Gaa recreational facilities

abakan

Hi all,

We are a club in transition and are thinking of ideas on how to improve our GAA facilities and club as a whole.

There are alot of thought going around but Id like to get people oponions and thoughts regarding what you would like to see at Gaa grounds and any ideas you would have that would improve your Gaa experience.

We would hope that we could improve our supporter base in the club and get people interested in Gaa, which is a bit missing in the past few years.

So what would incourage you to participate more in our club and if you could make a change what would you like to see happen.

Any thoughts are welcome

Cheers

Hammar

Well without Knowing too much about your club(Size of membership, quality of facilities etc) and you may be well covered within these areas,but

1. Make sure you have teams covering all age levels(Girls and boys) in your sports, whether thats Camogie/Ladies Football/Hurling/Mens Football

2. Adequate playing facilities should be present, requiring perhaps(depending on numbers) multiple Pitches for training and games.
At least one of these(preferebely your main ground,should have floodlights)
-Dressing Rooms(at least 4)
-Club gym(if you're flush with money)

3. Maintaining facilities for supporters(whether that be terracing or a well kept Grass bank)

4.The Scor section should be worked upon within the club, as it can bring those who may not be interested in the field games into involvement.

SpatialPlanning

If you are considering building a hurling wall then you can also include outdoor handball courts (1 wall) at little or no extra cost. I think there is extra funding available if your facilities are for multiple uses. A handball club would be a fairly simple and obvious progression.

abakan

The hurling wall is a good idea as it could double as a high fielding training wall.

We are thinking of putting in another 2 dressing rooms.

The Score sections will be worked on

I suppose that thing is that we get people down to games , which is not happening at the moment - I think we need to improve the supporter experience and get the club involved outside the club grounds and more involved in the community.

abakan

do you think the hurling wall can be used for more than hurling?

we are a Gaelic club primarily, hurling is starting off.

The only clubs I has seen a hurling wall installed are hurling clubs and I can see the benefit for hurling clubs. We would be interested in getting a wall if we get chatting to clubs that have benefited by using it for Gaelic.

nice_guy80

A handball club is great for all members of a GAA club

all ages can play - up to 70!
boys or girls
it can be played recreationally or competitively
and there are 2/3 forms of handball so a club can choose which code to play
if you have a hall set up courts and a One Wall club, or build a hurling wall and design it to double up as an outdoor One Wall alley or go the whole hog and build a 40x20
a properly designed 60x30 can also be used as a hall for team circuits, fitness classes, indoor hurling


A hurling wall is also a big asset to any club.
gaelic football can definitely be practiced against the wall
players need to be shown the benefit of it - kick passing off both feet, punt passing, high fielding, accurate shooting

eigrod

Have at least one open day per year. Advertise it in your locality. Make sure you've plenty events organised for your grounds for the day. Try and get some high profile GAA players or ex-players in for the day to do skills displays, coaching clinics or penalty competitions or whatever on the day.

Dont' forget to try and get parents involved. Without parents involved, your usual club volunteers could suffocate under the pressure shoud you find yourself attracting large numbers of kids.

LeoB

What is your membership base? Are you Rural or Urban based?

If you want people coming in the gate to games you must put on a decent show and by that I mean have decent facilities like spectator toilets.

When a club is trying to develop it needs a plan, patience and people who can move it along. An open day is a good launch pad where you can inform people as they arrive and during the day what your plans are. Have loads of novelty events like egg and spoon races, 3 legged races, penalty shoot out, long kick and Puc Fada. Try and form a youth committee with some of your minor and U/16 Players.

A ball wall/Handball alley are multi purpose sports facilities and can benefit everyone. As stated earlier a handball alley can be used for circuit training, skills work for both codes and also Racquetball. It can also be rented out for aerobic classes and the like.