In an effort to fund their way to the Pan Am games, a group of Canadian handballers reportedly launched crowdfunding campaigns to help with the rather expensive trip.
According to Yahoo! Sports, the handballers decided to looking into the funding method because of the high prices for the games. Dan Devlin, revealed that he was forced to use crowdfunding in order to represent the country:
“A lot of us crowdfunded to be here which was fantastic because it eased a lot of the stress we had to do for work. Typically when we’re at home, we’re working, trying to live our lives, but we’re also working trying to have money available so we can continue to play handball. That’s one of the hardest things.
“[The Pan Am Games are] not cheap. I was talking to some of the guys and we probably spend $10,000 to $15,000 a year just in handball-related costs – probably more sometimes depending on how much we’ve travelled that year. The reason why we still do it? Like most of the guys on our team, we love to play the game.”
Kim Barette-St. Martin, one of Canada’s top female handballers, also turned to crowdfunding for Pan Am Games expenses. She shared due to costs and schedules, the woman’s national team only met three or four times this year:
“It’s really hard to get that good chemistry. But we push hard and we’re a young group so that’s why we are keeping our focus on our goals here.”
When it comes to receiving any extra funding through the government, Devlin stated:
“We don’t receive any funding. Zero dollars. There are certain regulations you need to have in place as a national federation to be eligible for funding and our federation has been working on a lot of those things… we’re taking steps, we’re moving in that direction, but obviously it’s moving too slow for us.”
Noting that he wasn’t surprised that Canadian athletes were crowdfunding, Canada’s minister of state for sport, Bal Gosal explained:
“We have a framework where they have to qualify. We fund 52 national spots organizations around the country, so there are a lot of other sports that take time for them to receive the funding. They have to go through a process.”
Barette-St. Martin added:
“You have to have success and then they’ll give you money. But it’s hard without money to go and be successful.”
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