The Irish Women’s Hockey team are the first to appear on a crowd funding site as they look to raise €30,000 towards participating in next month’s Champions Challenge International tournament in Scotland.
This is considered a key event for the team to compete in as they continue on the path of qualifying for the Olympics in 2016. No Irish team sport has qualified for the Olympics before and the race is on between the Women’s Rugby 7’s, and both the men’s and Women’s Hockey teams who came within touching distance for London and are determined to go one better in Rio.
The campaign is on Pledge Sports, an Irish crowd funding site that helped to raise €33,000 for a variety of athletes across tennis, triathlon and swimming in its first month of operation.
Individuals or businesses can pledge any amount from €10 to €3,000 and get a range of benefits depending on the size of the commitment. The pledge page is signed by all members of the team and supported by the coaching staff.
“This is a fantastic opportunity to get on board with the Green Army team as we push toward qualification for Rio 2016 Olympics,” said National coach Darren Smith.
“Any support that you can give through Pledge Sports will allow us to spend that extra day, week or month in camp preparing to help make this dream a reality.”
The Women’s International team is supported by long term Sponsor Electric Ireland and money raised through the campaign will pay for additional training facilities over and above those provided by the sponsors and through Irish Hockey and the irish Sports Council.
In late 2012 the International Men’s team raised €45,000 in only three days of emergency fundraising to participate in a tournament in Argentina.
It is likely that in sport, as it has in business start-ups, reaching to the crowd for smaller amounts will be a growing and valuable new source of funding. Click here for details of the Sport for Business Round table on Crowd Funding and Irish Sport taking place on April 30th.
