SA Teams Getting a Mighty Hiding

[AfricanTech]

Okay, having read through more of the posts, I'll modify - we should not send teams who have no realistic hope of making it past the first round.

And we should not (no disrespect to their dedication) send amateur teams - its a waste

[thestaggy]

First it was Banyana's dismal showing against Sweden and Canada (They lost both games 4 -1 and 3 -0)
Then the ladies Hockey team got trashed by Argentina ( 7-1). The men's hockey team also got thrashed by Australia (6 -0).
My problem is these are team sports and probably use up the majority of the budget and yet don't seem to have any hope of achieving any silverware. Maybe we need to re-focus our attention on individual events. It will cost less and they will have more resources for intensive preparation. What do you guys think?

For the period 2010/11 SASCOC(K) was given a budget of R17 million. SA Hockey was given R940,000 out of that for BOTH men and women. That money is also "ring-fenced", meaning it has to be used in a certain manner, and the primary area that money is put is in grass-roots development. After long-term sponsor Spar withdrew their funding, SA Hockey nearly went bankrupt in 2009 and had to beg for a grant from the National Lottery Board to make it. During 2009 the SA men's team had to pay their way to attend a training camp - R10,000 per player out of their own pockets - and they had to turn to ex-players to help source another R220,000 to fulfil their financial obligations as an association.

If you follow hockey you'd also be aware that it suffers more than any other sport with regards to our wonderful political interference in sport. The notorious 2000 Olympics when the men were blocked from attending for being to light? This political interference is also believed to have a hand in the tiny budget it receives and the way the association has to beg for more when times get tight, as they did in 2009. This also impacts sponsors, as who wants to put money into something when there's a chance they may not play?

In the lead-up to the this years Olympics financial support to SASCOC(K) was ramped up to R35 million over 2011/12, twice as much as for the previous period, BUT, our awesome minister of sport went and blew R46 million on the SA Sports Awards, a sum that was discovered to have been part of a far more impressive R73 million earmarked for the Olympic buildup. Yes, 60% of our Olympic budget went on a party. Only in South Africa.

By comparison, the Australian government pumped R3 billion into Australian sport in the four-year period (1996-2000) leading upt to the 2000 Games. Who knows what they spend now, but we get the idea. Granted SA cannot afford that, but it puts it all in perspective

SA Hockey still has no sponsor. One small relief being that Mr. Price offered to supply kits for free, albeit with no financial compensation, as is the norm in sporting apparel deals.

As we can see, in general, SASCOC(K)'s budget is limited and hockey does not get a huge slice of it. This is worsened by SASCOC(K) being a bunch of, well, cocks. Political wrangling has also done a fine job of harming hockey as well. I can only imagine it is the same, if not worse for other, lesser sports.