Glossary

Frugal mode

Frugal mode describes the financial reality of most practitioner-sport federations: near-zero revenue from sponsorship, broadcast rights, or participation fees, and modest institutional funding at best. In this mode, governance credibility isn't one asset among several — it's the only one a federation has, since there's no money available to substitute for it. Recognition infrastructure is disproportionately valuable to federations operating in frugal mode specifically, because it's one of the few low-cost mechanisms available for demonstrating credibility at all.