Indoor T&F Facilities

RoyMcC

Just got back from Magherafelt - up in the back of beyond in County Londonderry. It was the final day of the All-Ireland Indoor T&F Juvenile Champs.

The Meadowbank Stadium there is brilliant. It consists of an indoor hall large enough to house a full-sized soccer pitch. It caters for all indoor sports but today it was athletics, and we had a 5-lane 300 metre track. We had spectator viewing facilities on three levels, catering, top class changing and showers. Outside there is a fully-equipped 400m tartan track with field events fully catered for (just lacking spectator seating which I guess might be coming down the line). Ample parking, well signposted etc.

Last weekend were the first two days of these championships, down in Nenagh. First of all, fair play to those who put the Republic's only proper indoor facility in place, apparently by the sweat of their own brow. It's pretty decent, a 200m banked track, a 10-lane 60m straight, basic shot putt area, basic catering, toilets etc. But no signposting, a barn in the middle of nowhere. As far as I'm aware the next on the indoor facilities list is at our own national stadium at Santry where they do wonders to hold competitions on what (I am sure) was only ever meant for training and warm-up.

Why, after the Celtic Tiger years, when Croke Park has been expensively redeveloped and Lansdowne Road completely rebuilt, does Irish athletics find itself without a half-decent indoor track, close to the capital city?

Running Bing

RoyMcC wrote: »

Why, after the Celtic Tiger years, when Croke Park has been expensively redeveloped and Lansdowne Road completely rebuilt, does Irish athletics find itself without a half-decent indoor track, close to the capital city?

Probably due to the fact your unlikely to get 60,000 people turning up to an athletics event.

I was only up in County Derry myself a while back, where exactly is the indoor stadium in Derry?

thirtyfoot

Babybing wrote: »

Probably due to the fact your unlikely to get 60,000 people turning up to an athletics event.

I was only up in County Derry myself a while back, where exactly is the indoor stadium in Derry?

An indoor arena holding 2-3,000 is all that was needed. Abbotstown was pencilled to have an indoor arena as well as a lot more for all sports but thats down the swanny. Maybe they should have focused on getting Nenagh up to scratch a few years ago when there was money and also space down there to do it. Chance lost. I think 100m+ indoor straights like Loughborough with separate areas for jumps and straights are the way forward. Very few people will train on the banked curves due to injury potential and the people who get most benefit are the short sprinters, hurdlers, jumpers and throwers so I would say outside of racing there may not be a need for banked curves. There is a Santry style stretch planned for Cork and a tartan one already up North other than the Magherafelt one which isn't tartan.

Its probably a sad indictment of the sporting policy of the Irish government in that when the boom was booming it was golfcourses and greyhound/horseracing infrastructure that mushroomed and that when it comes to facilities of the non-ball and ponyrace sports we are 3rd world. A visit to any other country in the west will show you how backward we are when it comes to facilities.

Having said that facilities should never be a reason for failing, anything is possible with a willing heart but if you are a Pole Vaulter or High Jumper in Ireland it can be very hard work just to get ready to train. Mary Peters didn't exactly have cutting edge facilities back in the '70's and told stories of dragging high jump mats out into the snow to practice. She did ok;)

RoyMcC

Babybing wrote: »

Probably due to the fact your unlikely to get 60,000 people turning up to an athletics event.

I was only up in County Derry myself a while back, where exactly is the indoor stadium in Derry?

No, but it is multi-sport and produces income on a regular basis. Even yesterday they were collecting £10 a head from the many adults that attended.

Facility is in Magherafelt which is probably midway between Derry and Belfast - maybe one reason it was sited where it is.

lecheile

RoyMcC wrote: »

Just got back from Magherafelt - up in the back of beyond in County Londonderry. It was the final day of the All-Ireland Indoor T&F Juvenile Champs.

The Meadowbank Stadium there is brilliant. It consists of an indoor hall large enough to house a full-sized soccer pitch. It caters for all indoor sports but today it was athletics, and we had a 5-lane 300 metre track. We had spectator viewing facilities on three levels, catering, top class changing and showers. Outside there is a fully-equipped 400m tartan track with field events fully catered for (just lacking spectator seating which I guess might be coming down the line). Ample parking, well signposted etc.

Last weekend were the first two days of these championships, down in Nenagh. First of all, fair play to those who put the Republic's only proper indoor facility in place, apparently by the sweat of their own brow. It's pretty decent, a 200m banked track, a 10-lane 60m straight, basic shot putt area, basic catering, toilets etc. But no signposting, a barn in the middle of nowhere. As far as I'm aware the next on the indoor facilities list is at our own national stadium at Santry where they do wonders to hold competitions on what (I am sure) was only ever meant for training and warm-up.

Why, after the Celtic Tiger years, when Croke Park has been expensively redeveloped and Lansdowne Road completely rebuilt, does Irish athletics find itself without a half-decent indoor track, close to the capital city?

I'd fully agree RoyMcC - one of the other thinigs about Nenagh is that it can put juvenile athletes off competing as it can be very uncomfortable spending a day down there and it looks nothing like other indoor venues they see on the telly ;-)

ChickenTikka

RoyMcC wrote: »

First of all, fair play to those who put the Republic's only proper indoor facility in place, apparently by the sweat of their own brow.

I agree with RoyMcC's comments and in particular the one above. Nenagh Olympic AC have to be complimented for putting such a facility in place years ago. Its an absolute disgrace that our Government never put serious investment into it and its a credit to Nenagh that they make it available for National competition despite the frequent criticism that it receives from various people. For a club to have build such a facility in recessionary years and for the Government not to have invest in it during the boom years just doesn't add up.

If a club wants to build any facililty, they first have to get a site. The Govenment won't fund site purchase, so they have to splash out maybe 300k for a site ... and probably pay stamp duty for the privilege of 30k. Then they set about building a facility, say for €700k, and end up paying 12 or 20% VAT and paying the rest to the contractor, who pays 40% income tax on it when he pays his employees.

So an enterprising club, with a project that costs €1million, will pay the Government maybe €30k stamp duty, €105k VAT and €300k income tax. And if you are real real nice and well connected to the politicians, if you are lucky and beg hard enough, you get a grant of €100k from the Sports Capital Program. But you could be tired and do nothing, in which case the Government doesn't get a net inome of €335k and you continue to train in the rain and the muck.

Maybe my figures are off above ... but you get my gist ... it would cost the Government nothing to provide more financial incentives to build indoor athletics facilities throughout the country.

Rineanna

This topic is probably one of the most constant grievances in Irish athletics today. As has been said, the opportunity to build one when the times were good has passed. The benefits, especially in our climate, are obvious, but there just hasn't been the drive or motivation to get it done. I fear that the only way a world class indoor stadium will be built is if the clubs and all people involved in the sport put their minds to it and go about it themselves, as the government don't seem overly interested. It'll be a few years yet, and by that time London 2012 will have been and gone. Hurrah. :rolleyes:

If a club wants to build any facililty, they first have to get a site. The Govenment won't fund site purchase, so they have to splash out maybe 300k for a site ... and probably pay stamp duty for the privilege of 30k. Then they set about building a facility, say for €700k, and end up paying 12 or 20% VAT and paying the rest to the contractor, who pays 40% income tax on it when he pays his employees.

So an enterprising club, with a project that costs €1million, will pay the Government maybe €30k stamp duty, €105k VAT and €300k income tax. And if you are real real nice and well connected to the politicians, if you are lucky and beg hard enough, you get a grant of €100k from the Sports Capital Program. But you could be tired and do nothing, in which case the Government doesn't get a net inome of €335k and you continue to train in the rain and the muck.

Maybe my figures are off above ... but you get my gist ... it would cost the Government nothing to provide more financial incentives to build indoor athletics facilities throughout the country.

That's the sad reality of it. Eventhough it would benefit a wide variety of people, from elite athletes to club athletes, there's just no political will to be of assistance to the improvement of facilities.

Unfortunately, those figures are a bit conservative. Over in Scotland, an indoor athletics centre was opened in Pitreavie. It has 8-lane 60m sprint track, High Jump, Long/Triple Jump, Pole Vault facilities, changing rooms, warm up area and a strength and conditioning suite. It cost £2.3m, so they're pretty pricey, and that's without the 200m banked track.