The Pacific Swimming LSC will make up to $1 million available in grants for year-round teams to help mitigate the financial effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, it announced Monday.
The money will be distributed in three rounds, with the first grants coming in late May. The LSC is making $300,000 available for the first round in order to “provide immediate relief to eligible year-round clubs that are actively engaging with their membership via regular online meetings and/or dryland training.” Eligible clubs will receive $20 per individual registered as a premium or outreach athlete.
According to the release, clubs do not need to apply for the initial funding and will be contacted via email about how to receive their grant.
Pacific Swimming will distribute up to $350,000 for round two grants, which will be need-based payments to eligible year-round clubs that are at risk from the economic effects of COVID-19. Applications will be available online May 4 and will close May 18, 2020, with distribution in mid- to late- June. Clubs receiving grants in this round must “demonstrate economic injury or financial losses due to COVID-19” and “have applied for disaster relief through a local, state, federal or other program,” and “must have incurred operating expenses in March and April.”
The third round of grants will be distributed when teams can return to training, and eventually, competition – round three will also be worth up to $350,000. Priority will be given to clubs either were not given or did not apply for a grant in round two, and will open in mid-July and close no later than mid-August, the release said.
A $1 million relief fund is the largest announced among LSCs nationwide to date. Last month, Southern California Swimming announced a $650,000 relief program specifically designed to help clubs at risk of folding, if they choose to participate in testing new competition models ahead of the probable restrictions on large gatherings after shutdowns are relieved.
The Florida Gold Coast and Louisiana LSCs are also among those to have announced relief programs. FGC will give out $85,000 in total to approved teams that applied for a grant before the April 13 deadline (the LSC has 63 total teams). Louisiana will give out up to $90,000 to its 27 teams through refunding athlete registration fees and commissions on entered athletes for meets that were already hosted this season.
Pacific Swimming is the nation’s second-largest LSC by number of year-round teams (126 in 2019), while Southern California is the largest with 181 reported last year.
Teams have also been given the option to opt in or out. Some of the larger teams that aren’t in as great a need have opted to leave their portion of the money in the fund to be given to teams in the 2nd and 3rd round.
Does this mean the larger more successful teams will get most of the money because they have the most registered athletes? Doesn’t seem fair if I’m reading it right.
They have bills/staff too, and if they own their own pools, big ones.
They paid the most in, they get the most out. Purely based on numbers. That is actually the definition of fair.
I don’t think it’s as simple as that.
LSC’s do not generate their own revenue. The million dollars (and more) has been generated from the member clubs through athlete surcharges, meet surcharges, etc… It is that simple
It should be based on teams that are in need not number of swimmers. These large teams that pay their head coaches 100k+ a year and have a lot in the team bank account do not need this assistance.
They also have bills and staffs in scale with the smaller clubs, and if they own their water… Far more…
Per website, the LSC has approx. 16,000 swimmers with 120 clubs. Knowing the numbers of swimmers and clubs, it seems reasonable and clear for $20/swimmer vs $2,900/club (sharing the 1st round grant). It’s the 2nd and 3rd round grants that will get testy.