Recently I’ve learned of a Facebook campaign that is underway to send a message to the B.C. Liberal government that funding for sports is important. Some of my discussion here is from comments I posted to the Facebook page for Thumbs-Up-For-Funding-Sports.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Thumbs-Up-For-Funding-Sport/245709219290
www.thumbsupforfunding.ca
While I agree that the goal itself of increased funding (or at least no reduction in current levels of funding) is a laudable one, I also find myself wondering if the approach to seeking funding should be refined somewhat.
Firstly, we need to identify why funding for sport in Canada is not a priority for politicians and policy makers, and is only marginally supported by the public. My own sense is that funding for sports is not a priority in Canada because sport suffers from an image problem. It seems the Canadian public, politicians, and the makers of public policy by and large perceive athletes to be self-interested competitors whose egos and vanity are nurtured in the pursuit of domination and superiority in their drive to be number one. Ours is an egalitarian society, so the argument goes, and we seek to foster participation among those who simply wish to participate, but we should only marginally support competitive activities because competition develops a cut-throat win-at-all costs, dominate thy-neighbour and oppress-thy-lover mentality. Following the argument further, professional athletes are overpaid in any event, and tax dollars are not well spent on funding sport when it should be the purview of private and corporate sponsorship.
If there is any truth at all to this public image, then, as supporters of funding sport, I believe we must not only overcome the “image problem”, but we must also convince the public and the policy makers that it is actually in the best interests of Canadian society as a whole to fund sport. My discussion here focuses not so much on how to overcome the image problem, but on what we must do to convince the public on the how it lies in the best interests of society to fund sports.
To me a useful way of approaching this issue is to ask what are the costs to society if we do NOT fund sport? Sport provides youths and adults alike a focus on physically healthy activities that keeps them out of prisons and hospitals and fosters a degree of self-discipline that enables them to be highly productive contributors to society. The financial and social costs to taxpayers of a physically unfit population – which includes those whose lack of focus and self-discipline allows them to swayed toward drugs or other criminal activities – are enormous. This obviously applies only to a small segment of the population (i.e. that segment of the population with a propensity toward crime), but the argument goes that by supporting sport we also support the opportunity for kids to find a constructive focus and outlet for aggression and competition, rather than a destructive one.
Similarly, athletes exhibit a sense of positive self-awareness and control that is encouraging and inspirational to others. I believe the athlete’s positive lifestyle and attitudes propagate through all the spheres of influence in which athletes find themselves. So, an investment in sport is, in a very real sense, an investment in the future of Canada. Indeed, I do not think it’s an unreasonable stretch to say that an investment in sport is an investment in the future of humanity.
What we need to do, then, as sports-funding advocates, is to gather
statistics that show the overall benefits to society as a whole in terms of savings to the health care system, the education and justice systems; to show the increased productivity in measurable contributions to society as well as less measurable ones like how athletes also foster positive attitudes among their children, who also carry forth into future generations the capacity for healthy self-discipline and productivity.
Questionairres given to sport participants are a good way of establishing these statistics. The results need to be presented to the public, politicians and policy makers so that it is clear to everyone that the benefits to supporting sport are enormous.
A questionaire could include such questions as:
How long have you been involved in your sport? What sacrifices did you make? Were you ever involved in criminal activities, such as illegal drugs (including performance enhancing ones) and if so, how often? How often did you access health care? Do you think your example of discipline has been inspirational to others? What do you do now for a career, or what do you plan to do? How successful are your children in school and if they are grown, what do they do?
That is a start, but the idea is to establish what the costs and benefits of the athletes’ lifestyle is to society. My hypothesis is that overall athletes’ savings and contributions to society are enormous, and that funding sport is not at all about supporting egos and a win-at-all costs mentality.
So the question is really, how can we afford NOT to fund and provide resources for athletes?
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January 26th, 2010 at 11:27 pm
Yes, the situation is pitiful. I find that artists are in an equally sad situation. We live in a philistine society! Hewers of wood and carriers of water — a pragmatist ethos that carries over from the grim survivalism of our pioneers. You advocate well Hugh, thanks for this insightful post!