Basketball Ireland has published a new 5-Year Strategic Plan 2023-2027, laying out an impressive growth trajectory for the sport and how it will be achieved.
Among its ambitions is to increase the number of registered players, referees, table officials and coaches by more than a third, while growing the amount of clubs island-wide by 24%, to 260.
There are also plans to redevelop and modernise the National Basketball Arena during the lifespan of the Strategic Plan.
Basketball Ireland is targeting Olympic participation through 3×3. as part of the funding pillar it is hoped that the 3×3 will be recognised within Sport Ireland’s high-performance programme.
In related thinking on the Game pillar, a new high performance unit is also on the agenda, along with developing Basketball Ireland’s Centres of Excellence around the country.
There is a target of increasing the number of registered players in the post-school setting by 35 per cent to 42,000, and to also increase the number playing in secondary school to 46,000.
To cate for the risomg player base it is targetting the creation of 50 new clubs around the country.
“This 5-Year Strategic Plan spells out the direction of travel basketball is going,” said CEO John Feehan.
“It’s an exciting time for the sport and we need to keep that positive momentum going.”
“Upping standards on and off the court is central to this, including best-in-practice corporate governance, increasing commercial revenue, continuing to raise basketball’s profile through traditional media and our own channels and improving the quality and access level of facilities.”
“Working alongside our clubs, committees, players, officials and volunteers, we can achieve all that we have set out in this Strategic Plan.”
“Basketball in Ireland has seen tremendous growth over the last number of years and central to this are the dedicated volunteers around the country, with whom we consulted when bringing this Strategic Plan to fruition,” added Chair Paul McDevitt.
“It is there to support those people, to ensure the sport in Ireland reaches its full potential.”
“While basketball is fortunate to have an equal gender split when it comes to participation, this Strategic Plan outlines the desire to increase the number of women in leadership roles, as part of our ‘Women In Basketball’ strategy.”
“We have 79 different nationalities represented among our playing membership and we want to engage more people from diverse communities and provide opportunities to get involved. These are just a few of the things that are key to the continued progress of basketball in Ireland.”
Basketball Ireland CEO John Feehan will feature in our Sport for Business Podcast Leadership Series next week, talking about the plan,
