Margaret Miley was formally ratified as President of Basketball Ireland at Basketball Ireland’s 2024 AGM, which took place at the National Basketball Arena on Saturday, 25th May.
She becomes the 26th President of Basketball Ireland, succeeding PJ Reidy, who served two successive terms in the position since 2020.
Miley has given has given over 40 years to club basketball in Dublin, having been on the Dublin Ladies Basketball Board between 1983 and 2003 and the Dublin Men’s Basketball Board since 2003.
She currently runs the leagues for the Dublin Men’s Board, looking after six senior and 19 underage sections. In doing this, she deals with up to 200 teams on a daily basis.
She has been a member of the National Area Boards Committee (NABC) for the past 16 years and has been instrumental in the growth of the AICC tournaments at U14 and U16 level.
She is a long standing member of Templeogue basketball club. Miley also has international experience, managing the Irish U19 women’s team between 1985 and 1990 and has also been a member of various international committees.
Writing in the Annual Report for the sport, CEO John Feehan outlined some of the highlights of the year under review.
“It has been a significant year for Basketball Ireland, in December 2023 we submitted planning to redevelop the National Basketball Arena. The €35m project will see the multi-sport and multi-use Arena double in capacity and will be a fully accessible and inclusive facility. It has wide-ranging support, including that of Volleyball Ireland, Special Olympics Ireland, Badminton Ireland and Irish Squash. The state of the art Arena will have four courts, a gym and a café and will provide a showpiece home for Irish basketball, to the benefit of all in the game, from grassroots to elite level.”
“In April 2024 we formally announced our two-year broadcast partnership with TG4, which will see 18 games broadcast on terrestrial TV, including all of Ireland’s FIBA Women’s EuroBasket Qualifiers and FIBA Basketball World Cup Pre-Qualifiers games and the National League and National Cup finals. It’s a significant commitment by TG4, who provide excellent coverage, and illustrates the strong partnership we have with them. This TG4 agreement, in addition to our OTT platform basketballireland.tv, sees the basketball community – and sports fans in general – served with a vast array of live basketball.”
“Our streaming platform basketballireland.tv and the rollout of NBN23 saw Basketball Ireland win ‘Best Use of Communications Platform’ at the 2023 Irish Sport Industry Awards, which is a testament to the strides we’re making on the digital front. Further to this, Our Learning Management System (LMS) ‘Helpside’ goes from strength- to-strength, with a vast array of additional resources – in the last year a new referees portal and a statisticians portal have been added, which compliments the existing coaching portal. We have over 3,300 registered users on Helpside, with nearly 400 unique users monthly.”
“The popularity of the sport is clear to see, our registered membership continues to grow and is now just shy of 42,000, which is a 12.5% increase since last season, while it’s a 67.7% increase since the 2017/18 season. Our playing numbers have gone up 21.5% in the last year alone, while both referees and table officials membership has increased by 21.7%. Our Development Officers continue to do significant work on the ground, rolling out our programmes in local communities across Ireland, while they’ve be instrumental in helping to create eight new clubs in the last year through Basketball Ireland’s ‘Innovation Programme’.”
“Basketball Ireland’s revenues also rose 29% in 2023 to €3.77m and this is in line with our 5-year Strategic Plan target, to double our revenue. This growth and financial stability allows us to invest further in the game. Basketball in Ireland has never been in a stronger place and I’d like to thank the volunteers, who put in so much time to drive the sport forward through clubs, schools, colleges, Area Boards and the various committees, alongside the vital input of referees and table officials, without whom we wouldn’t be able to play our sport. I would also like to praise the tireless work of Basketball Ireland staff and thank the Board for their unwavering support, who share the vision and passion to grow the game.”
“I am thrilled to take up the position of President of Basketball Ireland, during a very exciting time for the sport,” said Margaret Miley
“Basketball has always been a huge part of my life, so I want to continue to give back to the sport and support our players, coaches, officials and clubs in any way I can.”
“I would also like to pay tribute and acknowledge the work of my predecessor as President, PJ Reidy, who has shown great leadership in the role for the past four years.”
“It has been a real honour to serve as President of Basketball Ireland for the last four years and I would like to thank everyone within the organisation for their support,” added her predecessor PJ Reidy.
“I wish Margaret the very best for his upcoming tenure as President and have no doubt that she will be a great success for Basketball Ireland.”
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