European Bike Polo Championship! London?

Set it up as a charity? Not sure about that. That would mean that none of the members of the charity would be able to benefit from the activities of the charity, and also would require significant fiduciary commitment compared to say, a limited liability company or even a sporting association or club.

Also, are you talking about the promoting organisation for a London bid, or the league, or the whole London polo thing?

I was thinking about promoting bike polo in general, although in reality it would probably just be London events that would be the initial focus. I'd like there to be a fairly broad remit as it would avoid problems later if Oxford (say) decided to put on a tournament.

Sports clubs can be set up as charitable organisations (most of England's local rugby clubs, etc, are probably charities) and this is what I was leaning towards. Limited liability (in the form of a company) might not be that great an idea, as directors would still have a fiduciary dury PLUS they'd have start filling out Tax Returns, etc. However, the charity could own 100% of the shares, in - say - Polo championships 2009 (as a special purpose vehicle) if necessary.

The charity organisers would benefit from it in the same way that the commitee of the local rugby club would - by playing in games, etc. There was never any question of distributing the money to London's polo players, although there might be a way to chanel any surplus funds to the London Courier Emergency Fund, the restoration of the Herne Hill bikes or other worthy causes.

I'm playing Roxy on Sunday morning, so perhaps a few people would like to come along and discuss boring things like the structure of the bid and how serious we want to be about all of this.