National Teams Budget for 2007

[Richard]

Reported in the Vancouver Sun today:

"According to CSA vice-president Victor Montagliani, the women's World Cup team was allotted about $650,000 from the association's total national teams budget of $2.3 million for 2007"

"All national team programs are severely underfunded," says Burnaby native Montagliani. "That includes programs from the under-15 level to the senior teams, both men's and women's. It's a combined total of 10 to 12 teams, depending on the year and the teams' activities during that year."

"The women's team budget is only marginally less than the men's team budget this year," says Montagliani, adding the men's side won't play an international game in 2007 after a Sept. 12 exhibition match against Costa Rica in Toronto.

http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/sports/story.html?id=3fa75c64-2999-4bd7-b0ce-e6d1af45c3b3

[CoachRich]

Only raises more questions for me????

[Richard]

Does rather disprove the recent assertions that the WNT budget is substantially less than the MNT budget.

[CoachRich]

Not really as the WNT refer to their program as a whole ie all Women's teams. This is why they make reference in interviews to where the revenues of the 2002 U19WC are when they are interviewed. They do this as many of the players play on several of the WNT teams in the WNT Program.

The article doesn't say how much the CSA is spending on the current MNT U20 program does it? But I would guess that they are spending a ton of $ as they have had to fly in about 9 pros from Europe & etc. Not much we can do about that but it makes it obivious that the MNT is more expensive to run.

We know the 2002 WNT U19 WC got $500K from the Feds & then the CSA funded the rest. The rest we don't know as no Financials which goes back to the WNT question of how the 2002 U19 revenues were used. The revenue question is something you would think the WNT Reps would know but they don't because they have never seen the financials & etc. Why should they know & etc? Part of Article 12 of the CSA Constitution requires that the NT Reps attend the AGM & participate in developing their program & etc.

When you follow the Sun article & compared team to team on gender equity the WNT U20 got "0" dollars this budget whereas the MNT U20 are getting a WC....... I think everyone understands that. Big questions are -

1. Will the CSA disclose financials after the MNT U20?

2. How were the revenues from the WNT U19 WC used? Did they go back into general funds or was some of that put towards the WNT program? WNT asked where did the reveneus go as they need $ for their WC run?

3. How will the revenues from the MNT U20 be shared amongst the NT programs if event revenue is in the black?

4. Will some of the MNT U20 revenues quickly go into the WNT WC team so they can get new uniforms, play a home games, play A teams & etc as this is a WC year for them.

5. Will the WNT get the CSA staff time to promote the WNT, find them a sponsor & etc for the WNT WC or will the WNT have to continue to get help on their own & do battle w/ CSA Soccer Properties & IMG over sponsorship for specific teams.

6. If the CSA says like they did about the WNT U19 WC that no revenues where made, then as members we have to ask some serious questions of why the CSA continues to host money loosing events at the expense of our other successful programs.

I would be the first to say it would be great to have each program's teams making the WCQ & beyond but we have only the WNT that do that. I hoping that the MNT U20 go all the way as a soccer country we need that to get on a roll. Still there are a lot of questions that need to be asked about the transparency, no finanicals for 4-5 years & the management track record of the CSA over the past decade & where as a NSO they are going to go now.

Lots of questions but it again leads back to how the WNT feels, they are getting & what they are seeing. Remember they are not only grown women but many of them have been in the WC system for many years now....

[Massive Attack]

The only shocking thing in that entire article is the fact that the Men's NT will not be taking advantage of the October and November FIFA dates. This being the year before the crucial World Cup qualifying will begin.

After finding this out, and still seeing the bullshit 'gender equity' issue being pushed, it makes me laugh so hard. There is no gender equity problem. Only people pushing their own agendas. Its obvious that the CSA runs a bare bones organization. It appears that all the programs suffer from lack of money. I'm tired of this destructive whining.

[fan]

Will the CSA be held accountable for not publicly submitting the budget?

[sj]

1 single MNT match in canada will make more money than half a dozen WNT game.

by giving away thousands of free ticket and heavily discounted ticket prices at WNT games the CSA has created a false picture of popularity of the womens teams at the highest level in terms of gate receipt.

the truth is a face value those attendance figured would be ten times less.

counting heads at a game is one thing but count dollars at the end of the game is the bottom line.

a direct comparison to justify the imbalance in budget allocated should be the amount of cash that derived from the Fifa-20 womens tournament a few yrs back in canada compared to this men's U-20 tornament in Canada.

a Balance sheet release of both events would show financially which course make more business sense.

[CoachRich]

sj- if you've got the balance sheets please show? Lots of free tickets for the MNT U20 being given out for the Men's U20 too. Got a couple myself :-) & I'm going to enjoy seeing the games & hope that our boys make it to at least the semi's.

Revenues of the U19WC was 1 of the questions that the WNT teams have been asking in their interviews. It's an important queston as NT player reps are asked to participate in the AGM per the CSA Consitution, Article 12, Athlete Reps. Pretty hard to do w/out financials.

Regardless, until the CSA provides the membership w/ Annual Reports & Financials we will never know what sort of revenues or expenses the CSA has incurred over the last 5 years. 1 thing we do know is that the Feds gave a grant of $500K to the CSA for the hosting of the WNT U19 so the CSA had money to burn on making the event successful which it certainly looked like it was. It's success probably helped the CSA get the MNT U20 but it's evident that the CSA is chronically underfunded as per the Sun interview & has chronically spread itself out too thin w/ the programs. Again, management wise until the CSA is transparent & the members see the Annual Reports & Financials we will not know how good the CSA BOD & staff manage our sport.