I tried to find out the answer as I think through about Singapore Ultimate. This is from WFDF. If we want to work towards a better organisation, we need to work towards the bigger picture. Of course, this is not within our area of concern. But if we are aligned to the World Organisation's direction, we are in the right direction.
The simple answer is: we are not big enough.
The IOC has recently established some guidelines for sports entering the olympics. There is a list of sport evaluation criteria (PDF), and a report on existing olympic sports and potential new sports (PDF) prepared for inclusion in the 2012 games.
Some of the minimum milestones we should aim for before being even considered include:
- 110 member nations
- 50% of member nations organising National Championships
- 50% of member nations participating in qualifying events for World Games/continental championships
- World Championships broadcast in 10 countries (and TV rights paid for in at least 1 country)
- Spectator sales at World Championships in the 10,000s
- 100 media accreditation requests at World Championships
- 100 press articles at World Championships
- 5 major sponsors
Getting into the olympics also involves a lot of politics and money. We are relatively poor as an international sport, and we are new at the sports politics game. Both those things will improve over time.
As well, once we got to the stage of being big enough, we would need to ask ourselves whether being part of the olympics is the right thing for our sport. It would inevitably involve compromises.
At the moment, we are part of the World Games. It is the multisport event for non-olympic sports, and a major stepping stone to the olympics. That does not commit us to a path to the olympics, but allows us to trial being part of an international multisport event. We are learning many lessons.
No comments:
Post a Comment