No more crowdfunding and increased infrastructure: NSOs cautiously plan for federal funding boost

When Canada’s women’s rugby team snagged silver at the World Cup last year, it was deemed a success.

The squad, after all, had raised over $1 million to fund its training and competition journey, and those dollars immediately paid off in the form of hardware.

But reflecting a few months later, star scrum-half Olivia Apps stopped short of calling it a win.

“I honestly don't think it did work,” Apps said. “I think we got really close and we did the best that we could with the situation we had. This team deserved to have all the opportunities to win that medal. And I'm not sure if we had every opportunity we could have had.”

Apps, the 27-year-old from Lindsay, Ont., added that some extra financial help at the margins could have been the ultimate difference between silver and gold.

“When you look at the resources that other teams’ programs have and you compared to where we are, it just does come down to the money at the end of the day. And I think there's those little margins that I honestly think would have made a difference,” she said.

Apps — and the rest of the Canadian sport system — may have seen that financial gap close slightly when the federal government announced more than $750 million would be injected during the spring economic update in April.

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For Rugby Canada CEO Nathan Bombrys, however, that announcement — while promising — did not relieve any pressure he feels regarding his national sport organization’s funding shortfall.

“None. At the moment, none,” Bombrys said. “Because we don't know where it's going to get applied and if it's going to be applied in a way that relieves the pressure. It's a great question because running an NSO,