£350 Mln Support From The Lottery As To Rio

[DTCwordfan]

16 gold (+1 bagged but not yet booked), 16 silver and 8 bronze. There may be some more to come....however, 7 to 10 mln a medal, is the Lottery sponsorship worth it?

The Paralolympics is in deep doodoo, a meeting today to who can fund 50+nations to come to Rio, as they can't afford it.......Is the financing of all of this OTT and worth it?

[Gromit]

The figures are spurious.

The costs include infrastructure which the general public use. It might take £10 million to build a velodrome that wins us medals. But the rest of us get to benefit from the facilities.

[DTCwordfan]

No they aren't - it has nothing to do with Rio investment....it's the cost of supporting the GB team from 2012 to 16, inc the conversion of the main training camp in Bela Horizonte (ok the locals get benefit from that in terms of the 2nd covered O pool in Brazil....). It's the financial support of our athletes.

[DTCwordfan]

the 1st stage on the Everest camp being a hotel......great idea though for overall team bonding and fine-tuning to the heat and humidity of Brazil, even in winter.

[Togo]

Better than supporting the French or German teams through the EU pyramid scheme innit?

[ToraToraTora]

yes it's worth it. we spend billions on work shy scum, a few quid from the lottery for sports is fine.

[-Talbot-]

I know this is the figure banded about but have you got a link to a breakdown of the money?

[Togo]

It works out at about £7 a head for every body in Great Britain. I am sure we have had our moneys worth this last week or so. Of course it all depends on who is running the show and who is prepared to put the effort and commitment in. We all know and recognise the organisations that no matter how much money you throw at them they will always fail. These organisations and institutions need new leadership. The people of Britain can excel, given the right people running the show.

[Gromit]

I don't follow the argument.

If you do not want your lottery stake to support athletes, then don't go on the lottery. If you do go on the lottery, then you do so in the knowledge that the money raised might be distruted to causes that you wouldn't support.

[ToraToraTora]

solid point gromit.

[ToraToraTora]

it is a voluntary tax after all DTC.

[ChillDoubt]

Worth every penny IMHO. Nice to see the money going to proper worthy causes.
Given the demograph we have from which to choose athletes (in comparison to China and the USA) our Team GB punch massively above their weight.

[DTCwordfan]

BBC News 6pm and it showed the build up since the Atlanta debacle.

[DTCwordfan]

And, for the record, just posing the question for the general 'ethical' question as to whether the money could be better invested.....

I am actually in favour, largely.........just cut the Overseas Aid program back to 0,7% GDP and use that for funding internal GB causes.....

[Togo]

Gromit you pinched my bullet point, I did hope to use it with a flourish, we have an accord for once. DT it was a good question to ask, perhaps we need to ask where else the Lottery funding should be directed. The overseas aid budget needs to be suspended here and now, with any future aid only granted after full Parliamentary agreement and support from both sides of the house. We should certainly not be financing the cohorts of Blair and Meddlesome.

[youngmafbog]

Money well spent, and as Gromit has pointed out it is not compulsory.

[jno]

a fifth of the lotto funds goes to sport. The Guardian says, more conservatively than some sources, that each medal costs £5.5m.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2016/aug/15/five-factors-team-gb-olympic-success-medal-rush

[Ken4155]

Some of our athletes would not be there but for the support of the Lottery. The 'Pride of Burnley', the beautiful Sophie Hitchens surprisingly won bronze in the ladies hammer, yesterday, and she has considered leaving the sport on numerous occasions because of injuries and lack of funding. She didn't, of course, and has now been rewarded for her efforts. I would rather the percentage of my lottery purchase go to something like this than the Royal Opera House in London.

[jno]

is pouring money into dressage somehow superior to pouring it into opera?

[Ken4155]

I didn't say it was, jno. But dressage falls under the umbrella of the nation's Olympic aspirations and therefore deserves to be funded like the rest of the events.