National Hockey Foundation grants to local professional soccer club

AndyGaut 7
foozbear 6
ragyrascal 5
The.Rampage.Rado 5
IRN BRU 5
Rutter 5
Bulsara 4
shepdogg 4
JiMMM 4
juveniliahockey 4

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[Diligent]

Mani Kochar raised this in another Forum, but no doubt FHF members will have an opinion.

The National Hockey Foundation announces: In addition further grants have been approved subject to certain conditions being met to the following:
England Hockey - Quicksticks - £75,000
MK Dons Trust - £150,000
England Hockey - Womens CT 2010 - £50,000

And this is just the latest and largest of an increasing proportion of National Hockey Foundation grants being channelled into local soccer in Milton Keynes:
2007/08 £15K (25% of total grants) to Sport MK,
2008/09 £75K (35%) to MK Dons Trust,
approved £150K (55%) to MK Dons Trust.

Although MK Dons Trust clearly works hard for youth sport in the community, the net effect of these grants is that MK Dons FC appear to 'do their bit' for local kids, while keeping almost £250K in hand for their professional footballers' transfers and salaries.

Our national stadium was built on subscriptions and levies from hockey players all over England. The purpose of the National Hockey Foundation was to run the facility. Following the financial failure of the former England Hockey Association and the fire-sale of the stadium as a soccer ground, the job of the NHT should be to repay the proceeds of that sale to hockey.

How can the National Hockey Foundation justify this cash-back to the football business that bought our stadium; cash that would otherwise return to national and grass roots hockey across England?

[controller]

I totally agree with you on some points but I am sure when the last lot bankrupt the association, this new association had to hand over so much money to this organisation, I am not sure of my facts of this but I do remember reading it somewhere at the time and later.

[Craggsy]

This is madness why are they giving money to MK dons ? Seems a but stupid, they may help local sport in the area but I pay my England hockey fee's to help the game of hockey and the national team not some kids in Milton Keynes.

[redumpire]

Isn't it linked in with the use of the office space at MK (which they will soon be leaving anyway)?

[zippytime]

But shouldn't that be an income for the foundation not an expense?

[Craggsy]

Did MK dons buy the stadium or just rent it  ?

[Diligent]

The story according to NHF is: The NHF charity was set up in 1992 to administer the running of the stadium, which was completed in 1995, and was the ‘home’ of English Hockey for ten years. It was and currently remains the location of the headquarters of the sport’s governing body – England Hockey.

After extensive deliberations, the Trustees of The National Hockey Foundation concluded that the sale of the stadium was the only viable alternative following its cessation of use for hockey. The lease on The National Hockey Stadium at Milton Keynes was sold during 2007. The Foundation’s principle remit now is to administer the substantial funds resulting from that sale for the benefit of sport in general and hockey in particular.

The NHF history skips over the intervening events. The financial failure and winding up of the English Hockey Association in 2002 - replaced by England Hockey. The renting out of the stadium to the former Wimbledon FC (The Dons) so they could move 50 miles and become the MK Dons FC. The tearing up of the hockey surface for MK Dons to lay a football pitch. England Hockey soon to finally move away from the former National Hockey Stadium...

Edited for clarity: The National Hockey Foundation is a completely separate entity to England Hockey and as such EH have no influence as to how they allocate their funding.

Correction 12 Nov: The lease was sold in 2007, when MK Dons FC left for their brand new stadium. At end of October 2008, English Partnerships (current owners of the site) announced agreement with Network Rail to make the site available for a new headquarters building, which means that EH are moving to new offices and the stadium will be demolished.

[bigmick]

this post rendered me speechless,why not spread the money around by giving free level 2 coaching courses
so we can get more kids involved in the game.

[zippytime]

There are also clubs out there constantly seeking funding for running extra coaching sessions specifically directed at young children to get them into the sport, surely they should be looking at this as the best possible use for thos substantial sums.

There are also clubs out there like mine who are trying to fund there own astro pitch so as to help improve their club and provide suitable playing surfaces and secure surroundings to do the above coaching, surely this money could go to help them also.

[Craggsy]

I know there are schools and clubs in the north east who coudl do with the money to buy sticks etc for juniors to get them involved...

[redumpire]

OK, 10 minutes' research has revealed the following.

The NHF is a charity that exists to fulfil the following objectives:

(a) The organisation or provision or assistance in the organisation or provision of facilities which will enable pupils of schools, universities and other educational establishments in the UK to play hockey or other games or sports and thereby to assist in ensuring that due attention is given to the physical education and development of such pupils as well as to the development and occupation of their minds.

(b) The provision or assistance in the provision, in the interests of social welfare, of facilities for recreation or other leisure-time occupations in. the UK either for the benefit of the general public or for the benefit of those who by reason of their youth, age, infirmity or disablement, poverty or social and economic circumstances have a need of such facilities.

Anybody who feels that they need specific support of between £10k and £75k to help them undertake activities that are in line with the Foundation's aims can apply for funding.  The relevant page on applying for funding is available on the Foundation's website here. 

I know a little about charity finance and governance and the NHF's trustees are almost certainly required by the Charity Commission to show that they are spending their money in accordance with their aims and not just sitting on a pile of cash.  (The Commission takes a very dim view of Charities retaining their cash for no apparent purpose.)  So, I assume that any hockey club in England that applies for funding will get at least part of what they ask for if the money is to be spent in accordance with the Charity's aims.

If you want funding for your club, I would suggest that this is a very good source...

[zippytime]

Red,

my annoyance is more to do with the money going to other sports, surely with the lack of money in hockey their remit should be to endeavour to keep it in the sport rather than give i to a sport which throws billions upon billions around as if it grew on trees

[Craggsy]

I need 50 k to erm do something....do I qualify ?

[Twister]

The Trusts aims include furthering sport in Milton Keynes, not just hockey.

One of the Trustees is a non-executive director of MK Dons per the Trustee profiles, and MK Dons leased the stadium for a period.  So perhaps MK Dons had greater awareness of the possibility of funding from that source.

It may be that hockey just wasn't proactive enough in seeking the funding, or those trustees involved in the awarding process felt there was more merit in the football scemes submitted.

The trust was established to administer the National Hockey Stadium, and received the profits/losses of its operations - therefore it may be appropriate that some of the disbursements go to football, as MK Dons would have generated much of the profit recent years.

It would seem from the accounts that there is still around £3m available for grants, so I'd suggest that if you have a scheme that fits the criteria, then get bidding.

[Craggsy]

Yea its fine if the fund was for MK and got its cash from the lottery etc, not from the fee's our clubs have to pay.