How much public funding does motorcycling get?
About $450K, according to the ASCFederal sports funding is a real hot potato at the moment, especially after yesterday's release of the Crawford report into Australian sport.
While some of the main recommendations have already polarised opinion - John Coates from the Australian Olympic Committee is seeing red over a suggestion that medal hauls were not the best way to measure the country's success in the international arena - the report has some implications for motorcycling, with a special section dedicated to "building the capacity of our national sporting organisations". Motorcycling Australia (MA) falls under that umbrella.
While debate continues on the merits of the Crawford report, the Bikesales Network has done some investigating to find out how much money national sporting organisations (such as MA) receive in Australian Sports Commission (ASC) grants each year.
We hit pay dirt with the ASC annual report for 2007-2008, which says that MA received $451,500 in grants during that period, comprising three tiers: high performance ($382,600), sport development ($64,400) and other ($4500).
How does that compare to other sports? Football (soccer) is the runaway leader on $7.1m, followed by athletics ($5.8m), cycling ($5.7m) and hockey ($5.3m). However, it should also be noted that those sports are also represented in Australia Institute of Sport programs, which is another level of funding that doesn't apply to motorcycling.
Other sports that eclipse motorcycling include bowls ($644,000), boxing ($866,000) and rugby union ($477,000).
In total, just over $86m was allocated in grants to 54 different national sporting organisations, plus $9.7m to the Australia Paralympic Committee and a further $848,500 to national sporting organisations for people a disability.
Meanwhile, the Crawford report has called for an overhaul of elite training in Australia, but emphasises that funding should not be cut from current levels.
The report makes 39 recommendations, which the federal government will consider before implementing any changes.
Whether that has any implications for motorcycle funding remains to be seen.
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