Gymnastics Ireland recorded its most successful year ever in 2019 but is preparing for a period of rebuilding after the serious hit of the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown restrictions.

The scale of that hit was evident in an estimated near one-third drop off in membership numbers since Ireland went into lockdown back in March.

The impact has been most keenly felt on indoor sports where the tighter restrictions on training and limits on gatherings even at lower levels of lockdown.

That said, the way in which Gymnastics Ireland management and clubs approached the pandemic has created hope for the future and a strong roadmap to recovery.

Accounts

The annual report and accounts for 2019 were discussed as part of the bodies first online AGM on Sunday, November 1st. It was a meeting that told two very different stories from 2019 into 2020.

2019 had seen a record year for membership and turnover. There were 35,000 direct fee-paying members across 100 commercially run clubs with a network value estimated at €30 million.

This delivered a 20 per cent increase on annual revenue and a positive mix of long term sustainable impact with 75 per cent self-funding of activities. The annual turnover rose to €3,015,468 with a surplus for the year of €128,813.

Every line of operational income had seen an increase with education, event, sponsorship and commercial sales income all climbing.

Contingency

2020 has been a different tale with contingency planning listed as a post balance sheet events in the Annual Report and Accounts forecasting a €700,000 overall hit to budgeted income, though that has now climbed to a potential €1.5 million.

The sport has different scenarios worked out for varying levels of collection of fee income the best of which envisages breaking even with a 60 per cent success rate.

The fact that work had been completed to allow facilities to return to action in June gives hope for the future after the current Level 5 restrictions come to an end while an application has been made for funding as part of the Sport Resilience Fund provided by Government. Details of how much that will be worth are expected to be revealed later today and will be covered on Sport for Business.

Gymnastics Ireland was quick off the mark earlier in the year when calling for support of clubs by individuals, as well as through government and the collegiality of the sport in its widest context was evident in a strong positive response.

Challenge

It met the challenge of operating virtual sessions for members throughout the summer months and the high-performance programme with such high hopes for Rhys McLenaghan in particular at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics has continued.

These are challenging times for all sports as the reality of a smaller world and restricted movement bite.

It is especially so for indoor sports but Gymnastics has proven its mettle in being prepared, in planning for the different scenarios that we are as yet unable to be certain of and to be ready to pick up the surge in growth and popularity when we return to more normal times.

The commitment to being ready was reiterated by Chair Shane O’Connor and CEO Ciaran Gallagher who paid tribute to the resilience of the club network and pledged “ongoing support to ensure Gymnastics will emerge on the other side of Covid 19 ready to get back on track with the impressive growth trajectory of recent years.”

Sport for Business Partners