World of choice is opened up by rise in funding
THE sporting landscape is changing in Ireland. The change is not rapid and the established hierarchies are not under imminent threat, but Ireland’s relationship with sport is shifting, and two announcements yesterday illustrated as much.
The decline in attendances and gate receipts at GAA Championship matches shocked in their scale, but a fall of 23 per cent in income in the football Championship vividly shows the discontent among supporters with a sport that is struggling.
Old certainties are coming loose: the football and hurling Championships remain the mighty staples of an Irish sporting year, but passions and loyalties are more easily transferred in the modern world.
People won’t keep attending and paying and participating in a certain sport simply because they always have.
There is a wider choice available to participants and to parents looking for an outlet for their children.
And that feeds in to the second big sports story yesterday. News that almost €32million will be invested by Sport Ireland for 2019 means an increase in funding for the first time in a decade.
The headline figures tend to surround high performance and those athletes whose focus is shaped by major championships and next year’s Olympic Games in Tokyo.
But beyond the elite level, the significance of investment aimed at increasing participation is also worth noting.
Funding for local sports partnerships has gone up by 20 per cent, from €6,074,333 in 2018 to €7,291,509 for this year.
That, in simple terms, supports sports at local levels, extending participation opportunities within communities.
This is accompanied by increased funding for national governing bodies in sport, which goes up by €2m to €12,845,000 for this year.
Increased participation levels should be one of the big consequences and figures released accompanying yesterday’s news supports this. Between Athletics Ireland, Cycling Ireland and Swim Ireland, there are now over 100,000 members affiliated to 1,000 clubs.
Marginal sports are thriving, too, with Gymnastics Ireland membership more than quadrupling from 7,000 in 2010 to over 30,000. Over the same time period, Triathlon Ireland has seen its membership go from 3,000 to in excess of 13,000.
Choice has never been as plentiful in Irish sport, at all levels, and a phenomenal 2018 at the elite level served as a glorious advertisement for the possibilities in sport long dominated by the three big field games. Seventy-seven medals were won across European and world championships between youth and senior level, and success is recognised in both high-performance funding and when it comes to direct support for athletes.
High-performance funding for 2019 will come to €8,460,000, compared to €7,240,000 in 2018 (Minister Shane Ross suddenly announced €1.5m in additional funding at the homecoming for the women’s hockey team last August). Direct funding for athletes increases marginally from €1.9m last year to €1.934m. The highest level of funding for any athlete is called podium, and is set at €40,000 a year. Seventeen athletes will receive it this year, including Tom Barr, Kellie Harrington, Jason Smyth, Ellen Keane, the O’Donovan brothers and Sanita Puspure. In a significant change, direct funding to athletes will be a twoyear scheme, meaning as they try to compete for European and world championships and ultimately the Olympic Games, they know that will be funded throughout the course of their attempts. The move to multi-annual funding was a point raised in the national sports policy announced last July. Up to now, athletes have been funded here on a yearby-year basis. However, the training cycles of elite athletes tend to be four years, in line with the cycle between Olympic Games.