Follow the Money

One of my good friends asked me on my trip how clubs compare in their priorities with teams. This was a fantastic question that I hadn’t actually thought to ask. Once I started asking, there was a theme that developed – follow the money. Maybe this is not very surprising, but let’s talk about it.

The programs that bring in more money get priority of time, equipment, coaching…etc. This, most often, is the juniors/youth programs. After all, the youth are our future, right?  

When in Colorado Springs, I got an excellent education from various employees at US Olympic Committee Headquarters regarding the progression athletes take and where resources are put in place to help them develop.

It’s all about having a wide base for athletes to get involved, try the sport, and test the waters (for rowing, literally). Then programs aimed at high performance development can pull from this large pool of athletes. The larger the pool – the more advanced the athletes will likely be when taken to the next level.

This pool stems from junior programs and goes into junior high performance and national teams and goes into college programs and into under 23 training programs and into high performance national team training and to the Olympics and to gold medals. Gold medals bring home money. Follow the money.

The Olympics have been around for a long time (rowing in the Olympics since the debut in 1900 for men and 1976 for women), and there is a large pool of able-bodied athletes/participants in sports that are very interested in the Olympics. The Olympics bring in a great deal of money. If you follow the money, the sport has has a lot of money for men’s rowing programs. It was only the Title IX  push that forced programs to equal out their funding for women’s sports which has boosted women’s rowing to a higher level in the past 20 years.

The Olympics are great and all, but what about the Paralympics? The Paralympics definitely also bring in money, but it is less, so the focus is also less. If I had to guess, I’d throw out a 80/20 Olympic/Paralympic focus based on what I’ve seen. Hopefully this will keep on changing every year. Given that para-rowing was introduced in 2008 in Beijing, we have a long way to go still to make a name for the sport. Currently, the money is driving a huge focus on recruiting disabled veterans for adaptive sports since the majority of Paralympic support comes from the Department ofDefense. Programs follow the money – find the veterans.

All athletes with disabilities hopefully benefit, including people with congenital disabilities, youth with disabilities, workers injured on the job, people injured through accidents…etc. But having veterans in your program will help with some of the money issues.

Then there is the Department of Education’s emphasis on the1973 Rehabilitation Act and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act giving the directive that schools and colleges must offer equal access to interscholastic, intramural and intercollegiate athletics for all students (including those with disabilities). This is a huge directive, but so far no real money has backed it. Follow the money – directives are good, but money is still needed in most areas to really implement this. 

The other issue with prioritizing is that all boathouse have limited equipment, space, coaching staff…etc. It would be great to be able to equally support every program, but there has to be a system to organize programming, right? The hierarchy that develops from the money also many times dictates the schedule.  Many teams use the same equipment, coaches, space, water and so priorities are needed to help everything run smoothly.

If the choice is between an adaptive practice or a junior practice at a given time – I’d imagine most often the junior practice would happen. Here is the typical hierarchy I’ve seen at clubs on my journey.

1.  College/Nationally Competitive program
2.  Juniors
3. Camps, Events & Rowing Leagues
4. Masters – who can only row/use equipment when juniors/colleges not using it
5. Adaptive – preferably at off-peak hours

Adaptive programs are mostly separated from membership. They mostly use different equipment (no or extremely limited overlap with other program use), they many times have different coaches and use volunteers who could come from anywhere. Their budgets are also many times separated from the club budget, or maybe they are a completely different non-profit that just uses space within another rowing club. The main thing that overlaps is the dock space. Adaptive practices are not necessarily quick on the docks and that is a big factor in terms of setting up practices. Point is that adaptive programs need support, and support comes in many forms – but one method of support is key in taking them to the next level and giving them the attention that will help them get to the next level: money.

So my challenge to you is this, next time you donate to your local rowing club, or to any rowing program, consider tagging your donation specifically for adaptive. Help encourage clubs to pay attention and develop these programs by making them follow the money.  

You have no idea how much any sized gift whether it be $25 or $20,000 can have an impact. I’d love to talk to you about it if you are considering making a donation. If you want a boat with your name on it – remember that adaptive boats are cheaper than able-bodied racing shells. If you want to support a program developing where you grew up, learned to row, currently live – talk to me. I can tell you exactly how you can help open up the sport of Para-Rowing, or check out this list of adaptive programs and contact one of them directly. 

Women’s rowing is up and running these days. The fight for equality is just starting for people with disabilities. Help ensure that everyone has access to the freedom found on the water. Twenty years from now you can look back and see that you were part of the para-rowing revolution. Won’t that be fun!