British Olympic Association chief executive Andy Hunt has told sporting bodies that the size of Team GB at the London 2012 Games depends on how much money can be raised.

The BOA told a meeting of national governing bodies yesterday that the original plan of having 550 athletes in Team GB depended on being able to raise £8million.

So far around half that figure is available, which would mean a team of around 350 - still bigger than the 311 who went to Beijing.

Hunt told Press Association Sport: "We would like to have the broadest, most competitive team across all the sports we can but we need to figure out what the cost is of doing so.

"This was the start of that consultation process and what we did was set out a number of different scenarios from having a completely full team taking every home nation place, down to an option where we go for an incredibly competitive team with a reduced number of athletes.

"This was the beginning of that debate. What we wanted to do was enable people to get their head around the different dynamics and the financial costs of different team sizes.

"We are doing the work around setting the Olympic qualifying standards for 2012 and to decide whether we are going to apply any additional criteria over and above that provided by the international federations."

Hunt said having the Olympics on home soil did not make it cheaper for the BOA if Team GB was going to be that much bigger.

He added: "There are as many disadvantages being at home as advantages. It is far more complex not taking the team away to one location.

"If you have 550 athletes you probably have 1,100 in the team including officials and the cost of kitting out 1,100 people is enormous."

Densign White, the chairman of the British Judo Association, said efforts should be made to get the largest team possible.

White told Press Association Sport: "My view is that we should send as large a team as we can.
"We do not want to bankrupt ourselves but as this is a home Olympics it is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

"If we are talking about £4million, that represents the annual salary of just one Premier League footballer and in the greater scheme of things that's not much to find.

"I think the efforts should be and will be made to find that extra money.

"Some of the smaller sports are worried now by what was discussed, because if the BOA go down the road of setting qualification standards some teams are not going to make those standards."

The meeting was followed by Princess Anne officially opening the BOA's new home in London.
The Princess Royal, the president of the BOA, said: "We have been given the opportunity to have the Games and the levels of expectation rise.

"We really needed somewhere appropriate to function from, together with the BPA, and this does seem like a dream come true."