2021 Covid Assistance for Clubs

A total of sixteen triathlon clubs received significant funding boosts totalling €125,000 from Sport Ireland as part of the Club Resilience Grants. The grant is designed to help sports clubs cope with the financial fallout of Covid-19 under a scheme administered by Triathlon Ireland.

The clubs have received funding ranging from €1,817 to €33,880 to offset losses incurred through circumstances such as the cancellation of races, decrease in membership income and the increased costs of implementing Covid-19 safety measures.

Club Resilience Fund

The Club Resilience Fund was set up by Sport Ireland to support clubs in all sports. The 16 Triathlon Ireland clubs that successfully applied for funding under the 2021 scheme are 3D TC, Athlone TC, Cobh TC, Cork TC, Clonmel TC, Galway TC, Kilkenny TC, Naas TC, Piranha TC, Mallow TC, Racing 795, Schull TC, Setanta TC, Tri Lakes TC, Westport TC and Wicklow TC.

All clubs had to establish proof of financial hardship during 2021; and satisfy requirements of good governance and financial management in order to be successful in their applications. 

Barry Moran, chair of Naas Triathlon Club, explains how his club utilised the funding received;

“Outside of membership fees, our duathlon race series is the main source of funding for the club each year. This allows us to run an active and inclusive club with over 150 members. Despite our best efforts we were unable to run our full race series due to Covid restrictions.”

“We are really appreciative of the resilience funding we received from Sport Ireland as it allowed us to continue delivering quality coaching to our members, get access to sports facilities as restrictions began to ease.”

Piranha Triathlon Club are race organisers for one of the country’s largest triathlons, Dublin City Triathlon. Club chairperson Killian Nolan outlines how the club has been affected.

“The resilience funding that we received allowed us to adapt to the significant financial challenges presented by covid without seeking alternative funding or increasing member dues. It was important to the club to maintain our value for money offering to our members.”

“The resilience funding allowed us to do this. We could not run our club race, the Dublin City Triathlon for a second year in a row in 2021, and the revenue generated from this race is one of the primary sources of our annual funding for the club. We are now looking forward to welcoming back the whole triathlon community to DCT on 28th of August this year.”

Criteria

Triathlon Ireland considered the applications under a range of eligibility and assessment criteria which included the size of the club and strategic importance of the club to the sport of triathlon, the level of club engagement with Triathlon Ireland and its programmes, the level of activities the club engaged in to counteract the loss of earnings and the risk of insolvency threatening the club.

Welcoming the funding for the second consecutive year, Triathlon Ireland Chief Executive, Darren Coombes, said;

“This will allow our clubs to plot a really positive recovery from the impact of Covid restrictions, bouncing back quickly to resume safe training in communities across the country. 2022 has seen an almost immediate return to pre Covid levels of membership, events and activities, all of which are reliant on our fantastic clubs across the country.”

“It is a significant investment into our club sector, building on a similar investment in 2020, and we are enormously grateful for the support of both Sport Ireland and the Irish Government, led by Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, Catherine Martin TD, and Minister of State, Jack Chambers TD.”

Club	Total Grant Awarded	Grounds for Funding
Racing 795	€4,362	Loss of membership income and loss of profit due to races not going ahead in 2021.
Mallow Triathlon Club	€6,881	Loss of profit from race due to restrictions on numbers and cancellation of pool sessions.
Setanta Triathlon Club	€10,029	Loss of profit from race due to restrictions on numbers, loss in membership fees, loss in profit due to cancellation of other races, purchase of Covid equipment.
Tri Lakes Triathlon Club	€3,246	Loss of membership income, loss of profit due to races not going ahead in 2021, purchase of Covid equipment.
Galway Triathlon Club	€8,200	Loss of membership income, purchase of Covid equipment, revenue lost due to Covid restrictions.
Kilkenny Triathlon Club	€2,053	Loss of membership income, loss of profit from cancelled duathlon, reduced race profit due to covid restrictions.
Athlone Triathlon Club	€3,635	Loss of membership income and loss of profit due to race not going ahead in 2021.
Cobh Triathlon Club	€2,544	Loss of profit from race not going ahead in 2021.
Westport Triathlon Club	€12,341	Loss of membership income, reduction in race profit due to covid restrictions, revenue lost due to Covid restrictions.
Naas Triathlon Club	€3,466	Loss shown in 2021 accounts mainly due to races not going ahead in 2021.
3D Triathlon Club	€1,817	Loss of membership income, purchase of Covid equipment.
Schull Triathlon Club	€3,998	Loss of profit from race not going ahead in 2021.
Piranha Triathlon Club	€33,880	Loss of membership income, loss of race profit, purchase of Covid equipment, additional costs due to Covid restrictions.
Cork Triathlon Club	€13,268	Loss of membership income, loss of race profit due to races not going ahead in 2021
Clonmel Triathlon Club	€4,362	Loss of membership income, purchase of Covid equipment, reduction in race profit due to Covid restrictions.
Wicklow Triathlon Club	€13,155	Loss of membership income and loss of profit due to races not going ahead in 2021.