The distribution of Sports Capital Grant funding is a major boost for sport in every corner of the country.  It was revived this year by the government and so far €26 million has been earmarked for projects ranging from less than €1,000 to as much as €300,000.
A significant portion of this has gone to cross sport initiatives run by local authorities or community groups.  That was a key criteria in the application process and has been delivered.
Clubs though across each of the three major field sports, Gaelic Games, Soccer and Rugby have been notified of receipt of €14.6 million in grants between them, spread across 32 projects in Dublin, 63 in Connaught / Ulster, 99 in Leinster outside of Dublin, and 102 in Munster.
There are a number of regional variations in how each of these main sports fared in comparison to each other.
The strength of soccer in Dublin is very clear from the fact that while the GAA was the biggest winner with €1.01 million, soccer was very close with €928,000.
The factor of difference between the sports was that the GAA attracted 1.1 times the funding of soccer here and 2.2 times the €465,000 generated across 4 rugby projects.
Those gaps grew as you spread away from the capital.
[ismember] In Munster the GAA will receive 2.3 times the amount going to soccer and 5.9 times that going to rugby.
In Leinster, the Association scored particularly strongly with a factor of 4.5 doubtless influenced in part by the strength of soccer in Dublin, and a factor of 6.0 over rugby.
Despite Connaught’s Heineken Cup success last weekend, its clubs fared poorly in this comparison with the GAA in the nine counties eligible for funding across the west and Ulster taking in 3.3 times that of soccer and a very large 17.7 times the €122,000 earmarked for the oval ball game.
We will look next week at some of the smaller sports and at how tennis performed exceptionally well, beating rugby in two provinces and drawing in grant funding of more than €1 million.
Key take away for Sport: There was a big learning curve in this the first year back, with a high proportion of applications failing to match the criteria.  This needs to be applied better in future rounds.
Key Take away for Business: Sporting organisations will benefit from professional expertise when it comes to governance and management.  This can form an important value element of partnerships and help in the engagement of staff with the sport in question.[/ismember]
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