The Vodafone Ireland Foundation and the Federation of Irish Sport have launched ‘GameDay’, a new app that allows the public to locate their nearest club for over 30 sports¹ organisations including IRFU, Swim Ireland and Athletics Ireland.
The app uses location-based services and GPS technologies to create a grassroots network of sports clubs across every county in Ireland.
The new venture is the brainchild of four-time All Star Dublin Footballer, Sinead Goldrick, who came up with the creative idea of the GameDay app after winning an internal Vodafone competition.
The aim of the competition is to encourage social innovation while ‘Connecting for Good’ in their workplace.
Goldrick was also involved in the One Young World event in Dublin in 2014, having previously worked with PSG Communications. She has had a somewhat busy start to 2016 being one of the highlighted players in Lidl’s €1.5 million campaign supporting ladies football.
“The GameDay app has enormous potential to get more people in Ireland involved in sport and we are delighted to have played a part in its development,” said Ray Collins, Vodafone Ireland Director of Strategy and Chairman of the Vodafone Ireland Foundation.
“Our annual social innovator competition challenges our staff to explore ways of using our technology and resources to improve the lives of others. This app is a perfect example of what we want to achieve.”
GameDay works by allowing users to search by sport, county and local clubs. Each club involved has a profile with their contact details, website, social media links and directions to their grounds using a combination of GPS and Google Maps.
There are over 30 sports on the site at present which is easy to use and seems to provide good coverage. A ‘search nearby’ element could open up smaller clubs to greater interest from their local catchment area.
The app currently holds the details of over 2,000 sports clubs and their associated National Governing Bodies nationwide. The IRFU, Swim Ireland and Athletics Ireland are among the governing bodies that are supporting this initiative, with more bodies expected to sign up.
The GAA and FAI are the two largest groupings of clubs and neither of those is on board yet but presumably that is on the horizon once usage of the app becomes established.
Clubs that do not have a profile on the site can create their own profile for free on the GameDay website – www.gamedayapp.ie
The app is part of a wider Federation of Irish Sport “Game Day” initiative to encourage and facilitate participation in sport at local level throughout Ireland.
“The Federation of Irish Sport have long advocated for increasing physical activity among the general public” said Bernard Brogan, President of the Federation.
“Not only will the GameDay app get more people involved in Ireland’s huge variety of sports clubs, it is sure to offer additional support to our existing athletes, clubs and NGBs across the country.”
“The Game Day initiative aimed to get more people involved in sport on a regular basis, and this new app is the perfect tool to help make that happen.”
“The contribution of sport to Irish society cannot be understated,” added James Galvin, CEO of the Federation of Irish Sport.
“We are delighted to work alongside the Vodafone Ireland Foundation in this social innovation project that is sure to benefit the Irish sporting community. We believe the app will provide a useful tool to easily connect people in communities with sport and physical activity, to promote the variety of opportunities that exist and the benefits of getting involved in a local club, which extend way beyond the playing field.”
The GameDay app is now available to download in the App Store by searching ‘GameDay FIS’ and the Play Store by searching ‘Gameday’.
