IRISH WINTER SPORTS HIGHLIGHT OPPORTUNITY FOR PRIVATELY FUNDED PERMANENT ICE-FACILTY
CHL CONSULTING FEASIBILITY STUDY PUBLISHED AND STAKEHOLDER MEETINGS UNDERWAY
WORLD GOVERNING BODIES IN DUBLIN TO GIVE BACKING
Today the Irish Winter Sports Strategy Coordination Group, strengthened their case for the construction of a National Winter Sports Centre in Ireland by publishing the findings of a feasibility study conducted by CHL consulting and presenting a private investor funded model that would deliver a €60m permanent ice-facility for Ireland at little or no cost to the tax-payer.
In a series of presentations to stakeholders including local authorities, Sport Ireland, and the Minister of State for Sport, Jack Chambers, the benefits of the facility were explained by the Winter Sport National Federations and senior representatives from the World Governing Bodies for Ice Hockey, Curling and Luge, along with private investors willing to develop the facility at little or no cost to the tax-payer.
There is no permanent ice facility in the Republic of Ireland. Our closest neighbours in Great Britain are already reaping the rewards of ice facilities, with 62 permanent rinks. There are also two very successful permanent ice-facilities in Belfast, the Dundonald International Ice Bowl and the SSE Arena.
The benefits of a permanent facility are far reaching. The feasibility study conducted by CHL shows that a National Winter Sports Centre would generate an economic impact for Ireland of €111 million and deliver €25.5 million to the exchequer during construction phase, as well as €2.05 million annually once operational. Besides the recreational and sporting benefits, it is also estimated that it would generate an additional €8.9 million annual spend in the Greater Dublin Area.
The proposed facility would house two Olympic sized rinks, with one rink having capacity for 6,000 spectators, providing multi-use options for ice and non-ice entertainment, concerts, ice-hockey matches and events, similar to Belfast’s SSE Arena, filling a significant gap in the Dublin market for a mid-size, multi-purpose venue.
Besides the strong economic case for support of a permanent ice-facility, the sport and social benefits also align very strongly with the recommendations from the government’s National Sports Policy. Ice sports generally offer complete gender balance, as well as a wide age-range of participants through sports like curling, ice skating and ice-hockey. Ice facilities also play a significant role in social integration, particularly at a time when Ireland is welcoming large numbers of people from countries where winter sports are integrated with their own cultural identity.
Speaking at the launch of the feasibility study, CEO of the Olympic Federation of Ireland Peter Sherrard said,
“The presentations by the Winter Sports and investors, underpinned by CHL’s feasibility study, show that we have a huge opportunity to create a National Winter Sports centre at little or no cost to the tax payer. Hundreds of new jobs will be created, Ireland will benefit from an investment of over €60m and our sports will at last have permanent facilities akin to almost every other country in the EU. We look forward to working with Government and local authority stakeholders to capitalise on this inward investment opportunity for our economy and our sports.”
Visiting Dublin to present the case along with Ireland’s Winter Sport Federations, International Ice Hockey (IIHF) President, Luc Tardif added,
“Ice facilities have the potential to be economically lucrative. They have the ability to function within multi-sport facilities that can subsequently attract not just ice hockey fans or ice skating fans in general, but fans of other sports, music concerts, expositions, and congresses. We have seen this work effectively with venue development and management not just in our top ice-hockey playing nations, but within developing ice-hockey nations also. With good will and all stakeholders working together, this could be a huge success for Ireland.”
World Curling’s Head of Development, Scott Arnold, was also in Dublin, lending his support to the project,
“The World Curling Federation is happy to support our valued Member, the Irish Curling Association. They have accomplished so much without a dedicated ice rink, and we are encouraged by what we heard during the meetings here in Dublin this week. We have seen exponential growth from other WCF Member Associations upon the completion of their first dedicated ice rinks and would expect nothing less in Ireland. The ICA’s dedication is inspirational, and we look forward to following their progress and continuing to help them achieve their goals.”
Markus Aschauer, Chairman of the Track Construction Commission at the International Luge Federation said,
"The International Luge Federation is delighted to be supporting this project which we believe will help grow our sport in Ireland and attract future athletes into winter sports. There is no better way to introduce people to luge than by giving them the opportunity to slide on ice and experience our sport first-hand. The start track will also provide the Irish luge team with a fantastic training facility that is local and reduces the need to travel abroad.”
Speaking from Dublin, Viesturs Koziols, Chairman of Facilities with IIHF added,
“A new multifunctional arena in Ireland will be used by tens of thousands of people, and will become a landmark and signature for a modern Dublin City. The social aspect of it cannot be underestimated, due to the fact that investment in projects like this is much cheaper than investments in hospitals and healthcare. Arenas are the safest place for kids to be and gives them a great sporting outlet where they can learn teamwork and enjoy the related social, health and sporting benefits.”
This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
Strictly Necessary Cookies
Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.
If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.
3rd Party Cookies
This website uses Google Analytics to collect anonymous information such as the number of visitors to the site, and the most popular pages.
Keeping this cookie enabled helps us to improve our website by tracking which content you like the best so we can produce more of it!
The International Olympic Committee (“IOC”) manages these cookies and uses the data generated by them in accordance with the IOC Privacy Policy
Please enable Strictly Necessary Cookies first so that we can save your preferences!
Show cookie details
Name
Provider
Purpose
Expiration
ajs_anonymous_id seg_xid
Segment
ajs_anonymous_id and seg_xid contain the data that Segment needs to track the behaviour of the visitor when interacting with IOC digital properties. These cookies are used by the IOC to identify the user so that user actions on the site may be collected and used by the IOC in order to measure and understand traffic and to improve and personalize the user experience, build a profile and to show the user and other people relevant adverts and content.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) manages and benefits from the data generated by these cookies in accordance with the IOC Privacy Policy
uid
Adform
uid is a unique identifier, enabling IOC to target ads to users, to evaluate how well their ads work, and to see users opt-out choices. With reference to this unique identifier, the IOC is able to target you with relevant advertisements on other websites.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) manages and benefits from the data generated by these cookies in accordance with the IOC Privacy Policy
DSID, FLC, AID, TAID, _gads,‘_gads, SID,HSID
Essence - Floodlight Google Campaign Manager
hese cookies enable the conversions tracking of marketing campaigns, provide reporting and verification, and build audiences for retargeting.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) manages and benefits from the data generated by these cookies in accordance with the IOC Privacy Policy