Accusations of unfair allocations as York Sport budget row continues
Criticism has been aimed at York Sport by clubs following revelations of inconsistencies in the amount teams have seen their annual grant altered by this year. Despite Nouse revealing last month that certain clubs are facing financial difficulties after significant cuts, it has since emerged that some sports societies have seen their budget increase by up to three times last year’s amount.
Joshua Chipman, President of the Volleyball Club, complained about the “lack of support and reward” his society has received from York Sport “despite a sustained push over the years to make our club one of the best in the country”. The club have seen their allowance cut from £1,300 last year to £394, despite the men’s team consistently competing in Northern Division 1A, making it one of the highest achievers at the University.
In contrast, the Squash Club have seen their budget treble this year. Edward Hartwell Goose, the President, said that they are now “comfortable” particularly as they “don’t have much equipment to buy”. As a result, their membership prices have stayed the same and they have been able to attract far more participants. He called the year so far a “massive success”.
Another of the University’s most successful clubs, Rugby Union, has seen its budget increase following their promotion last year to Northern Conference 1A. President Rob Grant said that increased money was needed because journeys were longer and therefore transport was more expensive. He said: “The budget hasn’t gone up as much as we expected but I doubt we will struggle this season. It’s had a positive effect on the club.”
Chipman said that Volleyball also face increased transport costs as a result of their team competing at a high level. He said that “a couple of slips-ups” and an inability to organise cheaper transport would see the club enter the red.
He criticised the budget allocation for not taking into account that minority sports clubs have less members and therefore can expect less revenue from membership fees. He said that each year the club can expect “twelve students who want to play” regularly. This contrasts with big clubs such as Hockey who, President Rob Newton said, make “an absolute shed load from membership”. He said they can expect “60 or 70 new members”, particularly with the expansion of Heslington East, and have increased membership by five pounds. Despite this, he revealed that the club received a “decent grant compared with most York Sport clubs” and would be “fine” financially this year.
York Sport President Emily Scott said that each budget was worked out by “data supplied by the clubs in their grant application forms” and aimed to “cover the gap between expected expenditure and expected income”. She said that size and success were not factors when allocating budgets and the clubs that have found themselves in difficulty did so because their previous committee “underestimated expenditure”.
Yet Chipman, who was on the Volleyball Club’s committee last year, said that they had “included their elevated travel costs in the application, yet had still received cuts.” He said that their grant of £300 is a third of what they expected and they could find themselves in the situation where they would be unable to travel to certain fixtures.
However, it is not just the smaller clubs that are facing financial difficulty. Greg Gardner, President of the Football club, said the club would be “treading a fine line to stay in the black” this year despite doubling their sponsorship income. While conceding that they “were far from the worst club hit” he said that he felt more money should be given to bigger clubs so that “the maximum number of sportsmen and women at York can play their sport of choice”. He praised last year’s budget allocation which, he said, meant “larger sports rightly secured a fair percentage of the overall grant”.
Despite York Sport treasurer Rosamund Wood saying earlier in the term they did not have the “financial support” to bail out clubs that entered the red, Scott emphasised that York Sport had “no intention of allowing any club to go under” this year.
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Didn’t YorkSport spend £1,500 on Tim Westwood in freshers week that flopped horrifically? Isn’t that money supposed to go to sports clubs not Radio1 celebs?