Swimming Australia has plunged into an $8 million black hole after being dumped by their major sponsor in the wake of the toxic culture, Stilnox and donkey scandals to rock the sport.
The Courier-Mail can reveal that principal partner of Swimming Australia, Energy Australia, this week dumped their major sponsorship of the sport, fed up with the string of scandalous headlines.
The company had signed a five-year agreement in February 2012, a lucrative arrangement believed to increase in value every year until 2017.
Insiders suggest it was valued at $2m in 2013, which would be an enormous blow for the sport as it constituted almost half of Swimming Australia’s annual revenue for corporate sponsorship. […]
Combined with the $500,000 in annual funding cuts the sport received from the Australian Sports Commission, the sport now has an $8m shortfall between now and the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Swimming Australia CEO Mark Anderson comments in a statement on swimming.org.au
“This is a difficult time for Swimming Australia and we recognise there are no easy solutions.
Firstly, Barclay Nettlefold resigned as President of Swimming Australia at the weekend. Now a major sponsor has withdrawn its support from Swimming Australia. This is obviously disappointing but we respect the decision.â€
