Cycling Ireland finances feeling the burn

Irish sport has never been awash with cash so it says everything about the current crisis and the impact it has had that the CEO of a leading governing body can describe a half a million euro loss in income as the tip of an iceberg.

Cycling Ireland chief executive Matt McKerrow estimates that the body suffered a dip of 33% in membership fees this March when compared to the period 12 months before. That was only the beginning. The dip for April was 84%.

This is a hole that only gets deeper.

The NGB’s total income for 2019 was €4.5m, of which memberships made up a third. That’s a mighty wedge eaten out of any organisation’s intake and it’s just the start.

If there’s a general rule right now it’s the fact that any sporting body’s losses are being multiplied down the chain.

“Whilst our membership is down quite significantly — it is probably half a million euros worth of revenue that we won’t see there — there’s a much bigger picture and it’s that we have in the order of about 900 events,” McKerrow explained to the Irish Examiner.

“So not only are people not joining Cycling Ireland because they are not doing those events but each one of those events is run by a club or a race promoter so there’s financial activity there that isn’t happening.

“Smaller businesses that run events are missing out on revenue, clubs that might run events to raise funds for themselves or the community, none of that is happening either.

“So the money that Cycling Ireland has lost is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the money lost by the cycling community.”

Research conducted by Ipsos MRBI on behalf of Sport Ireland has found that an extra 220,000 people are cycling now compared to this time of year in 2019. That’s great news for the sport but it is in no position to ride that wave given current restrictions.

The Government’s roadmap for re-opening society allows for groups of four cycling in phase one as long as social distancing is maintained but try that on a public road while attempting to stay safe at the same time and things begin to get tricky.

The advice to clubs from their governing body has been to continue refraining from club activity for now while they and others continue to grapple with protocols and, not least, the so-called ‘slipstream effect’ that comes with riding, cycling, or even running in a line.

“The tricky thing with it is that everyone can point you towards a study on it,” said McKerrow. “A number of them aren’t peer reviewed. I’m sure there is some science behind some of them but it is still a bit of an unknown.

“The standard social distance is two metres but, with the slipstream, some are saying it is four metres or five metres. Some studies talk about 10 or 20 metres. We haven’t had any guidance from our international body either. It’s challenging times.”

There is no playbook for this. Nothing in the historical record. Sport faces uncertain and difficult times and it is why the Federation of Irish Sport, representing 81 governing bodies and 29 local sports partnerships, issued a call for a resilience fund and specialised task force this day last week.

England and New Zealand have already led that way with the latter devoting €147m to it less than weeks ago. England saw to it weeks earlier. Something similar is needed here.

“It’s going to be vital for us in ensuring that we don’t go backwards. Cycling is listed in the National Sports Policy as one of the key sports — so swimming, cycling, and running — and we take that aspiration very seriously.

“If there is a silver lining to all this then it is the studies saying there are a lot more people running and cycling. That’s great. We want to capitalise on it and if we are to help the Government to achieve its national sports policy then we are going to need some assistance to do that.”

The Government has already confirmed the sector’s funding through the rest of 2020 but if McKerrow had one wish right now it would be for the Department of Transport, Tourism, and Sport to to do likewise for next year.

“In some ways, that is going to be acid test in how far backwards we go,” he said.