C I Grant Cuts

wav1

Article appeared tonight on stickybottle.com re board meeting tonight where its possible that grant aid to our major events on the road including those for the youth and juniors,is to be cut.TBH I heard mumblings about this last week and I thought they were iust that but it seems its true.At a time when the sport is enjoying a huge surge in popularity,its beyond me why they would even consider putting some of our best events at risk.Maybe they feel that the numbers and popularity is so high now that these things will ''simply happen''regardless of what they decide to do.I do realise that theres lots of things to spend money on and a huge chunk goes towards high performance etc,but believe me if some of these events are put at risk, in a few yrs we'll be back on a slippery slope.TBH im flabbergasted that they are even considering it.

columbus_66

Somebody has to pay for the lavish trip to Caribbean for the Euro track champs, biggest team ever there, do Ryanair fly there?

http://www.stickybottle.com/latest-news/major-move-by-cycling-ireland-means-many-new-faces-for-euro-champs/

Beasty

columbus_66 wrote: »

Somebody has to pay for the lavish trip to Caribbean for the Euro track champs, biggest team ever there, do Ryanair fly there?

http://www.stickybottle.com/latest-news/major-move-by-cycling-ireland-means-many-new-faces-for-euro-champs/

It's a large team because they are attempting to qualify 2 team pursuit squads for Rio. To get there they basically need to get qualifying points in various events. In addition it is not possible to qualify for the Worlds unless you participate in the Europeans.

They have also changed the World Cup this year and only Olympic events will be in them (except for London who have been allowed some extra events this year because they had already committed to a 3 day event).

What this does mean is more of the high performance budget (which I understand to be capped) is going to be spent on trying to get riders to the Olympics.

couerdelion

It's a bit of a chicken and egg situation. Spend the money on the youth and those who have already come through aren't getting support and there are no role models for the youth. Spend the money on elites and risk not having the next generation to come through.

I'm sure it's not all going to one extreme or the other - its not an easy balancing act and not one I'd like to be involved in making.

Hi Ho

It depends on what else they are prioritising. The vast majority of members are not racers and a recent review revealed the members' priorities. Mahbe they are doing what the members want. But I don't know.

Inquitus

Hi Ho wrote: »

It depends on what else they are prioritising. The vast majority of members are not racers and a recent review revealed the members' priorities. Mahbe they are doing what the members want. But I don't know.

Each racer pays 6x what each non racer pays. If they want to stop spending money on racing, stop charging a premium for a race license.....

If you prorate the diff license costs across the people paying it the racers pay just as much as the non racers. 3500 Race licenses @ 150 a pop v 20000 @ 25 a pop.

Beasty

I would agree with those comments about the CI survey - High performance and rider development did not seem to be a priority amongst the membership, with a desire for CI to become more of a representative body for cycling

I am guessing though that this is simply the time of the year they are preparing their Budgets for next year. That article makes no reference to actual decisions that may have been taken, simply they are reviewing the budget, which is exactly what should happen

Maybe Stickybottle have some inside information on the way the Board are heading on this, but I suspect not.

Looking though at the events mentioned, I can fully understand why CI would support the Ras, the Ras no mBan and the Junior Tour and even the event listed which is probably closest to wav1's heart, the Ras na n’Og. These are the major international racing events put on in Ireland together with racing that helps youth development

Why though should CI be supporting the other events such as the Tour of Ulster, the Ras Mumhan and the Tour of the North? What makes thesae events so special that they should be subsidised whereas other multi day events are not? Maybe CI are absolutely right to be reviewing using what is money provided by the whole membership which is only of benefit to a very small number of members.

Bottom line though is these are the sorts of tough decisions the Board are not paid to make. I am sure they will consider all angles. I am equally sure that if anything does change commen ts will be forthcoming at next month's AGM, and the Board will have teh opportunity to explain any decisions taken.

wav1

I appreciate that most of the 23k members are non racers and a lot get nothing[or want nothing]more than the insurance cover a licence brings,but the domestic road racing scene IMO is the very essence of the sport,and to have the bigger events threatened would be a backward step.High performance across the disciplines is hugely important,and costly,but the domestic scene shouldn't suffer to finance it.
Anyway it appears as if the threat has been lifted for now,as I'm told the grant aid has been ringfenced for 2015 at least.Great news as far as I'm concerned,and that's thinking purely of the domestic riders.

slow

This is one issue that won't go away. The kite was flown this year. It'll resurface this time next year when we'll (hopefully) be preparing our biggest Olympic team ever for Rio.

High Performance is a bottomless pit when it comes to money. We now have a men's and women's pursuit team. Our Paralympic riders are world beaters. There's a strong case to enter our juniors in Nations' Cups races in 2015. We already have 8 UCI points from the Junior Worlds TT.

With 200 riders, Rás Mumhan should be self-sufficient. The Junior Tour and Rás na nÓg should be guaranteed long term support. All Irish riders who enter those races are looked after. The An Post Rás can't say that anymore since the UCI commissaires started enforcing the time limit. There are more questions than answers on this one.

And there's a velodrome to be paid for...

morana

slow wrote: »

This is one issue that won't go away. The kite was flown this year. It'll resurface this time next year when we'll (hopefully) be preparing our biggest Olympic team ever for Rio.

High Performance is a bottomless pit when it comes to money. We now have a men's and women's pursuit team. Our Paralympic riders are world beaters. There's a strong case to enter our juniors in Nations' Cups races in 2015. We already have 8 UCI points from the Junior Worlds TT.

With 200 riders, Rás Mumhan should be self-sufficient. The Junior Tour and Rás na nÓg should be guaranteed long term support. All Irish riders who enter those races are looked after. The An Post Rás can't say that anymore since the UCI commissaires started enforcing the time limit. There are more questions than answers on this one.

And there's a velodrome to be paid for...

I have no doubt the board will support the emerging categorys such as Ras na nOG and the womens tour. As for the more established events I wouldnt be surprised if that money was cut. although wav did say it was ring fenced for 15. This all arose because the sports council used to give grants for the races directly but they have since given a pot of money to CI for them to decide where its spent. It could be that the ISC will cut the whole fund and that will be passed onto the races but the board has discretion here.

there is an application for any race to apply for funding. I thiknk the only cavaet is that the grant doesnt add to any profit a race might be making. Now I know races in most cases dont make a profit!