view, there’s a greater commitment to supporting athletes and facilities development than I am aware of in the UK”
In addition to federal funding, much of America’s success is due to the innovative collegiate system of sports scholarships. Importantly you do have to be academically qualified as well as a talented sportsperson to be considered for the scholarships, which can pay up to $30,000 per academic year. The scholarships are obtainable for up to four years, but are renewed on a year-by-year basis. Athletes must therefore stay at the top of their game in order to receive funding for the next academic year. Competition for these scholarships is fierce and can be a lucrative source of funds as the US Educational Advisory Service explained via email:
“Depending on the size of the school and how the athletic team is ranked there is a lot of money to gain from admissions tickets. Sport brings in a lot of money to some universities. Some even have stadiums holding 70,000 people or more. The National Collegiate Athletic Association’s (NCAA) March Madness basketball tournament is one of the most anticipated tournaments of the year, with around 100 schools participating”.
As the NCAA says on its own website: “95% of the revenue that the NCAA receives from television and marketing rights fees and championships is returned to the membership in the form of direct payments and event services”. It is this reinvestment that can be cited as one reason why the USA remains top of the Olympic table.
