Challenger Series Spor for Business

The Sport for Business Challenger Series will shine a spotlight over the coming months on twelve of our member sporting organisations that are working hard from grassroots to elite level to give their sport a platform from which to grow.

It can be a challenge to gain the level of publicity and awareness that attracts commercial support and so begin a virtuous circle of growth.  We are a nation of sports fans but with so much going on within the big three of GAA, Soccer and Rugby it can leave little time to absorb what is going on in other areas.

We hope that this will be begin to redress the balance, starting with the sport of Gymnastics which stands on the eve of having two competitors at the Olympic Games for the first time and which has trebled its membership in recent years.

We met Gymnastics Ireland CEO Ciaran Gallagher and asked him to paint a picture of why his sport was deserving of greater engagement from the business and sponsorship communities…

Kieran Behan 18/5/2016

Sport for Business: Give us a snapshot of where Gymnastics in Ireland is in 2016.

Ciaran Gallagher: “We have grown the base of our membership to over 18,000 across 100 clubs.  That represents treble where we were in 2008.”

“In financial terms we had turnover in 2015 of €1.3 million, an increase of €400,000 from 2014 and we are growing that again in 2016.  It means we can now self-fund 75 per cent of our activities including an exciting and growing events programme covering participation through to performance levels.

“Our competition programmes now cater for around 6000 participants.”

“Coach education is a major focus and we are pleased to have developed 2,200 coaches across the country.  1300 coaches/teachers have attended a Gymnastics Ireland workshop.”

“All this work has meant that we are now classified as a High-Performance sport by Sport Ireland and Kieran Behan and Ellis O’Reilly will both travel to Rio this summer.”

“Beyond that highest level we are achieving success on other international stages with Rhys McClenaghan becoming Ireland’s first European medallist winning silver in the Junior Pommel Horse final in May 2016.”

“We know that we have to tell this story well and we have developed a new brand identity and massively improved public awareness of the sport through increased an increased media profile.”

“Gymnastics is defined by the International Olympic Committee as a Category A sport alongside Swimming & Athletics and attracts huge global TV audiences.”

“The 2015 Men’s & Women’s World Gymnastics Championships were watched by a global audience of 664 million people world wide and the Olympic Audience this summer will be massive.”

SfB: What impact will the new National Indoor Arena have for you when it opens later this year?

CG: “The new purpose built National Gymnastics Training Centre will be an important part of the National Indoor Arena.”

“This is a facility that has been severely lacking and which represents the final piece of the puzzle in terms of Gymnastics Ireland’s high-performance system.”

“It will provide an Olympic level training facility among the best in the world and enable our home grown talent to develop in the coming years to become even more competitive on the world stage, building on the results of  Kieran Behan, Ellis O’Reilly and Rhys McClenaghan.

“Additionally the venue will provide Gymnastics Ireland with a base of operation for our national events programme which has been operating over the past two years out of the University of Limerick.”

“In the absence of the National Arena this has been is the only facility in Ireland big enough to cater for our events programme.”

“The venue will also provide us with a base to host major international events such as one of the International Gymnastics Federations World Cup series events which in addition to having huge international TV audiences would be huge in terms of the promotion of the sport at home.”

SfB: We have two Gymnasts travelling to Rio for the Olympics, how important are Kieran and Ellis in terms of inspiring young stars of tomorrow?

CG: “Kieran and Ellis have demonstrated it is completely achievable and realistic to gain Olympic Qualification for Ireland.”

“This has meant that our presence in the national media has grown dramatically, gaining significant coverage with RTÉ in particular.”

“Both have similarly made appearances on all key national radio stations in addition to all key national print and online press, both on and off the sports pages.”

“Ellis was also named as sportswoman of the month for April with the Irish Times and might yet appear in the list of the most Influential Women in Irish Sport in Sport for Business.”

“Through their qualification they have become the public faces of our sport and they are looked up to by our young membership base.”

“As we have implemented our new high-performance systems over the past Olympic cycle with a particular focus on our national squad systems and coach education we have seen the standard of gymnast selected to our 2020 and 2024 Olympic Start squads increase dramatically.”

“These young homegrown gymnasts now look to follow in their footsteps. Those such as Rhys McClenaghan, our first junior European medallist, are spearheading this new wave of home grown talent.”

Ireland supporters cheering on the team 19/9/2015

SfB: What are the biggest challenges facing the organisation in terms of finance and planning for the future?

CG: “Every year is a delicate balancing act where a lot is achieved in many instances with very little. The performance budget for the year tends to cannibalise finances generated from all other areas of the business therefore reducing budgets in other areas that would be used for investment in further growth activities.”

“However as we are now classified as a High Performance sport by Sport Ireland we hope that investment in our emerging HP systems will increase in the next cycle therefore freeing up internal finance to reinvest in these growth projects.”

“The fact that we do not benefit from a multi annual public funding system in Ireland makes it more difficult. While we can anticipate what our funding levels will be there is always a concern in terms of being able to plan with certainty for the Olympic Cycle.”

“National Governing Bodies are also at risk from traditional financial concerns and risks that all companies must consider. At the end of the day Gymnastics Ireland is a company.”

SfB: What commercial partnerships do you have within the sport at present and where did they come from.

CG: “Traditionally our commercial relationships have centred around key areas such as clothing supply deals for sports kit, sponsorships around key events and preferred partner deals such as those with hotels.”

“Gymnastics Ireland has carried out a lot of work over the past 4-6 years in the development of programmes and brand identity, with the new Olympic Cycle coming into view post Rio we are now ready to engage with potential partners to develop more in depth brand partnerships going forward.”

SfB: What are three key elements of what Gymnastics can offer to prospective commercial partners?

CG: “Partnership and brand affinity with one of the largest Olympic sports in Ireland, and one of the largest and most exciting Olympic sports in the world.”

“Partnership with a sport that is recognised as a foundation sport for all sports in addition to having far reaching health benefits and a crucial role in the development of core life-long physical literacy skills.”

“Access to a dynamic membership base of 18,000 members and 100 clubs with key contact points at some of the most unique and impressive sporting events in the Irish calendar.”

SfB: Is there a commercial relationship within your sport at international level that you would like to replicate in Ireland?

CG: “Longines & Cirque de Solei are two long term commercial partners for the International Gymnastics Federation, FIG. Longines brand affinity links to the style and elegance of our sport, in fact at each World Championships they present the ‘Longines award for style and elegance’ to a male and female gymnast of their choice from the championships.”

cirque_du_soleil

“Cirque de Solei partner with FIG due to the natural affinity with the performance/spectacle element of our sport, the natural extension of interest in Cirque from our international community and millions of fans world wide and the fact that ex-competitive gymnasts make the best recruits for their shows. These are two examples of what we would like to replicate in Ireland.”

Do you have ‘ready to go’ events that you are currently seeking sponsorship for?

CG: “Yes we have developed five main areas and sub-brands of gymnastics events and programmes that we are targeting towards commercial partnerships.”

“Our Gymnastics Ireland National Series encompasses all national level competitive events including the National Championships.”

Our new flagship participation festival event ‘The Floor’ is an annual showcase where our member clubs pull together performances to show everyone just how skillful, fun, entertaining & exciting our sport is.”

“These performances are in the vein of what you would see on ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ or even ‘Cirque de Solei’ with increased investment on event presentation to provide an ‘x-factor’ style stage in addition to live streaming…

“Our GymSTART Challenge events are based on our gymnastics participation programme GymSTART. Based on the GymSTART Awards that are run within member clubs these events are designed to provide participation level gymnasts with a fun and progressive series of national events to take part in where the focus is on personal achievement.”

“Our GymEDGE programme while technically not an event is a programme that we currently roll out to other sports, the aim of the programme is to educate coaches on how to use gymnastics training techniques to make their players or athletes better at their own sport.”

“Similarly we believe the programme has enormous potential benefit for the development of core physical literacy skills within young children and aim to work with other sports and within the education and health systems in this regard.”

“Our new ‘National Awards Evening’ is a celebration of the achievements of our membership from participation through to performance and will debut at the end of this year.”

SfB: Are you open to the idea of innovative approaches to working with business in areas that might be important to them internally or externally?

CG: “We consider ourselves to be an open minded and innovative sport and are always willing to work with partners on new projects.”

SfB: Are there opportunities at club level to engage with your broad membership?

CG: “In addition to the extensive interaction with clubs through our events and education programmes we are launching our new ‘Club Forums’ in the incoming membership year September 2016 – Sept 2017.”

“These forums will bring together key personnel from our clubs to focus on a number of areas from programme development, through to good governance and club management and commercial operation of gymnastics clubs.”

“The latter area of significant importance given the surge in the commercial operation of full time gymnastics businesses within our membership.”

“Initiatives developed and promoted through these forums will then in turn be rolled out within the club/business set-ups penetrating through directly to our 18,000 strong membership base.”

GymSTART with text

Join us again next Friday when we continue our look at the Challenger sports and the opportunities there represent to smart businesses to build great partnerships.

Contact us today if you would like to explore any of these or other opportunities within Irish sport.