USA Swimming has released its budget proposal for the upcoming quad, which will run from 2017-2020, with the marketing budget set to go up more than $3.3 million from the previous quad and the national team division getting $6.3 million more.
You can view the full budget proposal here.
On a large scale, the budget sets a path for USA Swimming to break exactly even between expenses and revenue over the four-year quad period. The increases for marketing, national team and other divisions come after USA Swimming came out just under $2.3 million ahead in the quad ending in 2016.
The general cycle of the quad has the swimming governing body losing money in 2017, 2018 and 2019, but making a big haul in the Olympic-year 2020. The budget sets up for losses of $500,000 in 2017, over $800,000 in 2018 and $1.8 million in 2019, but a net gain of $3.1 million in 2020.
One notable increase in expenses comes with marketing, where USA Swimming is set to spend $3,381,652 more over the 2020 quad than it did in the 2016 quad. Marketing, too, will actually drop from 2016 ($2.1 million) to 2017 ($1.6 million) before rising back to that $2.1 million level in 2018 and 2019 and then surging to $2.9 in 2020 leading up to Olympic Trials and the Tokyo Olympic Games.
The budget calls for a grand total of $8.9 million on marketing over the four years, compared to $5.5 million between 2013 and 2016.
In a statement to SwimSwam this week, USA Swimming said the increase in marketing comes from a number of factors:
The increase in marketing and promotion for the 2017-20 quad is due to several factors including:
- The growth of SwimJitsu from a pilot program to up to 100 events nationwide. SwimJitsu has off-setting revenue and with additional sponsorship will be a profitable program.
- The re-launch of the new USASwimming.org will be mobile friendly and responsive and will be amortized over the next quad
- We are creating a new department called USA Swimming Productions that will create new digital content to promote the sport and the organization, and create online education opportunities
- Splash magazine will also be making a digital transformation over the quad
These also have either direct revenue associated (ex. SwimJitsu) or have the opportunity to create additional revenue through sponsorship assets (ex. USA Swimming Productions). Some modest increases can be found in the following over the quad in:
- SwimToday – campaign supported by industry partners to grow participation
- Multicultural – investment to grow the sport in ethnically-diverse communities
- SwimBiz – added focus on education for teams and LSCs
-USA Swimming statement on budget
The National Team Division in total (which includes athlete stipends, medal bonuses, the coach incentive reward program, national team administration salaries, training camps and more) is allotted $6.4 million more over the next quad than it was in the previous quad, with a budget value of $39.2 million compared to $32.8 million back in the 2016 quad.
USA Swimming specifically pointed to a few areas that will see budgetary increases:
International Competition support
- Increases support at an international competition level
- Increase in opportunities
Athlete services
- Increase amount of athletes receiving monthly stipend
- Operation Gold qualification bonus for professional athletes who make the op gold team each year
- Jr. team athlete support for APSS competitions
- Increase support for NT Athletes to attend APSS
- Appearance fees for athletes at APSS competitions
- National Team Investment Grant, to be posted in mid-2017
- Hiring of Keenan Robinson as Director of High Performance
-USA Swimming statement on budget