IN FOCUS: If ‘government cannot pay for everything’, how can Singapore sport get more private funding?

SINGAPORE: When Singaporean water polo player Lee Kai Yang first reached out to companies in 2017 to form partnerships, many were reluctant.

The national team captain and three-time Southeast Asian Games gold medallist was looking for help to cover expenses related to his sport, but soon realised “brands didn’t understand athletes”.

“They just saw me as any other influencer. And if I were to just pit myself against any other influencer, I’m nowhere near,” he said, adding that the companies cared more about his number of followers and how popular he was on social media.

“That was something that I was very frustrated with in the beginning.”

Over the years, elite athletes like Lee as well as somenational sports associations (NSAs) have struggled to secure private sector funding, as CNA found in interviews with several stakeholders in Singapore’s sporting ecosystem.

Uneven levels of visibility and interest in different sports have been some contributing factors. Experts offered suggestions going forward, ranging from national-level initiatives to a focus on individual storytelling, as NSAs themselves continue to find ways to make things work.

No public information exists on the aggregated ratio of private to government funding in sport in Singapore.

In 2017, it was revealed that governing body Sport Singapore (SportSG) provided funding to 45 out of 63 eligible NSAs, to support their organisation functions, outreach programmes, training facilities and high-performance sports plans.

More recently, the government in 2022 said it had pumped aboutS$70 million (US$54.5 million) into the national high-performance sport system. A handful of national scholarship schemes also offer financial support to athletes.

To get corporates on board, a