'They’ve all been affected': Cost of pandemic to sport detailed in RTÉ show
Ella McSweeney and Richard Curran will present Open for Business on RTÉ One. Picture: Tony Kinlan
RTÉ’s new business programme details the impact of the lockdown and pandemic on sports bodies tomorrow evening.
Mary O’Connor, CEO of the Federation of Irish Sport, tells Open For Business about the financial losses suffered by various sports bodies in the lockdown.
“The past 12 months have been very difficult for the sports sector,” O’Connor tells presenters Richard Curran and Ella McSweeney.
“They had no meaningful activity. The GAA has estimated that its losses in 2020 were €34m, and the IRFU, similarly, had a loss of €36m. It’s been a huge hit to those organisations along with the FAI as well.” O’Connor also points out the blow suffered by indoor sports.
“Because of the transmissibility of the virus it has meant that indoor sport can’t really be active.
“Sports such as gymnastics, swimming, basketball, volleyball, martial arts - they’ve all been affected.”
Ciaran Gallagher, CEO of Gymnastic Ireland tells the programme: “We’ve estimated about €10m to €12m in terms of club member revenue that’s been wiped off the system. The public funding we would get from Sport Ireland to support the sport on a national basis makes up about 25% of our annual turnover.
“So, as you can imagine, when you’re reliant for 75% (of turnover) on member-generated revenue but you’re told those gymnasts can’t get into their clubs, or numbers are restricted to 50, it really does cause massive problems for your commercial model.”
That is true even for sports which have been able to continue operating in the lockdown, as outlined by Bohemians FC chief operating officer Daniel Lambert: “We would have been down a significant amount in 2020 At a guess, it would be coming towards half a million.
“Even our bars, match day food, programmes, match day sponsorship - all of those are big figures, and to lose all of them straight away was a really big hit to take.
"To keep things running financially the way they have been for the last twelve months has been down to the loyalty of members and commercial partners.”
