The Government has announced €150 million in funding for sporting bodies and clubs to develop capital projects in every corner of the country.
Read about the announcement which was made on Friday
Today we begin a five-part series looking at different aspects of the funding.
Monday: The Six Sports to secure the largest funding
Tuesday: The Rest of the Sports in comparison
Wednesday: A selection of the projects that were awarded the maximum amount at local level
Thursday: The larger-scale regional projects
Friday: The Appetite for more
We start then with an analysis of the amounts given to the larger sports.
Gaelic Games holds a strong position in terms of the number of clubs that are eligible to apply, the broad geographic and demographic spread of those who are involved in clubs and the organisational ability to create sound applications.
The result is a big win €58.7 million out of the total pot in the local section of the Sports Capital fund for this year of €126.6 million.
That is almost three times the amount given over to the second highest-earning category defined as multi-sport and encompassing different activities, often under the application remit of local authorities. Within this category, Gaelic Games is often a lead partner on the development of facilities as well.
Soccer comes in third with a sum of €19.2 million marking the return to good favour of the FAI with Sport Ireland and the Government funding stream.
The ‘Big Three’ is often a reference applied to Gaelic Games, Soccer and Rugby but in this instance, the oval ball has been usurped by the small white one with Golf securing €7.7 million to Rugby’s €7.4 million.
Tennis Ireland rounds out the Top six sporting categories that absorb over 92 per cent of the funding.
This may seem an imbalance that will perpetuate the stronger sports getting ever stronger but the reality is that they are the ones that can put together a project of sufficient scale to gain the most funding.
There are 704 qualifying projects under Gaelic Games, compared to 3176 in Soccer, 274 in multi-sport, 105 in Golf, 88 in Rugby and 68 in Tennis.
That compares to 3o projects in Athletics, 20 in Boxing, 13 in Hockey and 12 in Cricket.
The differential is extended further by the average size of the grant, an indicator of scale. Rugby tops this scale with an average grant of €84,763, ahead of Gaelic Games with €83,415, Multi-Sport with €74,100, Golf with €73,463, Tennis with €62,742 and Soccer with €60,799.
Again for the most part they are substantially ahead of the other challenger sports who would love to bridge the gap but instead find it growing wider.
The criteria and distribution of this grant funding has never been more transparent and the expertise available to sporting bodies to put their best projects forward has never been more easily accessible.
They provide for projects that will have a material positive impact on the infrastructure fabric of sport in every corner of the country.
Tomorrow we will look at the next tier of sporting organisations
