The logo for their North Vancouver sports agency is a red maple leaf in a stylized aboriginal dream catcher. But the mother/daughter duo of Connie and Annalise deBoer also want to be dream launchers.
The Action Talent Sports Management proprietors, based at North Shore Studios, are counting the days until the London 2012 Olympics. Two clients, Victoria’s Scott Frandsen and Dave Calder, are aiming for the top step of the pairs rowing podium at the Eton College course near the River Thames after winning silver at Beijing 2008.
The deBoers held meet-the-champions breakfasts in Victoria and Vancouver in March to match clients with potential corporate sponsors. They say the success of Winter Olympians at Vancouver 2010 is misleading. Most athletes are not on the “gravy train,” but instead are struggling with an annual average debt of $10,000.
“We were shocked at the amount of huge personal debt athletes had when they spoke frankly with us,” said Annalise deBoer. “These are people we’re sending out to be our spokespeople for our country, to be ambassadors for Canada, to bring home the gold.”
“The government isn’t a pie in the sky, the government is all of us and the taxpayers of the country can only pay so much,” said Connie deBoer, who bought the agency in 2009 from Whistler halfpipe snowboarder Sherry Boyd.
Athletes, they say, don’t want a handout.
“They just want to carry the flag,” Connie said.
One of them is Nikola Girke, a 34-year-old West Vancouverite who converted from a dinghy at Athens 2004 to windsurfing for Beijing 2008.
“There’s a lot of parallels between athletes and what they do and businesses,” Girke said. “Anything from goal-setting – how do you set measurable and achievable goals, short-term, medium-term, long-term – overcoming obstacles, how do you fight the setbacks, risk management.”
Getting a business backer would be key for Girke, who spends $75,000 a year, mostly on equipment, travel and training.
“It probably will never make prime time, but it is such an interesting, neat sport,” she said.
Girke went to Cadiz, Spain, for the world championships in March to book her spot for the Olympic regatta at the Weymouth/Portland Sailing Academy. Anything can happen in July and August near England’s Jurassic Coast.
“It has the Atlantic fronts coming through, there could be warm summer days and there could be little wind and a front could roll through and it could be 13 degrees and rainy,” Girke said. “The good thing is there is a mix of conditions. Every athlete has their chance to shine.”
Soccer pitch
The Canadian Soccer Association (CSA) told its members it made an $808,000 profit in 2010. It just didn’t show how it happened in the annual report, which contains no statement of finances.
I got a copy of the 100-year-old CSA’s audited report via Access to Information from Sport Canada. It shows $16.163 million in revenue and $15.355 million in expenses. Membership fees ($6.617 million), sponsorships and donations ($3.479 million) and taxpayer grants ($3.145 million) were the top three revenue sources. Gate receipts, appearances and sanctioning fees were worth only $891,169, and merchandise sales generated just $223,117.
The biggest expenses were senior teams ($3.776 million), junior teams ($2.15 million) and competitions ($1.98 million). Marketing and communications ($1.97 million) and administration and meetings ($1.956 million) were next.
A report to Sport Canada, which requires financial statements be submitted annually, stated that “football has gone mainstream in Canada. We are now focused on building the brand of football in Canada” via proactive communications and social media outreach.
One in five Canadians under 12 plays soccer and more than two million Canadians volunteer. There were 873,032 registered players across the country.
Until government requires transparency or members and sponsors demand it, national sport organizations will force inquisitive journalists to file Access to Information requests to see their financial statements. •
