RECREATIONAL HAZARD
At a time when runners and cyclists should be flooding our streets and parks, the wait for a return to activity is presenting enormous challenges
ELITE SPORT will remain sidelined for weeks yet, and the possibility of a year without some of the staples of the Irish calendar grows with the passing of each barren week. Given that the GAA championships, games involving the national soccer team, and rugby Tests attract huge crowds and TV audiences running to millions, the fates of these seasons must demand most attention.
However, there is a tier of sport in this country that attracts the enthusiasm and dedication of hundreds of thousands of people. This recreational level has been decimated, too, at a time of year when cyclists and runners should be flooding the parks and roads of the nation in preparation for races running from now until deep into the autumn.
Organisations like Cycling Ireland, Triathlon Ireland and Athletics Ireland have seen their plans wiped clean.
There are enormous revenue repercussions for such organisations, which have thrived over the past decade or so.
One trigger for the current popularity of recreational exercise was the last recession. Thousands lost their job when the Celtic Tiger keeled over.
But in keeping with trends discernible worldwide – and that have been traced back as far as the years following the Great Depression in America – economic misery saw a surge in people exercising outdoors.
There are established physical and mental health benefits to training, while a more prosaic reason for the thousands of runners hitting footpaths from 2007 onwards was a collapse in gym memberships. All it costs to jog is a pair of runners. Others went as far as buying a bicycle, and from there recreational sport was transformed in Ireland.
This has manifested itself most spectacularly in the success of the Dublin Marathon.
It is now the fourth largest in Europe, with 22,500 entering last year’s event. Demand far exceeded supply, and that led organisers to introduce an entry system for 2020 that used a lottery to fill some of the places.
This attracted criticism, but demand was still extraordinary. The field was increased to 25,000, but there were over 35,000 applibe cants.
In the foreword to Sean McGoldrick’s book, The Dublin
Marathon, written last year to mark the 40th year of the race, Dick Hooper – a three-time winner – wrote: ‘It is one of those annual events, like the St Patrick’s Day parade, where the people involve themselves as participants, supporters and volunteers, simply because that is what you do on Dublin marathon day.’
However, the prospects of the 41st edition taking place on the Sunday of the October Bank Holiday this year do not look good.
Even in a country that appears to be suppressing the spread of Covid19, social distancing remains an urgent public health priority.
That advice will not change, as people are told to prepare for months and perhaps years of it.
In that climate, holding an event that brings 25,000 runners into the centre of Dublin, and tens of thousands lining the route, looks an improbability.
It had been reported in recent days that a meeting of the organisers was to take place at the end of this week, but in a tweet on Thursday, the official Dublin marathon account said an announcement will be made early next week.
Berlin has already been cancelled. That decision was made for the organisers when authorities in Germany banned any outdoor gathering in excess of 5,000 people until October 24. The marathon was due to take place on September 27.
London, scheduled for April, was re-fixed for October 4, but last month organisers admitted the race, which attracts 45,000 entrants and
750,000 spectators every year, may confined to elite athletes only.
Cancelling the Dublin marathon would disappoint the thousands whose minds would, about this time, start turning towards training for a race that is planned for October 25, 23 weeks today.
It would also mean a big loss for the Dublin economy, given thousands book hotel rooms and visit pubs, restaurants and shops on that weekend. Since the race was moved from the Monday of the Bank Holiday to the Sunday, it has seen a surge in overseas entrants.
And after a year in which the summer tourist season will hardly register at all, the loss of a hugely popular attraction, and at a time in the calendar, on the cusp of winter, when visitor numbers greatly diminish in ordinary circumstances, the loss of the marathon would be crushing.
The prelude to the marathon sees a series of warm-up races held throughout the summer. Usually four in number, two have already been rescheduled to later in the year while the other two, a 10-mile race and a half marathon, held in Phoenix Park in August and September respectively, and which see thousands take part, also look doomed.
This is cycling and triathlon season, too, the former usually starting around April, the latter due to begin with an event in Carlow today.
Instead, these sports brace for hugely challenging years, while hoping better times lie ahead.
‘For March, we saw an 82 per cent decrease in our membership, on what we had the previous year,’ says Matt McKerrow, the CEO of Cycling Ireland. ‘It will probably equate, all things being equal, to probably half a million (euro) in membership revenue that we won’t see.
‘That’s probably the tip of the iceberg, when you think about race promoters who’ve had to cancel races, and clubs who would organise races as fundraisers.
‘There is a massive impact there.’ Hundreds of events should be filling dates between now and September, as cyclists relish the longer evenings and better weather.
‘Obviously nobody is entering races because there aren’t any races. Last year, we had 25,000 members of Cycling Ireland.
‘FOR MARCH, WE SAW AN 82 PER CENT DECREASE IN MEMBERSHIP
‘There are different benefits to that, but for the large part, most of it does come down to participating in events, and having insurance to either participate in events or club activities. We’ve seen a big downturn in our membership.
‘It depends now, with the road map, when we get back to racing and club activity, whether some of those people whose memberships lapsed, then take those out.’
He hopes that phase four of the road map, beginning on July 20, could signal the start of some sort of season.
From then, people can travel beyond the 20km limit that will obtain in phases two and, thereby allowing them, theoretically, to travel for races and events.
That, of course, will only happen if the organisation of such races takes account of social distancing and any other measures then applying.
McKerrow points out that some cycling events, like time trials, could resume in phase three, while some off-road disciplines and BMX could also be facilitated.
Kevin Keane is head of marketing and communications with Triathlon
Ireland and he says phase four is their target for a resumption of events, too.
Should it happen, it will do so under revised guidelines.
‘We’ve amended those to take into account social distancing, so it might mean that some events might have to run with fewer numbers than they did before, and with no spectators,’ he says.
‘Some of our races would have been a mass start, where you have everyone in the water, 500 people all starting at the same time. That’s not going to be possible, so it will go more one by one, people getting into the water at four or five second interval, in a big long, two-metrespaced out line.
‘We are confident we can put on events safely. One of the challenges for us is that a lot of this depends on people’s perceptions, whether people are comfortable doing races and whether communities are comfortable with people travelling into those neighbourhoods for races.’
As with Cycling Ireland, Triathlon Ireland has felt the financial effects of the extraordinary measures implemented to check the virus’ spread.
‘With us, we’ve got three main revenue streams,’ he says.
‘One is our races. The second would be our sponsorship, and the third would be our funding from Sport Ireland. This situation has the potential to hit all of those revenue streams.
‘We are lucky that we have a fantastic title sponsor in BMW, and the challenge for us is coming up with new ways of doing things in the meantime so people are getting value for money and they stay engaged with the sport.’
Virtual races and the use of social media have been employed by both sports, with some success. It is the lure of the outdoors, though, the promise of exercise and better health and the sweaty journey from struggle to satisfaction that has seen these sports thrive.
‘We have just below 19,000 licence holders,’ says Keane.
‘That’s our core group. That would have been about 2,500 12 to 15 years ago. There has been massive, massive growth. We’re still growing very strongly, but we used to be a sport associated with middle-aged men in lycra, the Mamils.
‘In recent years, we have a lot more kids. We have a very high female participation rate as well, that’s at 36 per cent.’
Athletics Ireland told its clubs that they can return to training from tomorrow, and the start of phase one of the road map – but within the applicable limits.
It will be a maximum of four people within a training group, all maintaining social distancing, and only for those members living within five kilometres of the club.
It is something, with the prospect of better to come. The growing numbers of joggers and cyclists on the roads since lockdown has also been noticeable. With those reading the economic runes now certain that deep global recession is certain as a result of the astonishing recent months, expect the numbers to grow.
‘There has been research to show that there are a lot more people out walking, running and cycling in lockdown than there were before,’ says Matt McKerrow.
‘Whilst we’ve taken a big hit in terms of membership and club activities and events, the fact there are more people cycling will hopefully be good for us in the longer-term.’
The long-term promises days free of social distancing and the scourge of the coronavirus. In the shorter-term, sports must manage as best they can, trying to cater to the hundreds of thousands improving their lives through exercise. These people, the normal people, suffer the loss of sport just as elites do. ‘This is the first small step on our journey to return to full activity,’ said Hamish Adams, the Athletics Ireland CEO.
‘We continue to plan and prepare for competition and events from August onwards subject to government directives.’
The start of summer has been necessarily bare, but by its end recreational sport should be re-emerging on Irish roads and in Irish rivers and lakes.
The importance of that in trying to build our new normal should not be underestimated.