[Article]Liam O’Neill reveals GAA facilities offer to Athletics Ireland

munchkin_utd

The initiative with athletics is based on the GAA’s offer to provide facilities in return for AI sharing its expertise in areas.
“We’re just saying that if we have grounds and the Government would like to put a track regionally and strategically, we’re saying we’re open to that.
“During the day time when school is on our facilities aren’t used to their max so there would be a possible chance of schools using it for athletics. Athletics Ireland and the sport have expertise in fitness, diet, nutrition and all that sort of stuff that we need too so we could very usefully form a link which would be of no great cost to either organisation but of huge benefit.”

http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/liam-o-neill-reveals-gaa-facilities-offer-to-athletics-ireland-1.1601630?page=2

It seems like a common sense enough idea and is what happens reqularily on the continent where sports facilites are laid on by the government and then rented (for next to nothing) by the various sports bodies and school boards, i.e. its used during the day by schools and then at night by teamsports/ athletics clubs.

Of course a GAA pitch is too large to allow a 400m olympic track, but a larger track could be built instead.
You could say that would be not ideal or desirable as you'd want a standard track in place to replicate what you have in competition, but thats grand and you can just ignore the offer and leave swathes of the country with literally zero athletics facilities of any type at all, either standard or adapted to a larger footprint, and let folks run around grass fields and football pitches due to lack of any alternative.

belcarra

My local soccer team in Mayo put a tarmac footpath around their pitch when redeveloping about 8 years ago and it's become a very popular amenity in the area for those who want to jog/walk.
Regardless of distance this type of thing should be encouraged. Good to see it happening if it comes off.

average_runner

belcarra wrote: »

My local soccer team in Mayo put a tarmac footpath around their pitch when redeveloping about 8 years ago and it's become a very popular amenity in the area for those who want to jog/walk.
Regardless of distance this type of thing should be encouraged. Good to see it happening if it comes off.

More facilities for people to use the better

RayCun

munchkin_utd wrote: »

Of course a GAA pitch is too large to allow a 400m olympic track, but a larger track could be built instead.

or a smaller pitch? nah, that's crazy talk :rolleyes:

ChickenTikka

munchkin_utd wrote: »

http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/liam-o-neill-reveals-gaa-facilities-offer-to-athletics-ireland-1.1601630?page=2

It seems like a common sense enough idea and is what happens reqularily on the continent where sports facilites are laid on by the government and then rented (for next to nothing) by the various sports bodies and school boards, i.e. its used during the day by schools and then at night by teamsports/ athletics clubs.

Of course a GAA pitch is too large to allow a 400m olympic track, but a larger track could be built instead.
You could say that would be not ideal or desirable as you'd want a standard track in place to replicate what you have in competition, but thats grand and you can just ignore the offer and leave swathes of the country with literally zero athletics facilities of any type at all, either standard or adapted to a larger footprint, and let folks run around grass fields and football pitches due to lack of any alternative.

Would be great to see such cooperation. How much influence though does GAA HQ have at local level if the facilities are owned by the local club?

In my experience, it very much depends on local relationships and some clubs are reluctant to let even another GAA sport use their grounds, e.g. football in a hurling area.

Also if the offer is for use during the school day, its not of great use to athletic clubs unless its available for use in the evening also.

Of course there is nothing to stop the GAA and AAI driving this without any expenditure at all at the moment - there's plenty of opportunity to allow athletic clubs run around grass pitches without putting in a track.

Hard Worker

I don't get this.
Isn't it the case currently that a soccer club cannot use GAA facilities?
Is it now the case that the GAA are OK with offering facilities to athletic clubs but not soccer clubs?

belcarra

I think they are opening up more and more to other sports since Croker opened to the 'Garrison sports' a few years back.
As such they have been feeling rather guilty about ignoring the middle letter in their name and as such are trying to reach out to the Athletics community.

Look upon it as China opening to the West and then going on to reclaim Hong Kong...AI be very afraid!!:pac:

CrabRevolution

RayCun wrote: »

or a smaller pitch? nah, that's crazy talk :rolleyes:

I know you arent serious, but thats pretty crazy alright, considering an average GAA pitch is 140*85 meters. With almost no space to the sides the largest field you could fit inside a 400m track would be about 85m long and 70m wide.

You'd then get the interesting spectacle of hurling games turning into hour long displays of goalies firing the ball over the bar from puckouts :pac:.