Sports Funding in NI

[Rossfan]

No but it's a great excuse for a Sectarian whinge

How could anyone bring Sectarianism into it?

Seeing the source of the whinge.....

[johnnycool]

No but it's a great excuse for a Sectarian whinge

How could anyone bring Sectarianism into it?

Seeing the source of the whinge.....

It depends on the criteria for each particular grant.

We've availed of DAERA grants of considerable amounts of funding and met all the requirements as we own our own grounds, a funding model in place. Sport NI and even our "friends" in North Down and Ards BC had to row in..

Most soccer clubs don't own their own grounds and are heavily reliant on the use of council property and the ones I know with one exception are overly well run on the admin side of things.

Rugby, I haven't had any dealings with in a long time but even back in the 00's most outside the Greater Belfast area and not in the AI leagues were teetering from one year to the next, paying coaches and maybe the odd "star" player and reliant on the odd big sponsor to keep things above board. Revenue from gate receipts wasn't a thing back then for the ones I knew off.

[North Man]

I too have been involved in SportNI and DAERA funding applications.
They are far from straight-forward processes and will take alot of patience and commitment to suceed.
Before you even apply to such funds you need to be 'spade' ready, ie have planning permission in place at least.
I know of urban GAA clubs that have been able to secure Dept of Communities funding for capital projects.
GAA clubs generally discuss projects, they visit each other and discuss the pit-falls.
I have met up with a couple of soccer clubs to go through potential programmes and whilst they have genunine eager people involved they are not up for the work-load or dont have volunteer skill sets in-house , projects could run from 3 to 5 years from inception to completion.
GAA clubs are in a stronger position day 1, they generally own their grounds, they cater from the cradle to the grave and alot of clubs offer more activities on their premises than their traditional field games.

[naka]

I too have been involved in SportNI and DAERA funding applications.
They are far from straight-forward processes and will take a lot of patience and commitment to succeed.
Before you even apply to such funds you need to be 'spade' ready, ie have planning permission in place at least.
I know of urban GAA clubs that have been able to secure Dept of Communities funding for capital projects.
GAA clubs generally discuss projects, they visit each other and discuss the pit-falls.
I have met up with a couple of soccer clubs to go through potential programmes and whilst they have genuine eager people involved they are not up for the work-load or don`t have volunteer skill sets in-house , projects could run from 3 to 5 years from inception to completion.
GAA clubs are in a stronger position day 1, they generally own their grounds, they cater from the cradle to the grave and a lot of clubs offer more activities on their premises than their traditional field games.

agree with this wholeheartedly, my own club have been involved in  various applications and the sub committee contained two accountants and a lawyer.
the Gaa clubs have a lot more volunteers who have the skill set to deliver the funding.
until the IFA/IRFU centrally start helping out their smaller clubs this will continue.

[Itchy]

Looks like unionists will have to expedite the path to a 32 county Irish Republic so that they can get fair play now for grants and the like. They will get no fair play from the UK or Stormont government it seems.

[smelmoth]

Looks like unionists will have to expedite the path to a 32 county Irish Republic so that they can get fair play now for grants and the like. They will get no fair play from the UK or Stormont government it seems.

I’m not too sure unionists can be lumped together on this one. There was no surge of unionist opinion rolling in behind her

[Evil Genius]

No but it's a great excuse for a Sectarian whinge

How could anyone bring Sectarianism into it?

Sure isn't the GAA in the north [sic] entirely cross-community?

I mean, you can hardly move in your local GAA club these days for Ghanaian Fishermen and Linda Ervine....

What are your opinions on the funding?

I think it's strange.

That is, if the difference wasn't so marked; or f t were only for one particular year; or if only one of the IFA or Ulster Rugby was lagging behind but not both, then it might not be so unusual.

I wonder whether it is significant that the period in question basically coincided with the suspension of Stormont? That is, with the resulting lack of scrutiny, and whether it was by accident or design, this was allowed to slip through unnoticed.

Someone suggested that "Casement" money might account for the disparity, but I'd have thought that was a separate budget.

[Rossfan]

I'd refer you to Northman's post of 18th August rather than conspiracy theories.

[brokencrossbar1]

I too have been involved in SportNI and DAERA funding applications.
They are far from straight-forward processes and will take alot of patience and commitment to suceed.
Before you even apply to such funds you need to be 'spade' ready, ie have planning permission in place at least.
I know of urban GAA clubs that have been able to secure Dept of Communities funding for capital projects.
GAA clubs generally discuss projects, they visit each other and discuss the pit-falls.
I have met up with a couple of soccer clubs to go through potential programmes and whilst they have genunine eager people involved they are not up for the work-load or dont have volunteer skill sets in-house , projects could run from 3 to 5 years from inception to completion.
GAA clubs are in a stronger position day 1, they generally own their grounds, they cater from the cradle to the grave and alot of clubs offer more activities on their premises than their traditional field games.

No but it's a great excuse for a Sectarian whinge

How could anyone bring Sectarianism into it?

Sure isn't the GAA in the north [sic] entirely cross-community?

I mean, you can hardly move in your local GAA club these days for Ghanaian Fishermen and Linda Ervine....

What are your opinions on the funding?

I think it's strange.

That is, if the difference wasn't so marked; or f t were only for one particular year; or if only one of the IFA or Ulster Rugby was lagging behind but not both, then it might not be so unusual.

I wonder whether it is significant that the period in question basically coincided with the suspension of Stormont? That is, with the resulting lack of scrutiny, and whether it was by accident or design, this was allowed to slip through unnoticed.

Someone suggested that "Casement" money might account for the disparity, but I'd have thought that was a separate budget.

A better answer than I could ever give and blows the notion of your conspiracy shite out the door.

[Downtothewire]

Seeing as the GAA got nothing from 1922 to the mid 1990s.....

Club I played for as a juvenile applied for funding to build a pitch in the early 90’s. Only money available at the time was Dept. of Education. Catch was they had a hold on the pitch and wanted to hire it out to anyone to use ie local soccer clubs hence grounds couldn’t be vested by GAA so no championship games etc. This was the policy for years to discourage GAA clubs of availing of funding. We decided to build pitch on our own and raise money ourselves.

[Evil Genius]

I too have been involved in SportNI and DAERA funding applications.
They are far from straight-forward processes and will take alot of patience and commitment to suceed.
Before you even apply to such funds you need to be 'spade' ready, ie have planning permission in place at least.
I know of urban GAA clubs that have been able to secure Dept of Communities funding for capital projects.
GAA clubs generally discuss projects, they visit each other and discuss the pit-falls.
I have met up with a couple of soccer clubs to go through potential programmes and whilst they have genunine eager people involved they are not up for the work-load or dont have volunteer skill sets in-house , projects could run from 3 to 5 years from inception to completion.
GAA clubs are in a stronger position day 1, they generally own their grounds, they cater from the cradle to the grave and alot of clubs offer more activities on their premises than their traditional field games.

No but it's a great excuse for a Sectarian whinge

How could anyone bring Sectarianism into it?

Sure isn't the GAA in the north [sic] entirely cross-community?

I mean, you can hardly move in your local GAA club these days for Ghanaian Fishermen and Linda Ervine....

What are your opinions on the funding?

I think it's strange.

That is, if the difference wasn't so marked; or f t were only for one particular year; or if only one of the IFA or Ulster Rugby was lagging behind but not both, then it might not be so unusual.

I wonder whether it is significant that the period in question basically coincided with the suspension of Stormont? That is, with the resulting lack of scrutiny, and whether it was by accident or design, this was allowed to slip through unnoticed.

Someone suggested that "Casement" money might account for the disparity, but I'd have thought that was a separate budget.

A better answer than I could ever give and blows the notion of your conspiracy shite out the door.

Except that there are companies/consultants whch exist specifically to assist clubs in accessing funding (in reTurn for a fee obviously), which to my certain knowledge have football clubs as their clients.

And in any case Rugby's pretty professional in this respect - in ROI at least so why not in NI?

[Evil Genius]

Seeing as the GAA got nothing from 1922 to the mid 1990s.....

Club I played for as a juvenile applied for funding to build a pitch in the early 90’s. Only money available at the time was Dept. of Education. Catch was they had a hold on the pitch and wanted to hire it out to anyone to use ie local soccer clubs hence grounds couldn’t be vested by GAA so no championship games etc. This was the policy for years to discourage GAA clubs of availing of funding. We decided to build pitch on our own and raise money ourselves.

1. It was GAA policy not to share facilities with (certain) other sports thereby excluding them from accessing public money, which comes from everyone. No-one forced the GAA effectively to exclude themselves;
2. Your experience was a quarter of a century ago and not relevant to the matter under discussion.

[thewobbler]

EG I’d estimate there’s 300 GAA clubs in the wee six.

There would be maybe 40-45 rugby clubs in same position. I’d harbour a guess there’s at most twice that in soccer (who have their own grounds, not a council arrangement).

So there should be roughly 3 GAA applications for every soccer and rugby combined. And all things considered, a grant award ratio of 3:1.

But that doesn’t take into account how embedded GAA clubs are in their communities. Soccer and rugby just don’t have the same foothold on local volunteers as the GAA does. To undertake any infrastructure project - even if it’s all grant funded - you need a group of members who are absolutely driven to make it succeed. This is where the raw statistical bias is firmly again bumped up by culture.

[Rossfan]

Soccer and rugger no doubt have volunteers too.

If 10 Rugby , 20 Soccer and 30 GAA Clubs apply for grants should only 10 of each get a grant?
That seems to be the logic behind that Unionist MLA's complaint.

[thewobbler]

Soccer and rugger no doubt have volunteers too.

If 10 Rugby , 20 Soccer and 30 GAA Clubs apply for grants should only 10 of each get a grant?
That seems to be the logic behind that Unionist MLA's complaint.

They definitely do, and some of the rugby complexes are absolutely outstanding. But there’s not many rugby/soccer teams have programmes going right through from u6 to adult, in multiple sports.