Danish sport rallies to support Play the Game 2022
For the first time in seven years, Play the Game will hold its international conference on its Danish home turf. Danish sports bodies have responded with broad support.
A sports conference aiming at enhancing democracy, transparency, and freedom of expression, while empowering athletes and all other stakeholders to secure their rights, might sound like an idea so positive that it can also be financially sustainable.
However, in the world of international sport where huge commercial interests are at stake, democracy is not the magic keyword opening the gateways to a flourishing economy.
All 11 Play the Game conferences so far have been dependent on external support, and number 12 – which also marks 25 years of Play the Game – is no exception.
In the big picture, participants contribute around one third of the expenses, and the rest must be found via sponsorships.
The municipality of Odense kick-started our fundraising process by putting the city’s state-of-the art conference centre ODEON at Play the Game’s free disposal for the duration of the conference, with numerous added benefits such as a free welcome reception and up to 50 free hotel nights at the Comwell Hotel that runs the venue.
In the past months, Danish sports organisations and institutions have added their support and ensured the realisation of the conference. There are still pending applications, but this is what Play the Game 2022 has received so far:
- Sport Event Denmark: 250,000 DKK (€33,333)
- DIF (NOC and Sports Confederation of Denmark): 150,000 DKK (€20,000)
- Team Danmark (national elite sport): 75,000 DKK (€10,000)
- DBU (Danish FA): 50,000 DKK (€6,666)
- Anti Doping Denmark: 50,000 DKK (€6,666)
- Danish Journalists’ Union: 50,000 DKK (€6,666)
- Norwegian Journalists’ Union: 40,000 NOK (€4,233)
- Danish Company Sport Federation: 25,000 DKK (€3,333)
Moreover, the Danish Gymnastics and Sports Associations has granted 50 day tickets for the DGI Sports and Culture Festival in nearby Svendborg on Friday 1 July.
Last, but not least, Play the Game 2022 is cooperating with the Centre for Journalism and the Department of Sports Science and Clinical Biomechanics at the University of Southern Denmark in Odense. The university will add programme content and host a social event at its award-winning innovative athletics stadium.
The work hours that Play the Game’s staff is putting into the biennial conferences are not calculated in the conference budget but financed by the overall budget of the Danish Institute for Sports Studies which is the institutional framework of Play the Game.