50 leaders from across the sporting and business spectrum gathered at Galway racecourse yesterday for our inaugural Sport for Business Galway event.
There was a real sense of enthusiasm in the room hot on the heels of Connacht Rugby’s securing planning permission for its major redevelopment and just ten weeks out from the Galway Races.
Both of these featured in our first discussion with Brian Mahoney, Head of Commercial and Marketing with Connacht Rugby and Michael Moloney, General manager of the racecourse joining Rob Hartnett of Sport for Business on stage.
We talked through the process of how Connacht had funding commitments in place of €10 million and had submitted for Government support worth €20 million as part of the Large Scale Sports Infrastructure Fund.
The development of Connacht Rugby’s home is likely to be the single largest project to have been put forward outside of Dublin and hopes are high that the ‘shovel ready nature of the plans, together with an emphasis on balanced regional development will lead to a positive outcome.
Once funding is secure there is scope for learning about the management of the project from the work which has been done at Galway racecourse.
Yesterday’s event took place in the bright and airy Wilson Lynch building, a €6.5 million project undertaken ahead of the 150th Anniversary of the Galway Races and a clear indication of how investment is continually needed to stay ahead of the game, even when Race Week is in such a strong place in the hearts and minds of the community.
Prize money this year of €2.3 million across the week and a full slate of 52 sponsors returning again in 2019 is a good marker for how business can get behind sport.
The importance of getting it right at every level from the top to the grassroots was emphasised in the second discussion where Kathy Hynes from NUI Galway, Joanne Murphy from TriTalking Sport and Warren Healy from Clubforce spoke of their own engagement with sport.
NUI Galway’s first obligation is to the 19,000 students that attend. That’s some number in a city of 80,000 and they are sporting as well.
In a survey they discovered that 41 per cent of students had taken up a new sport when going to college. It is a hugely important gateway for a lifelong commitment to being physically active and has to be fostered.
Clubforce manage the data and communication elements of managing grassroots sport at 1,200 sports clubs and have gained a clear picture on the very real impact that sport has within communities.
Murphy works with a number of mass participation events and sees clearly the need to plan properly for making a complex event run as smoothly as it should.
Also among those present in the room were representatives from PwC, Bank of Ireland, AIB, Elverys Intersport, TG4, Galway 2020, DKHN, Ulster Bank, Experience Gaelic Games, Athletics Ireland, Swim Ireland, Run Ireland, Hilti, Cpl, Mondello Park, Navy Blue Sports, Hilti and many more.
There is a clear demand for more opportunity to meet, learn and share across the sporting and business communities and that will be the next stage as we follow up on a special morning in the West.
Here are some of the reactions to what was said:


Join us on May 31st for a morning of exploring Irish sports sponsorship and seeing some of the most exciting projects coming down the tracks from 16 different sporting bodies over the next 12 months