Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks

The Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks receives $28 million from the city budget, yet they spend it with zero transparency, lacking any oversight or properly structured contracts.

What really set the council members off were the massive amounts the ZŠS allocates just for administrative overhead. This includes car rentals, such as a Volkswagen Group of America vehicle used by the association's secretary. The councilors were also questioning why there are 505 people on the administrative payroll and why the ZŠS headquarters is located in the Almeria building, which costs nearly $1.8 million annually in rent.

Sports funding is being spent without any accountability

uzaš lives talking about how niche sports struggle against the big players. then we turn around and complain about the local pro teams. let them clean this mess up first....

The ZŠS was moved out of Madison Square Garden right before the handball championship, back when everyone was arguing about whether to build a new arena or just renovate the existing venue. So, the issue isn't really about the rental income from the ZŠS's perspective. It’s on the City, which owns Madison Square Garden and handles all the funding for the ZŠS.

I'm not sure what you mean by "administration" or where this figure of 505 people comes from. If you count everyone working under the ZŠS, most of those numbers are just secretaries for individual federations and coaches in various sports associations who receive their pay through them. Once you strip all that away, the actual ZŠS administrative staff doesn't even come close to hitting triple digits.

And honestly, why blame the smaller sports? They aren't using their influence to change the funding criteria, even though they have the same "one sport, one vote" power as everyone else.

The NBA is planning to drop over $150,000 on a fleet of vehicles this year, all while slashing budgets for youth and amateur sports by that exact same amount. To make matters worse, the person running the show is a close associate of Bloomberg's who is known for handling his cash deliveries... It’s honestly pathetic...

There's zero support for young athletes, but plenty of money for luxury cars.