THE British Olympic Association’s (BOA) 2007 financial statements have been posted on the body’s website.

 

They show:

 

· A more-than-quadrupled annual deficit of just over £1.3 million.

 

· A 36 per cent jump in staff costs to just over £3 million.

 

· A general reserve slashed from more than £2 million at the start of the year to less than £1 million at the end of it and net funds down from £1.3 million to less than £200,000 over the same period.

 

You might well conclude that this is hardly a gold medal-winning performance.

 

It is worth remembering, though, that in Olympicland most things work on a four-year cycle.

 

The year before a summer Games can be tough.

 

As Lord Moynihan, the BOA’s chairman, put it to me this week, the body’s performance “was in line with expectation as the third year of a quadrennium cycle without a fund-raising appeal and with some upfront costs for Beijing needing to be included”.

 

"Satisfactory" surplus expected in 2008

 

For 2008, he said: “We expect to make a satisfactory trading surplus”.

 

This is not to say there was no cause for concern in the 2007 numbers.

 

They show, for example, that while events such as the Olympic Gold Ball generated more than £422,000 in income, they accounted for more than £318,000 in expenditure.

 

So, to raise £4 via such occasions, the association apparently needs to spend £3.

 

You have to wonder whether that is an efficient use of resources.

 

On the whole, though, Moynihan seems much more concerned about what he calls the body’s “growth strategy” – that is ensuring it has the expertise and resources it will need effectively to play its role as host-nation National Olympic Committee in the years running up to London 2012.

 

I gather that this one-off – or at least once-in-a-generation – responsibility could push up annual costs from around £13 million if the Games were somewhere else to more like £20 million.

 

Given that revenues in the four years up to 2012 would reach about £16 million a year without new cash-raising initiatives, there is a hole to be filled if the growth strategy is to be implemented without putting at risk the organisation’s financial stability.

 

Moynihan insists in any case that he would not agree to the extra spending without knowing it could be financed.

 

The BOA’s first steps towards meeting this challenge emerged this month when it said it would be making a series of new senior management appointments – including a new chief executive - as part of a strategy review undertaken with A.T.Kearney, the management consultants.

 

“We need significantly to strengthen the [BOA’s] business expertise,” Moynihan says.

 

A job too big even for Bill Gates
 
This, rather than any reaction to last year’s deficit, is why it was decided that Simon Clegg, the outgoing chief executive, would concentrate in future on the Chef de Mission duties most regard as his forte.

 

“Even if you were Bill Gates you would not be able to do both the chief executive’s and the Chef de Mission’s jobs over the next four years,” according to Moynihan.

 

The sums required to pay for the Association’s broader role are, frankly, puny in the context of the overall cost of the London Games.

 

Nonetheless, with economic conditions ever more difficult, the sponsorship market looking very stretched and most London 2012 rights in the hands of the organising committee, raising the cash will not be easy.

 

“I am aware that I have a challenge on funding the growth strategy,” Moynihan says.

 

The BOA chairman clearly thinks he has a few worthwhile shots in his locker, however.

 

One possible source of funds is to persuade London 2012 sponsors to extend their brand’s association with the Olympics into the 2013-16 quadrennium when the summer Games will be in Chicago, Madrid, Rio or Tokyo.

 

If sponsors commit to do this early enough, then a portion of their payments could be used to help fund the BOA’s pre-2012 build-up.

 

I am told that the BOA also retains the ability, under its joint marketing agreement with LOCOG, to solicit funds relating to a range of activities.

 

Chairman bankrolling Sir Clive programme

 

These may include the preparation camp for Britain’s 2012 athletes in Aldershot and Sir Clive Woodward’s elite performance support programme.

 

Moynihan, who is aiming to complete a financing strategy for funding the Kearney proposals by the year-end, dipped into his own pocket last year to help ensure that Sir Clive’s project could maintain its momentum.

 

As disclosed in the financial statements, the BOA chairman loaned the Association £250,000.

 

“I provided an interest-free loan as seed capital to enable the sports performance experts working under Sir Clive to be contracted,” he says.

 

“This is my personal endorsement of what I see as one of the world’s most exciting sports programmes.

 

“The Woodward programme is part of the growth strategy.”

 

The Association’s finances may soon get a further boost as a result of the sale of its quaint but pokey headquarters in Wandsworth, South West London.

 

In spite of the depressed property market, this is expected to fetch well over book value and hence to result in a significant one-off financial gain.

 

It is understood, furthermore, that the Association hopes to secure highly advantageous terms for its planned move into new rented premises in Central London.

 

The move could take place as soon as the final quarter of this year.

 

David Owen is a specialist sports journalist who worked for 20 years for the Financial Times in the United States, Canada, France and the UK. He ended his FT career as sports editor after the 2006 World Cup and is now freelancing.