Can you sponsor Irish Athletes?

Thud

I was thinking....we've all sponsored the girl from the office to run the mini marathon only for her to waddle around in two and a half hours.... (ignoring the charity aspect for a minute) would you feel you'd gotten better value for your money if you put that €10 or €20 towards an up and coming athlete?

Most irish Athletes have struggled at some stage in their career and funding is going to be harder to come by nowadays.
I was thinking of something like the kickstarter type site where any athlete (who has represented Ireland at any level) has a profile and the option to sponsor them for as little or as much as you like.

They'd have to update the profile from time to time with their goals for the year, next event, some training vids etc but in return for sponsoring them you'd
(a) feel like you'd helped them a bit
(b) have an interest in following them

They mightn't get much at first but i'm sure every little helps and if they do have some initial success they could benefit from the exposure

The more creative ones could offer something for larger donations eg. to dye their hair, do a victory dance or mention something obscure in an interview


....just an idea

ocnoc

Dublin Mini Marathon

Charities from every county in Ireland are the biggest winners from the Flora Women's Mini Marathon. Since the event began in 1983, over 150 million has been raised for Irish charities, making it the biggest single day charity event in Ireland.

What could the sports council do with an extra 150 million....

shels4ever

ocnoc wrote: »

Dublin Mini Marathon



What could the sports council do with an extra 150 million....

spend it on legal fees

ocnoc

shels4ever wrote: »

spend it on legal fees

I thought it would be best to just ignore that

Gringo78

ocnoc wrote: »

Dublin Mini Marathon



What could the sports council do with an extra 150 million....

They probably wouldn't do research into the cure for cancer....

People will give to charity even in hard times - however sports funding is like the arts, it suffers in poor times. We missed the boat by not doing enough facilities wise during the celtic tiger, it'll be a generation before the sport has a chance to get any sort of decent funding again.

Thud

Gringo78 wrote: »

They probably wouldn't do research into the cure for cancer....

People will give to charity even in hard times - however sports funding is like the arts, it suffers in poor times. We missed the boat by not doing enough facilities wise during the celtic tiger, it'll be a generation before the sport has a chance to get any sort of decent funding again.

That's why i was thinking there could be a need for something like this now

A2LUE42

Sounds like it could work, it could be done like one of those charity.ie or similar websites.

ecoli

I think its a great idea especially with the mycharity.ie format. I think that would need to be heavily policed to avoid fraud but good idea none the less.

It would also provide the general public with more blog entries training videos and media exposure of athletes.

The one problem is US based athletes would not be able to use this due to NCAA rules regarding scholarship athletes.

HelenAnne

www.fundit.ie might be a better place to do something like this?

Thud

HelenAnne wrote: »

www.fundit.ie might be a better place to do something like this?

that's similar to kickstarter and for business startups, i think it would need to be a similar format but on an independant website

you might be able to get online irish newspapers and RTE to link to it at the end of athletics stories or something like that


Anyone know how you'd go about starting something like this?

longjump67

What standard would the athlete need to achieve? what age group -youth? Junior? underage?

Thud

I would think once they've represented Ireland at some level they could be allowed on there. It'd be up to them to build their case for sponsorship on there then (highlights videos, times, distances etc)

At very worst it'd be a way for relatives or friends to support them.

You could have a featured athlete each day etc..

Could have a countdown to next event.
Status: Active, injured, retired etc..

Condo131

The club I'm in has contributed €500 towards the training expenses of an Irish international athlete (who is a member of another club!!) for the past few years.

The local AAI Co Board, as of this year, contributes €2,500 towards the training expenses of athletes from the County who meet the 2012 Olympic qualify criteria.

Many of those striving to qualify for the Olympics are struggling to make ends meet. I'd like to see more clubs helping these athletes out.

The top level of Sports Grant (HP Carding) is up to €40k (podium class), with €20k (world class) and €12 for athletes (international class).

€20k and we expect world class performances! Don't make me laugh! :mad::mad::mad:.

I know times are tough, but let's row in behind our key athletes and get contributing!

jeffontour

Nice idea. I suppose it could almost be self policing, in that the athletes who work hard and show promise will have better results, and should therefore attract more funding.

Thud

jeffontour wrote: »

Nice idea. I suppose it could almost be self policing, in that the athletes who work hard and show promise will have better results, and should therefore attract more funding.

I think the policing bit was to make sure the money would gets to the athletes, which would need to be done.

Thousands of people spend money voting for random X Factor contestants they'll never see again, could add a text sponsorship also, if you could tap even a portion of that audience...

jeffontour

Thud wrote: »

I think the policing bit was to make sure the money would gets to the athletes, which would need to be done.

Yeah, I was thinking of it more from a point of view of the funding going to those deserving of it.

But in terms of the cash getting to the athlete it shouldn't be that difficult to ensure that.

Pisco Sour

If such a system was in place or is to be put in place I would gladly make donations to many of our athletes.

myflipflops

I've done it. Just opened an account and put in the money with a 3rd party involved to oversee and manage the account

It could be easily set up through a club I'm sure if somebody wanted to donate.

Gringo78

What are the tax implications of this? Would an athlete have to pay tax on the monies they receive? I think thats an area which needs to be addressed - presently I think an athlete can get relief on money they earn from the sport, but probably having tax relief on monies they are earning outside the sport would help their cause greatly - e.g if an athlete makes a certain standard, qualifies for europeans, worlds etc they can get tax relief on their teachers salary for example. The likes of professional rugby players are 'salaried' and so greatly benefit from tax relief whereas most athletes will not win any significant prize money if their target is to say qualify for the olympics, so theres no sports income to get any tax relief on.

pistol_75

I see Mad Len referring to this post on twitter. Asking if there would be genuine interest and think of including PayPal link in his site.

Dan man

pistol_75 wrote: »

I see Mad Len referring to this post on twitter. Asking if there would be genuine interest and think of including PayPal link in his site.

Just noticed that as well, lets hope the ball gets rolling on this one.

Mad_len

Good morning everyone,

'Tis night time here in Albuquerque and I'm writing this with a cup of tea and some Hob Nobs beside me, settling in for the evening.

Thanks first of all for all the support through Daegu and into 2012. Being so far from Ireland, I don't really hear much hype surrounding London, which is a really good thing I think, but anytime I go on here, I always get a sense of positivity and support which makes me really excited to put on the Irish singlet again soon, in Istanbul and particularly in London.

As some of you may have seen on Twitter, I saw this thread and decided to put some Tweets out regarding the possibility of adding a new section to my website where anybody could donate or pledge support financially for me through a Paypal button as I work towards trying to improve on Daegu and having a realistic shot at an Olympic medal.

This would be an interesting experiment, as I have not seen it done before, definitely not amongst Irish athletes. Whereas rugby or football teams can establish association with a consumer through the sale of a shirt or what have you, the athletics supporter does not as of now have a tangible way to express their support for a particular athlete. Beyond money, I feel this would be an excellent way to perhaps establish a closer link between myself and all of you.

I want to work with you in helping create this the way you guys want it, as it would be for you as much as for me. What I was thinking of making would be something along the lines of a "Mad Len Supporters Club" or something to that effect whereby each person to pledge support/donate would be listed and acknowledged on the site. We could create tiers of support according to the amount but that doesn't matter to me. Regardless of the amount, I am so proud to represent you all globally on the track, and, being in the states training for so long, it is ironic that sometimes the closest I feel to the Irish athletics supporters is during major champs, when the spotlights are on. The prevailing theme surrounding last weekends drug story appears to be the tendency for elite runners to feel quite alone in what they do, particularly if their training base is abroad. It's 2012, that does not need to be the case. I know that every run I do, I have the support of thousands of Irish athletics supporters driving me on. This is just a tangible reflection of that, one that illustrates the Irish athletics supported truthfully as a passionate and loyal fan of the sport and our athletes.

Through this, I feel we could establish a connection that goes beyond that truly reflects the passion you all have for athletics. I understand that many of you would wish to instead support an "up-and-coming athlete" as opposed to myself, but regardless, the success of this initiative could provide a template through which other young athletes can create a medium of support of their own. I would in fact still see myself as an up and coming athlete. Though I am on 20k from the ISC this year, my expenses in training in the US are massive and compared to the resources other nations have available, it would be nice to keep the playing field level. I want to keep improving and feel I owe it to you to keep improving. This would help ensure further accountability on my part.

Finally, I think that something like this could be great for athletes in the long term as when a business sees an athlete being associated with so many potential consumers, they may sponsor the athlete so as to create an association with those individuals who have previously pledged support. I'm very interested to see these types of effects play out, should we experiment with this idea.

So, I'd love to hear what everybody thinks, and if there's a positive response and people want to do this, I'm all for setting it up and getting the ball rolling. By the way, for those of you who haven't viewed it, my site is http://www.mad-len.com and @mad_len on Twitter.

Thanks for reading.

-Len

nkay1985

Just stumbled on this thread from the main page and I have to say I think it's a great idea. As someone who's not involved in athletics but enjoys watching it on tv, I'll be the first to say I know very little about most Irish athletes. I'd only be able to name a few and I'd recognise a few others if someone said it to me but I'd have no idea how any of their form is or anything like that. If a site like this existed, I'd definitely keep an eye on it and I'd be very happy to put some money towards their development. It'd make you feel like you had a personal stake in their performance.

thirtyfoot

Mad_len wrote: »

What I was thinking of making would be something along the lines of a "Mad Len Supporters Club"

Great idea. You could have merchandise too. Imagine 150 members of the supporters club wearing these at nationals? The Mad-Len Ultras corralled into a corner of the terrace on the backstraight by the Guards.

http://www.google.ie/imgres?imgurl=http://www.thewigmall.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/1315011.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.thewigmall.com/wig-types/costume-wigs/wear-that-mullet-wig-and-dance-to-the-80%25E2%2580%2599s-tune.html&h=360&w=360&sz=24&tbnid=BXtDqWj-SzBkHM:&tbnh=90&tbnw=90&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dmullet%2Bwig%26tbm%3Disch%26tbo%3Du&zoom=1&q=mullet+wig&docid=bFy4H1FY83p3YM&hl=en&sa=X&ei=_NoXT6SiC-yO4gSIpsCMDQ&ved=0CFIQ9QEwAQ&dur=961

Condo131

Mad_len wrote: »

...............Though I am on 20k from the ISC this year, my expenses in training in the US are massive and compared to the resources other nations have available, it would be nice to keep the playing field level. ..................
-Len

As I implied in an earlier post €20k isn't a huge amount. When you add up all the costs incurred by top-level athletes, including such things as specialised blood tests, physio, travel, that 20k doesn't go very far.

I reckon I couldn't survive even as a local runner on €20k, so this leads me to feel that that figure is woefully inadequate for those competing at the highest level.

Btw, something that really, really 'gets up my nose' is, following major championships, in particular the Olympics, we get uninformed people bitching in the media that funding should be withdrawn from athletes (particularly T&F athletes) because of "failure" to medal. :mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:

......and the same people will "crow" over a team from Ballygobackward that got to the final of Division Z of the local league. :mad::mad::mad:

This is what UK Athletics does:
UK Athletics Funding
UK Athetics World class Performance Programme Guide

I gather funding in Spain and Italy is pretty good, but I haven't found details on-line.

Thud

Great to see you're interested Len, actually had you in mind for the "The more creative ones could offer something for larger donations ":

"Mad len will wear a pink headband in his post race interview if sponsorship has reached €xxxx before the race"

I know you have a fan base on here so would think you'd get a bit in if you put a paypal link on your website but would like to do something for all irish athletes too.

On the tax side of things do you know how that would work? Are you taxed on current sponsorships?

When I referred to "up and coming athletes" i meant that in the broader sense of athletes who hadn't made it to a level where they were financially comfortable so i think that would include most of the Irish athletes at present, i know even Derval has spoken of financial strain in the recent past.
I'm not saying you kick off athlete once they reached that level either, one athletes success could generate page clicks to the site which could benefit the other athletes also ("You've sponsored Mad Len, you might also be interested in XXXX, click to view their profile")

Any ART posters have any experience developing websites?

longjump67

Saw this on runningman might be of interest

http://www.runningmanathletics.com/apps/videos/videos/show/15716614-nick-symmonds-names-tattoo-sponsor

robinph

ebaying yourself is another option:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-16229024

But you'd really need to get lucky with being the first to do it and get the coverage on the telly and finding that one sponsor to stump up the big wad of cash.

Getting €20,000 is probably harder than getting €1 from 20,000 people, in terms of finding that one sponsor. Once the ball starts rolling in a format that people could make a smaller donation then it is more likely to take off, trickier to start with though.

Thud

robinph wrote: »

Getting €20,000 is probably harder than getting €1 from 20,000 people, in terms of finding that one sponsor. Once the ball starts rolling in a format that people could make a smaller donation then it is more likely to take off, trickier to start with though.

Yeah, if the website had a text option for sponsorship (for a €1 or2) you could cash in on the teenie bopper segment .....there must be thousands of young girls out there who love Len's mullet

cutefainne

more funding is needed

Dan man

If this got set-up then by putting the word out through twitter and the likes, should be able to tap into a wide audience. We all know times are tough and there isn't a lot of money floating around people's pockets (well, not mine anyway!), but I think there is a genuine appetite out there to help out our athletes and aspiring sportsmen and women.

budapest2012

This is something new so lets give it a go.Irish people want to support the athletes and not the association.
For your part I think you have already established an athlete/supporter relationship are up and coming and a perfect place to start.
With this will come a huge responsibility as those against the idea will look to find fault with it at every oppertunity.
A supporters club may be the best way where people may feel they are having some input.
As I say think long and hard about it but I for one will support you.

JamesyCal

I think this is an excellent idea.

Its amazing what our top sportspeople have achieved with extremely limited support.

For Mad Len, I think you should go ahead and put a PayPal link on your site, ask people if they want their donation published and then go ahead and publish those donations for transparency. I would certainly contribute - maybe a van load of Barry's tea !!

I fear setting up a more official site for a range of sportspeople will take a fair bit of time. When the suits and administrators get wind of this they will no doubt start weighing in with all the reasons not to do this and delay things even further.

The quicker someone with expertise in this area gets something up and running the less chance of it being scuppered. As others suggested, maybe piggy backing on an existing site would be the quickest way of moving - and ultimately getting a few bob from lots of us, to those representing Ireland to the best of their abilities.

James.

tommygunn

There have been a number of athletes of late have put their sponsorship on ebay. A couple of english guys did it when their funding was dropped. They sold themselves too.

Len you have nothing to lose so stick it on there. Something like the way the just giving site do would be ideal where people can choose to have their details published or not.

Also would be interesting to see what you get as it may take off and others latch onto it...

P.S. Just be wary of the taxman!

Gringo78

If something like a common website for donation could be setup then it would be great if sites like runireland.com, cork city marathon, dublin city marathon could have the links to it when a person finishes their online entry to a race - they might be in the right frame of mind to contribute a few euro towards an elite after forking out €90 on a half marathon entry.

robinph

tommygunn wrote: »

P.S. Just be wary of the taxman!

Think that is something that is definitely worth checking out first, but then go for it.

budapest2012

If 200 people could be persuaded to pledge 3euro per week (a relitively small ammount) for one year this would give an athlete 600 euro per week taking all the pressure off financially and allowing them to concentrate on training etc.For our part we would feel as if we have invested in the future of Irish Athletics.

Mad_len

Liking the responses thus far! Seems like a generally positive response. I'm chatting with the guys who help run my website at the moment regarding the best way to do it. Paypal button is most likely, and I'm definitely all for looking into merch etc as things progress. Thanks for the feedback, hard training day today but the time I have, I'll put into getting something more concrete together.

Cheers,
-Len

Thud

Good stuff Len. Get a paypal button up on your site and we'll keep you stocked up in hob nobs for a while.

Was thinking if you were to take deposits into a bank account and redistribute them it'd probably require setting up a company which would be a lot of hassle.

A paypal button for each athlete would be an easier route to go down.
But site hosting (and possibly set up)costs would have to be covered also

Thinking the structure would need to be similar to the www.mycharity.ie website.

Any thoughts on the tax implications?

Keep us posted on how you get on with your website guys, if there is anything we can do form over here let us know.

Larry Brent

Perhaps the athletes should set up an athletes association - something like the PFA in football in the UK. Whereby members pay a percentage of their grant, appearance or prize money to a fund and then they can decide how this is distributed to look after those in need, going through tough times or having had funding cut or just missed out on the criteria or whatever.

Members of the public, or fans and perhaps even the AAI could then also contribute to this fund.

The athletes association could have a committee or appoint someone to oversee how this is distributed to make sure it goes to the right place and is accounted for. Athletes could apply for some funding, putting forward their case as to why they need it and what exactly it will be spent on. I think people might be more willing to contribute if they can be assured the money is going to the right place and been spent in the right way.

Someone rightly pointed out above that this will take longer to sort out, but in the long term to have something more sustainable and accountable it might work out better.

Athletes power!

Thud

I think that sounds a bit too bureaucratic

I think having a direct link to the individual athlete is key.

The person sponsoring can decide which athlete(s) they sponsor be it on performances, the potential they see or the case they put forward in there bio/blog section

thirtyfoot

Larry Brent wrote: »

Perhaps the athletes should set up an athletes association - something like the PFA in football in the UK. Whereby members pay a percentage of their grant, appearance or prize money to a fund and then they can decide how this is distributed to look after those in need, going through tough times or having had funding cut or just missed out on the criteria or whatever.

Members of the public, or fans and perhaps even the AAI could then also contribute to this fund.

The athletes association could have a committee or appoint someone to oversee how this is distributed to make sure it goes to the right place and is accounted for. Athletes could apply for some funding, putting forward their case as to why they need it and what exactly it will be spent on. I think people might be more willing to contribute if they can be assured the money is going to the right place and been spent in the right way.

Someone rightly pointed out above that this will take longer to sort out, but in the long term to have something more sustainable and accountable it might work out better.

Athletes power!

Hey Larry, not a bad idea. Twas thrown around here before. Could work but would depend on what the MO was.

Larry Brent

thirtyfoot wrote: »

Hey Larry, not a bad idea. Twas thrown around here before. Could work but would depend on what the MO was.

To have a group (of themselves) to look after their interests might be a good thing. As well as looking after the welfare of athletes it might provide support and a stronger voice e.g. if they think qualifying standards set by AAI over and above those of IAAF are not to their liking; in the event of disputes over relay team members etc.

Larry Brent

Thud wrote: »

I think that sounds a bit too bureaucratic

Certainly it would take a bit of organising. But I'm sure they could get help form the likes of the GPA or other groups who have set something similar up.

Thud wrote: »

I think having a direct link to the individual athlete is key.

The person sponsoring can decide which athlete(s) they sponsor be it on performances, the potential they see or the case they put forward in there bio/blog section

The problem with this is that some athletes who may need the funding most might slip through the net. Those not currently in the limelight but with potential to be or to get back there again.

Thud

Larry Brent wrote: »

Certainly it would take a bit of organising. But I'm sure they could get help form the likes of the GPA or other groups who have set something similar up.

Yeah, sorry i think there is merit in having an Athletes association to speak for them as a group but i think that should be seperate from this.

I doubt there are many athletes with excess funds to contribute to a fund for development of other athletes and then it would be very difficult to decide who gets it...

Larry Brent wrote: »

The problem with this is that some athletes who may need the funding most might slip through the net. Those not currently in the limelight but with potential to be or to get back there again.

If they perform, grab some attention/headlines and update their section of the website they should stand a chance of getting some sponsorship as it they get (pretty much) zero until they get to a very high level.

It would be a merit based system, when you bring in a board to decide who gets what it's opened up to all sort of complications and potential for corruption, cut out the middle men.
Would also mean you can sponsor young jimmy from the local club because you think he's got what it takes instead of putting it into a pool and hoping some of it gets to him.

RacoonQueen

Anyone want to sponsor me?

christeb

RacoonQueen wrote: »

Anyone want to sponsor me?

Yep, here's a virtual donut

MacSwifty

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/sport/2012/0119/1224310447002.html

Grant receipents (top end) listed in todays Times

Dan man

Len's gonna mention the sponsorship idea on radio tomorrow...hope we can see this through.

robinph

MacSwifty wrote: »

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/sport/2012/0119/1224310447002.html

Grant receipents (top end) listed in todays Times

Athletics doesn't do too bad out of that list, in terms of the numbers that qualify for something rather than the amounts they get.

RacoonQueen

christeb wrote: »

Yep, here's a virtual donut

I've gone cold turkey. That's no good for me.