Why cant Nigeria have a National lottery to fund sports

[marko]

Marco I'm calling you out..... do you think this idea has merit ? If its a good idea is there anything you can do to support it?

its willpower, there has to be a will to suceed, the government needs to start seeing sports in a positive light, good PR for the nation, does anyone know how Bolt winning last night could translate to more tourists trips to jamaica, i mean that country is just as corrupt as Nigeria, even a government, private sector initiative, Nigeria is blessed with abundance of human and natural resources, the jamaicans dont even travel to train in the US no more, i watched a Bolt documentary in sweden a couple of weeks ago, his training facilities, nothing special, very unconventional, they even had a clip of him training in his coaches porch, the man even parties a lot but still beats the other athletes like school children, corruption has always been the bane of Nigeria progression, to be honest i just dont know what they can do anymore, Nigeria has the capacity to bring home up to 20 gold medals!!! but when you have an olympic delegation where the officials and hanger on are more than the athletes themselves, then you are in big trouble!!

[soothsayer]

Marco I'm calling you out..... do you think this idea has merit ? If its a good idea is there anything you can do to support it?

its willpower, there has to be a will to suceed, the government needs to start seeing sports in a positive light, good PR for the nation, does anyone know how Bolt winning last night could translate to more tourists trips to jamaica, i mean that country is just as corrupt as Nigeria, even a government, private sector initiative, Nigeria is blessed with abundance of human and natural resources, the jamaicans dont even travel to train in the US no more, i watched a Bolt documentary in sweden a couple of weeks ago, his training facilities, nothing special, very unconventional, they even had a clip of him training in his coaches porch, the man even parties a lot but still beats the other athletes like school children, corruption has always been the bane of Nigeria progression, to be honest i just dont know what they can do anymore, Nigeria has the capacity to bring home up to 20 gold medals!!! but when you have an olympic delegation where the officials and hanger on are more than the athletes themselves, then you are in big trouble!!

I understand what you are saying, what i'm trying to do here is find a way of supporting athletes outside of government intervention, I have long believed that Nigeria's problems will not be solved by government because the average person in government even if he is not corrupt is only concerned with his pay packet. Nollywood as much as it is criticized has created jobs and has brought positive things to Nigeria, Nollywood was not an government invention, likewise the Nigerian music industry. It is quite clear to me that sports can go that way too.. we just need to be creative in how we do it, if politicians like Ibori can be cunning enough in diverting funds, surely we have Nigerians creative and cunning enough to find ways of avoiding corruption and obstacles that restrict business and ideas, for the greater good.

[marko]

seems the private sector has to take the initiative though, the government are hopeless but athletics is long term procedure, they are groomed right from an early age to create future winners, see how the Chinese train their sports people, it needs like a 10-15 year investment, no cutting corners, maybe this lottery thing sounds like a good idea

[Guv007]

seems the private sector has to take the initiative though, the government are hopeless but athletics is long term procedure, they are groomed right from an early age to create future winners, see how the Chinese train their sports people, it needs like a 10-15 year investment, no cutting corners, maybe this lottery thing sounds like a good idea

It's the Government who will appoint those who will run it and likely draw up the guidelines. Wouldn't put it past them to start funding almajiri schools from the funds.

[soothsayer]

seems the private sector has to take the initiative though, the government are hopeless but athletics is long term procedure, they are groomed right from an early age to create future winners, see how the Chinese train their sports people, it needs like a 10-15 year investment, no cutting corners, maybe this lottery thing sounds like a good idea

It's the Government who will appoint those who will run it and likely draw up the guidelines. Wouldn't put it past them to start funding almajiri schools from the funds.

once again you are not getting it... ???
This is privately run.....a limited liability company, possibly with shareholders,
no government just people who want to see progress in sports. The only issue that I see that
might involve government is issue of license and maybe tax .............
why do people keep mentioning government , have they not been reading the thread...

I'm tired....

[Oba]

soothsayer, you've mentioned licensing. For lotteries to be effective, they generally need something close to a licensing regime granting a near, or outright monopoly. One important part of making this work, will be 'carrying the government along', since only the government can grant those rights. This, will then bring into question institutional issues about our society... will individuals in government seek to use their position to squeeze out 'something' from this hypothetical lottery? Now, this is even assuming that the 'right' people were the ones to get involved with the lottery in the first place, and they had the right systems in place to ensure that their staff were incentivised to be absolutely professional too. This isn't always easy. A simple example of this, is simply opening a business like a shop or restaurant in Nigeria. It is quite common that when you open a shop, if you don't deploy resources (in form of your time to monitor, or something capable of achieving a similar result) your shop staff will sell your goods, pocket the money, replace stock, and tell you that they didn't make sales, thus leaving you with all the overhead costs, but no revenue, to the point where the business collapses in heaps of losses.

[wanaj0]

soothsayer, you've mentioned licensing. For lotteries to be effective, they generally need something close to a licensing regime granting a near, or outright monopoly. One important part of making this work, will be 'carrying the government along', since only the government can grant those rights. This, will then bring into question institutional issues about our society... will individuals in government seek to use their position to squeeze out 'something' from this hypothetical lottery? Now, this is even assuming that the 'right' people were the ones to get involved with the lottery in the first place, and they had the right systems in place to ensure that their staff were incentivised to be absolutely professional too. This isn't always easy. A simple example of this, is simply opening a business like a shop or restaurant in Nigeria. It is quite common that when you open a shop, if you don't deploy resources (in form of your time to monitor, or something capable of achieving a similar result) your shop staff will sell your goods, pocket the money, replace stock, and tell you that they didn't make sales, thus leaving you with all the overhead costs, but no revenue, to the point where the business collapses in heaps of losses.

Which part of Nigeria having a national sports lottery is difficult to understand? Google will take you to its website. It is a public liability company listed on the NSE.

[Oba]

soothsayer, you've mentioned licensing. For lotteries to be effective, they generally need something close to a licensing regime granting a near, or outright monopoly. One important part of making this work, will be 'carrying the government along', since only the government can grant those rights. This, will then bring into question institutional issues about our society... will individuals in government seek to use their position to squeeze out 'something' from this hypothetical lottery? Now, this is even assuming that the 'right' people were the ones to get involved with the lottery in the first place, and they had the right systems in place to ensure that their staff were incentivised to be absolutely professional too. This isn't always easy. A simple example of this, is simply opening a business like a shop or restaurant in Nigeria. It is quite common that when you open a shop, if you don't deploy resources (in form of your time to monitor, or something capable of achieving a similar result) your shop staff will sell your goods, pocket the money, replace stock, and tell you that they didn't make sales, thus leaving you with all the overhead costs, but no revenue, to the point where the business collapses in heaps of losses.

Which part of Nigeria having a national sports lottery is difficult to understand? Google will take you to its website. It is a public liability company listed on the NSE.

Wanaj0, I know that Nigeria, does, in fact, have a company called National Sports Lottery. Heck, I've even watched one of its draws before a long time ago.

In this argument, I presume soothsayer assumes this "NSL" has failed and he's putting forward the idea of a 'new' National Sports Lottery, run along the principles and ideas that he is putting forward now.

All I'm trying to do is to explain why even a new NSL might run into problems.... even with completely new owners and ideas similar to what he proffers.

[wanaj0]

soothsayer, you've mentioned licensing. For lotteries to be effective, they generally need something close to a licensing regime granting a near, or outright monopoly. One important part of making this work, will be 'carrying the government along', since only the government can grant those rights. This, will then bring into question institutional issues about our society... will individuals in government seek to use their position to squeeze out 'something' from this hypothetical lottery? Now, this is even assuming that the 'right' people were the ones to get involved with the lottery in the first place, and they had the right systems in place to ensure that their staff were incentivised to be absolutely professional too. This isn't always easy. A simple example of this, is simply opening a business like a shop or restaurant in Nigeria. It is quite common that when you open a shop, if you don't deploy resources (in form of your time to monitor, or something capable of achieving a similar result) your shop staff will sell your goods, pocket the money, replace stock, and tell you that they didn't make sales, thus leaving you with all the overhead costs, but no revenue, to the point where the business collapses in heaps of losses.

Which part of Nigeria having a national sports lottery is difficult to understand? Google will take you to its website. It is a public liability company listed on the NSE.

Wanaj0, I know that Nigeria, does, in fact, have a company called National Sports Lottery. Heck, I've even watched one of its draws before a long time ago.

In this argument, I presume soothsayer assumes this "NSL" has failed and he's putting forward the idea of a 'new' National Sports Lottery, run along the principles and ideas that he is putting forward now.

All I'm trying to do is to explain why even a new NSL might run into problems.... even with completely new owners and ideas similar to what he proffers.

Good that you are aware of its existence. It failed mainly because of lack of patronage. This is because gambling is not an acceptable practice in Nigeria. The stigma that gambling is meant for lazy and irresponsible people is there. That lottery is accepted in other climes does not mean that it will be accepted in Nigeria.

[juventuss]

Like anything, you need to market it properly. Show how it funds other programs, tell stories about the winners. Have the media involved in the frenzy. That stigma will reduce over time....

[GREENWHITEGREEN]

soothsayer,

THE PROBLEM is not lack of money. Even if we had a lottery to fund sports, the money will go the way of state allocations.

[Riversboy]

I think it is fair to say that the current Government-dependent system in our sports has failed, and will continue to fail. The problems that beset Nigerian governance in general make that inevitable for now.

if we private citizens are serious about saving our sport, we have to "rub minds" and find ways to organize outside of government.

I am a big believer in the "adopt-a-blank" approach. We have to create an avenue for people to donate (money, time, expertise, equipment) transparently to a specific need chosen from a menu. We must crowdsource sports sponsorship. It is something that i have started working on for projects in my LGA. It can be applied to sport fairly easily. It would have to start small, maybe focusing on the most popular sports, but as it gets more support it can be scaled up.

Imagine, if you will...


A website/social network dedicated to watching the progress of Nigerian sport programs. It should, for each sport it covers, enumerate all the requirements to make our athletes competitive at Olympic level, and serve as a clearinghouse for getting those resources to the athletes, teams, clubs, programs and federations. It would be sensible to start with sports like track and field where solo training is possible, and one need not go through the governing body. I say this because we all know that in the Nigerian context, it is safer to deal with individuals than with governing bodies purported to represent them. Later, when the site and its backing organization have more experience, it will be possible to vet organizations in a sort of "credit-rating" system, to determine how much they can be trusted.

So, the site lists the athletes' requirements, and allows people to "adopt" specific aspects of the athlete's program. I can donate to part of her living expenses, while another helps pay for her coach, etc. if there is a particular facility she uses, other people may choose to pay to upgrade certain equipment there, etc.

Such a site would require legwork to get to the athletes and coaches, and document their current conditions. It would require consultancy to figure out what the "international best practices" are in the particular sport, so the site knows what menu items to make available.

I'm just brain-riffing here.

RB.

kpom... l like it... but we need to be honest with our selves , we will start with limited funds , so we have to decide whether to concentrate funds to either low number of talent or spread it among many.

I agree. I was going to say that yesterday after some thought, but my internet went out (naijaaaa )
I believe we would have to concentrate the funds/resources for a few athletes in a few (more popular) sports, in order to show results that can encourage more involvement from private donors, NGOs, corporations, etc.

Also I feel we should limit this funding to those who
train in Nigeria because it would be harder to monitor athletes who travel abroad, or am I wrong? Looking at the Jamaican
case they started losing athletes to USA when they started traveling to train in their high grade facilities.
Jamaica eventually stemmed it when coaches started setting up back home and started coaching world champion winning athletes.

I see your point about ease of monitoring. However, I am of the opinion that at first, investment in foreign-based athletes (or naija-based athletes being given an avenue to train abroad) would be more efficient in terms of size of investment relative to ROI. This is because we wouldn't need to fund the creation of training capacity from scratch. Definitely, once the program has shown results and gained credibility in the eyes of potential sponsors and donors, it would be imperative to start investing in home-based training.

I guess a "two-track" system could also work: on one hand, hooking up foreign-based athletes with sponsorship and payment for training; on the second track, sponsorship and basic training for Naija-based, along with periodical clinics/visitations, and ultimately the setting up of world class training centres in Naija.

If we can sponsor both talented coaches and athletes we might be able to get enough support to build grade A- training
facilities that can become self-funding. via having athletes from west-Africa use the facilities. Not sure if this idea has merit
or not, but we need to think long term.

I agree 100%. This is exactly what I had in mind as the ultimate objective. We must build first the capacity of the athletes we have, then our capacity to build that capacity (by training coaches and by building training facilities).

Yes, successfully sponsoring athletes will build sponsor confidence and make the all-important larger projects possible.

Also I feel that we should try to limit what we do least we overstep , we don't want
to do the job of sports authorities just expose their lack of initiative. So every time we get an athlete we first highlight
the problems of the athlete through website, through blogs , etc then we offer to sponsor. I actually think we can set up
a radio broadcast, in uk there is a competition called how low where people call in on radio and try to make the lowest bid,
each call will cost a certain amount but there will be a prize at the end, but we should make enough funds from that to
do something. The radio program can also help follow up on sports, talk about funding issues, interview coaches and
talent, discuss latest sports and technique, as a result we not only get sports back on peoples minds, we also get advertising
revenue, provide knowledge of sports and keep people updated on our talent, (and keep our talent on their toes if they mess up).

Yes o, i hadn't considered that angle. Definitely a broadcast media presence would make a big difference in terms of creating awareness and generating a revenue stream separate from direct sponsorship.

The sponsorship program would have branding potential as well. (Could someone here educate us on rules for wearing branded clothing for US track meets, for example?) If the athletes, website, etc promote the brand, that brand visibility can be used as a marketing lure for getting sponsorship from companies trying to reach the African market ("Lever Brothers, proud partners of...", with the right to use the brand in their ads).


RB.

[kolinzo]

It's easy. Find a few of your friends, rub minds together,pick a state, and start building academies. Our government is useless (I can't believe I'm saying this) and citizens must grab the bull by the horn.

As an example, Colombia was on the rise in soccer back in the late 80's/early 90's with drug money -Pablo Escobar and other drug Lords. The money they poured in increased the talent pool in Colombia until it got nasty. Now I'm not saying we should start dealing drugs and use the proceeds to build sports in Naija, I only use this as an example to show how individual can put in their money to improve sports. If you put down =N=1millie for a competition I can guarantee you talent will spring from everywhere (and that will create fierce competition). We need money, we need money, we need money. But as for an internvention by the government? Forget about it!

[Mr. Piffington]

I think it is fair to say that the current Government-dependent system in our sports has failed, and will continue to fail. The problems that beset Nigerian governance in general make that inevitable for now.

if we private citizens are serious about saving our sport, we have to "rub minds" and find ways to organize outside of government.

I am a big believer in the "adopt-a-blank" approach. We have to create an avenue for people to donate (money, time, expertise, equipment) transparently to a specific need chosen from a menu. We must crowdsource sports sponsorship. It is something that i have started working on for projects in my LGA. It can be applied to sport fairly easily. It would have to start small, maybe focusing on the most popular sports, but as it gets more support it can be scaled up.

Imagine, if you will...


A website/social network dedicated to watching the progress of Nigerian sport programs. It should, for each sport it covers, enumerate all the requirements to make our athletes competitive at Olympic level, and serve as a clearinghouse for getting those resources to the athletes, teams, clubs, programs and federations. It would be sensible to start with sports like track and field where solo training is possible, and one need not go through the governing body. I say this because we all know that in the Nigerian context, it is safer to deal with individuals than with governing bodies purported to represent them. Later, when the site and its backing organization have more experience, it will be possible to vet organizations in a sort of "credit-rating" system, to determine how much they can be trusted.

So, the site lists the athletes' requirements, and allows people to "adopt" specific aspects of the athlete's program. I can donate to part of her living expenses, while another helps pay for her coach, etc. if there is a particular facility she uses, other people may choose to pay to upgrade certain equipment there, etc.

Such a site would require legwork to get to the athletes and coaches, and document their current conditions. It would require consultancy to figure out what the "international best practices" are in the particular sport, so the site knows what menu items to make available.

I'm just brain-riffing here.

RB.

kpom... l like it... but we need to be honest with our selves , we will start with limited funds , so we have to decide whether to concentrate funds to either low number of talent or spread it among many.

I agree. I was going to say that yesterday after some thought, but my internet went out (naijaaaa )
I believe we would have to concentrate the funds/resources for a few athletes in a few (more popular) sports, in order to show results that can encourage more involvement from private donors, NGOs, corporations, etc.

Also I feel we should limit this funding to those who
train in Nigeria because it would be harder to monitor athletes who travel abroad, or am I wrong? Looking at the Jamaican
case they started losing athletes to USA when they started traveling to train in their high grade facilities.
Jamaica eventually stemmed it when coaches started setting up back home and started coaching world champion winning athletes.

I see your point about ease of monitoring. However, I am of the opinion that at first, investment in foreign-based athletes (or naija-based athletes being given an avenue to train abroad) would be more efficient in terms of size of investment relative to ROI. This is because we wouldn't need to fund the creation of training capacity from scratch. Definitely, once the program has shown results and gained credibility in the eyes of potential sponsors and donors, it would be imperative to start investing in home-based training.

I guess a "two-track" system could also work: on one hand, hooking up foreign-based athletes with sponsorship and payment for training; on the second track, sponsorship and basic training for Naija-based, along with periodical clinics/visitations, and ultimately the setting up of world class training centres in Naija.

If we can sponsor both talented coaches and athletes we might be able to get enough support to build grade A- training
facilities that can become self-funding. via having athletes from west-Africa use the facilities. Not sure if this idea has merit
or not, but we need to think long term.

I agree 100%. This is exactly what I had in mind as the ultimate objective. We must build first the capacity of the athletes we have, then our capacity to build that capacity (by training coaches and by building training facilities).

Yes, successfully sponsoring athletes will build sponsor confidence and make the all-important larger projects possible.

Also I feel that we should try to limit what we do least we overstep , we don't want
to do the job of sports authorities just expose their lack of initiative. So every time we get an athlete we first highlight
the problems of the athlete through website, through blogs , etc then we offer to sponsor. I actually think we can set up
a radio broadcast, in uk there is a competition called how low where people call in on radio and try to make the lowest bid,
each call will cost a certain amount but there will be a prize at the end, but we should make enough funds from that to
do something. The radio program can also help follow up on sports, talk about funding issues, interview coaches and
talent, discuss latest sports and technique, as a result we not only get sports back on peoples minds, we also get advertising
revenue, provide knowledge of sports and keep people updated on our talent, (and keep our talent on their toes if they mess up).

Yes o, i hadn't considered that angle. Definitely a broadcast media presence would make a big difference in terms of creating awareness and generating a revenue stream separate from direct sponsorship.

The sponsorship program would have branding potential as well. (Could someone here educate us on rules for wearing branded clothing for US track meets, for example?) If the athletes, website, etc promote the brand, that brand visibility can be used as a marketing lure for getting sponsorship from companies trying to reach the African market ("Lever Brothers, proud partners of...", with the right to use the brand in their ads).


RB.

[wanaj0]

Many interesting ideas.

Again, sports cost money and in Nigeria you make little from it. You need to have a deep pocket to throw money at sports in Nigeria especially since we have too many sports to focus upon.

No one should use government as an excuse. Apart from football, very few sports attracts government interest. So there is a large space to operate with little or no government interest.

[juventuss]

Many interesting ideas.

Again, sports cost money and in Nigeria you make little from it. You need to have a deep pocket to throw money at sports in Nigeria especially since we have too many sports to focus upon.

No one should use government as an excuse. Apart from football, very few sports attracts government interest. So there is a large space to operate with little or no government interest.

I am not sure if we have a lot of sporting events to focus on. In terms of marketing, we have such a huge potential that we are not even scratching 1/10 of 1%.
Enterprising LGAs can put together programs within their area and spec out some space for a league. Players and teams pay an administration fee, and develop from there.

The potential is mind blowing.

[wanaj0]

Many interesting ideas.

Again, sports cost money and in Nigeria you make little from it. You need to have a deep pocket to throw money at sports in Nigeria especially since we have too many sports to focus upon.

No one should use government as an excuse. Apart from football, very few sports attracts government interest. So there is a large space to operate with little or no government interest.

I am not sure if we have a lot of sporting events to focus on. In terms of marketing, we have such a huge potential that we are not even scratching 1/10 of 1%.
Enterprising LGAs can put together programs within their area and spec out some space for a league. Players and teams pay an administration fee, and develop from there.

The potential is mind blowing.

We hear about this potential everyday and I am waiting for private investors to go there and make money! If there is money to be made, believe you me, Nigerians will step up without government. We saw other happened with Telecoms, Music and Nollywood. Sports in Nigeria is not as lucrative as we think. That is why private football clubs are more or less a thing of the past. Government is the only one that will throw money down the drain.

Yes the potential market is big but not many are willing to pay!

[marko]

sports requires a long term investment, i will say between 10-20 years before you start seeing positive results, Nigeria seems to be a place where they want short term victories, thats why with football for example, they always use over aged players to win at all costs, thankfully they cant do this with athletes, Nigeria comes across as a sports loving country so quite surprised they have not invested more in sports, i still believe the government has to make the initiative, i always say sports is a positive PR for any country, think Brazil through football, now the spotlight is on Jamaica, the last couple of weeks, i have watched over 5 documentaries of jamaica, am sure this will inspire more tourism for that country, Nigeria is definitely blessed with an abundance of talent but its a shame there is no structure to harness this talent, the top athletes from Nigeria over the years had to fund themselves, putting themselves out for every tournament so when the real one likes olympics comes up, they are usually burnt out, even if the private sector comes in, they still need a long term plan

[soothsayer]

i have not given up on the this...the Lottery idea may not work but we can still find other means of raising funds.
keep the ideas coming...

[marko]

i have not given up on the this...the Lottery idea may not work but we can still find other means of raising funds.
keep the ideas coming...

to be honest there is no cutting corners when it comes to sports, its all about long term investments!!! the same ideas that jamaica uses to produce record breaking athletes, Nigeria should use this as well, funny enough like i pointed out, their program is not even rocket science, i wish i had a link to the usain bolt documentary i watched in sweden 2 weeks ago, simplicity, nothing out of the ordinary, but then Bolt had been racing since he was 15!! so it seems the long term investment have started to pay off, believe there is no other way, jamaica is even a poorer country than Nigeria so there are no excuses whatsoever!

[soothsayer]

Many interesting ideas.

Again, sports cost money and in Nigeria you make little from it. You need to have a deep pocket to throw money at sports in Nigeria especially since we have too many sports to focus upon.

No one should use government as an excuse. Apart from football, very few sports attracts government interest. So there is a large space to operate with little or no government interest.

I am not sure if we have a lot of sporting events to focus on. In terms of marketing, we have such a huge potential that we are not even scratching 1/10 of 1%.
Enterprising LGAs can put together programs within their area and spec out some space for a league. Players and teams pay an administration fee, and develop from there.

The potential is mind blowing.

We hear about this potential everyday and I am waiting for private investors to go there and make money! If there is money to be made, believe you me, Nigerians will step up without government. We saw other happened with Telecoms, Music and Nollywood. Sports in Nigeria is not as lucrative as we think. That is why private football clubs are more or less a thing of the past. Government is the only one that will throw money down the drain.

Yes the potential market is big but not many are willing to pay!

probably not soccer... it normally requires ownership or hiring of a stadium
I think the money is more likely to be made from building facilities
and hiring them out. like Olympic size swimming pools, lawn tennis courts
, shooting ranges in Lekki, aimed at the middle-class and affluent, biking
clubs. They can be like sporting clubs with memberships, I know that attitudes
are changing somewhat to sports and lifestyle generally. It can be aimed at
corporate firms in Nigeria, and they pass it on to their staff...
Can these work????

[soothsayer]

http://allafrica.com/stories/201208060531.html

interesting, even the athletes are complaining that they are not getting exposure and encouragement.
A very valid point, since the hardest part of an athletes life is the period when they are training,
they need far more limelight than they are currently getting. TV and Radio interviews, more public
acknowledgement of their achievements (not just putting it in newspaper). Make them feel wanted
make them want to do better.

[Riversboy]

I think it is fair to say that the current Government-dependent system in our sports has failed, and will continue to fail. The problems that beset Nigerian governance in general make that inevitable for now.

if we private citizens are serious about saving our sport, we have to "rub minds" and find ways to organize outside of government.

I am a big believer in the "adopt-a-blank" approach. We have to create an avenue for people to donate (money, time, expertise, equipment) transparently to a specific need chosen from a menu. We must crowdsource sports sponsorship. It is something that i have started working on for projects in my LGA. It can be applied to sport fairly easily. It would have to start small, maybe focusing on the most popular sports, but as it gets more support it can be scaled up.

Imagine, if you will...


A website/social network dedicated to watching the progress of Nigerian sport programs. It should, for each sport it covers, enumerate all the requirements to make our athletes competitive at Olympic level, and serve as a clearinghouse for getting those resources to the athletes, teams, clubs, programs and federations. It would be sensible to start with sports like track and field where solo training is possible, and one need not go through the governing body. I say this because we all know that in the Nigerian context, it is safer to deal with individuals than with governing bodies purported to represent them. Later, when the site and its backing organization have more experience, it will be possible to vet organizations in a sort of "credit-rating" system, to determine how much they can be trusted.

So, the site lists the athletes' requirements, and allows people to "adopt" specific aspects of the athlete's program. I can donate to part of her living expenses, while another helps pay for her coach, etc. if there is a particular facility she uses, other people may choose to pay to upgrade certain equipment there, etc.

Such a site would require legwork to get to the athletes and coaches, and document their current conditions. It would require consultancy to figure out what the "international best practices" are in the particular sport, so the site knows what menu items to make available.

I'm just brain-riffing here.

RB.

kpom... l like it... but we need to be honest with our selves , we will start with limited funds , so we have to decide whether to concentrate funds to either low number of talent or spread it among many.

I agree. I was going to say that yesterday after some thought, but my internet went out (naijaaaa )
I believe we would have to concentrate the funds/resources for a few athletes in a few (more popular) sports, in order to show results that can encourage more involvement from private donors, NGOs, corporations, etc.

Also I feel we should limit this funding to those who
train in Nigeria because it would be harder to monitor athletes who travel abroad, or am I wrong? Looking at the Jamaican
case they started losing athletes to USA when they started traveling to train in their high grade facilities.
Jamaica eventually stemmed it when coaches started setting up back home and started coaching world champion winning athletes.

I see your point about ease of monitoring. However, I am of the opinion that at first, investment in foreign-based athletes (or naija-based athletes being given an avenue to train abroad) would be more efficient in terms of size of investment relative to ROI. This is because we wouldn't need to fund the creation of training capacity from scratch. Definitely, once the program has shown results and gained credibility in the eyes of potential sponsors and donors, it would be imperative to start investing in home-based training.

I guess a "two-track" system could also work: on one hand, hooking up foreign-based athletes with sponsorship and payment for training; on the second track, sponsorship and basic training for Naija-based, along with periodical clinics/visitations, and ultimately the setting up of world class training centres in Naija.

If we can sponsor both talented coaches and athletes we might be able to get enough support to build grade A- training
facilities that can become self-funding. via having athletes from west-Africa use the facilities. Not sure if this idea has merit
or not, but we need to think long term.

I agree 100%. This is exactly what I had in mind as the ultimate objective. We must build first the capacity of the athletes we have, then our capacity to build that capacity (by training coaches and by building training facilities).

Yes, successfully sponsoring athletes will build sponsor confidence and make the all-important larger projects possible.

Also I feel that we should try to limit what we do least we overstep , we don't want
to do the job of sports authorities just expose their lack of initiative. So every time we get an athlete we first highlight
the problems of the athlete through website, through blogs , etc then we offer to sponsor. I actually think we can set up
a radio broadcast, in uk there is a competition called how low where people call in on radio and try to make the lowest bid,
each call will cost a certain amount but there will be a prize at the end, but we should make enough funds from that to
do something. The radio program can also help follow up on sports, talk about funding issues, interview coaches and
talent, discuss latest sports and technique, as a result we not only get sports back on peoples minds, we also get advertising
revenue, provide knowledge of sports and keep people updated on our talent, (and keep our talent on their toes if they mess up).

Yes o, i hadn't considered that angle. Definitely a broadcast media presence would make a big difference in terms of creating awareness and generating a revenue stream separate from direct sponsorship.

The sponsorship program would have branding potential as well. (Could someone here educate us on rules for wearing branded clothing for US track meets, for example?) If the athletes, website, etc promote the brand, that brand visibility can be used as a marketing lure for getting sponsorship from companies trying to reach the African market ("Lever Brothers, proud partners of...", with the right to use the brand in their ads).


RB.

no sleep o!

RB.