Connacht yesterday launched a fund-raising initiative designed to raise at least €50,000 per annum with a view to furthering their development of home-grown players. Their “Grassroots to Greenshirts” programme is, they say, a unique crowd-funding initiative in Irish sport.
With 41,000 followers via social media, which is comparable to any Premiership club in England, essentially Connacht are reaching out online to their worldwide Diaspora. This follows a fund-raising lunch in Twickenham prior to their Heineken Cup meeting with Harlequins in January, and they intend hosting a fund-raising events in New York, Australia and a “participation event” in Galway in the summer.
“It’s like prospecting for gold,” explained Alex Saul, Connacht’s head of commercial and marketing. “Crowd funding harnesses the collective will of a group of investors or individual sponsors to see a project come to life, usually via the internet. It’s usually online and always around a collective passion.
“Forbes are estimating crowd-funding will be responsible for over €500 billion worth of investment by the end of the decade, so it’s a real threat to the banking strategy; of going to the bank and securing a loan, or having to offer equity or a stake, which we don’t have.”
€5,000 donation
At the beginning of last season, an ex-pat from the province based in Holland was so enthused by Connacht’s debut campaign in the Heineken Cup he donated €5,000 to use as they saw fit. Connacht believe there is more of that goodwill abroad, if not necessarily quite on that scale. Within 20 minutes of yesterday’s launch on-line, €300 had been donated.
“Rather than doing it through a lottery, or adding a levy on a season ticket, or something like that, by doing it this way, people will become part of the journey,” added Saul. “They will be updated with developments, given behind-the-scenes access to what’s going on in our camps, what improvements we are making.”
Connacht chief executive Tom Sears pointed out 19 of the province’s senior squad are indigenous products, following a first under-20 interpro title in a decade two seasons ago and an historic under-19 interpro title last season, as well as seven Connacht players in the Irish Under-20 World Cup squad.
The ideal is to make the core of the squad home-based with a view to keeping them in Connacht and develop future Irish internationals and Lions, on the premise “it is cheaper to build a team than buy a team”.
One of their prized products, Clifden-born winger Tiernan O’Halloran, is the son of a former Mayo All-Ireland winner, and spent three years at both Garbally and Roscrea.
' Amazing' progress
“I came into Connacht when I was 16 and our weights sessions were basically in a shed pretty much, and how it’s come along in the last couple of years is amazing. They’ve got the new gym, an all-weather pitch and the fan base is ridiculous. You used to have 2,000 people at a game whereas now you have 4 or 5,000 and up to 8,000 for Heineken Cup games. Being from Galway that means a lot to me and it is very exciting, especially when you have Eoin Griffin, Eoin McKeon, Robbie Henshaw and Denis Buckley doing great at the moment.”
All are signed up for next season and beyond, “and that is very important,” states O’Halloran, “because you don’t want young lads playing until they’re 24 or 25 and being poached by other big teams. We’ve all been playing since we were young lads and we’re all very good mates. We can see where Connacht are going and it’s exciting times. I think we all would like to stay together.”
Having achieved an all-time high of eighth last season, last week’s win over seventh-placed Cardiff has brought Connacht to within five points of the Blues and four of Treviso. O’Halloran is sidelined tonight but should be back for their five-game run-in, while Henshaw, Gavin Duffy and Dan Parks all return to the starting line-up, as well as George Naoupu on the bench.
Zebre make six changes from the team beaten by one point by the Dragons, welcoming back international trio Mauro Bergamasco, outhalf Paulo Buso and centre Gonzalo Garcia as well as a new frontrow featuring 25-year-old ex-Munster prop David Ryan.
