the-sports-think-tank-summary-sheet

							The Sports Think Tank


“a sports think tank would be a great legacy from the 2012 games, enabling future generations to
benefit from a long term, well researched, and evidence based sports policy in the UK” – Lord Seb Coe

Why a Think Tank?

Think Tanks create a safe place to ask the big questions. They add weight to policy making so often influenced by short
term political necessity. The aim of sportsthinktank.com is to bring insight and analysis to issues in sport & Physical Activity
in order to help stimulate debate, transform perceptions and provide innovative policy solutions. Our focus is to bridge
the gap between those at the heart of government and those in academia and the sporting landscape who are producing
the long term thinking, analysis and innovation.

Creating a Think Tank

We recognize that much of the sport world considers the concept of a Sport Think tank to be a good idea. Despite this
nobody has been able to drive forward the concept to delivery. We aim to bring together all the streams of interest into a
single home – SportsThinktank.com. We will produce our own reports, hold seminars, conduct breakfast exchanges in
Whitehall, hold an annual lecture and dialogue, and attend party conferences across the UK and help parties create
evidence based sports policies. In so doing, we will bring together the most influential policy makers with those from the
world of sport.

Who

At present the SportsThinkTank is being driven by Andy Reed the former MP for Loughborough and Chair of the Sport &
Recreation Alliance and Nick King formerly of the Conservative Research department responsible for Sport and now at
Heathcote Communications. The project Board will consist of: Andy Reed, Mark Balcar, Tim Payton, Lord Addington, James
Thellusson, Nick King, Prof Barry Houlihan, Sam Tomlin and Linda Plowright. An Advisory panel will include: Hugh
Robertson (Sports Minister), Kate Hoey MP, Richard Caborn, Gerry Sutclife MP, Ian Austin MP, Don Foster MP and Lord
Pendry. Finally, confirmed endorsements have come from Lord Seb Coe, Baroness Sue Campbell, David Minton, Mike Lee,
Linda Plowright, Sean Hold, Tanni Grey and Jonathan Edwards.

Sportthinktank.com will be created as a charity through a company limited by guarantee with Board members and a
proper governance structure. It will be completely non-partisan and the funding structure will ensure it is not weighted to
any sector or interest group.

Finance

The Think Tank will be not-for-profit and have charitable status. We need to raise £50,000 start-up costs for our first year.
This will fund the establishment of a part time Director (£25,000), our web and social media presence (£7,000) and our
first reports (£1,000) and events (£3,000) and the hiring of a part time Director of Research (£10k). Finally, legal and
financial fees (£2,000) and branding and communication (£2,000) will be covered by the start-up funds. We will keep our
costs low by the use of interns and commissioning research.

To be seen as independent we aim to raise our financing through as many micro donations from the sports landscape as
possible. This will ensure such a broad base for funding so there is no reliance on any single funder. Our funding will be as
an independent charity & therefore we will put a great value on personal contributions from individuals, NGBs, Sports
Bodies, sports companies and voluntary organisations. Our supporter programme has three levels: ‘Supporter’ (monthly
donation of £5 or more), ‘Premier Supporter’ (£2,500 per year) or ‘Premier Supporter +’ (£5,000 per year). We will also
have ‘Patrons’, giving £10,000 a year (or more if they choose); the benefits for Patrons include meetings with the Director
and Chair, personal briefings from senior staff, invitations to meet with senior politicians and policymakers, sporting stars,
sports influential thinkers and networking opportunities – all tailored to their particular interests.