NZ hockey doubles budgeted profit By KEVIN TUTTY
The New Zealand Hockey Federation emerged from a year of high spending in 2002-03 with a profit of $121,700.
The federation doubled its budgeted profit thanks to some tweaking of its high-performance programme, said the chief executive, Ramesh Patel.
Last year the federation's profit was just $8,919.
Included in the financial year was the preparation for the men's and women's teams for the Commonwealth Games, and the Champions Trophy in Macau and World Cup in Perth for the women's team.
"We were actually down on budgeted income because we expected a bit more high-performance funding than we got. That was a result of the transition period between Sparc and the Hillary Commission.
"We had to adjust a bit. We had to cut back on the men's programme halfway through the year when we realised what the funding would be.
"We cancelled men's trials and cut about $20,000 out of the women's academy programme."
A considerable boost to the federation's funds was an increase of $225,500 in sponsorship on the 2002 year. The federation is close to reaching a million dollars in sponsorship for the first time. Last year its income from that source was $948,989.
Another bonus for the federation was $200,000 in Olympic Solidarity funding, which is being used for the national men's team to help it qualify for the Athens Olympics.
"We still have $150,000 of it to use this year," said Patel.
The biggest expenditure for the federation was on competition. Last year it accounted for $1.51m of the federation's income of $2.73m. Almost $1m of it went on the national teams.
Last year the federation introduced player allowances for the national teams for the first time. Initially the allowance was $40 a day, but Patel said that had since been revised to $200 per player, per tour.
"We always said we might have to adjust to what we can afford, but we would like to get back to the original figure."