*Brid MacNamara, Marie-Louise Kaiser, Martin Kaiser. Photograph: Burren Eye Photography
Inter-county success in 2023 meant that the county teams were in action for longer and incurred higher cost than in previous years leading to the total expenditure for the year increasing by nearly 10%, treasurer Martin Kaiser told this weeks’ Clare camogie convention.
“Fundraising activities by the adult team under the leadership of John Carmody included a Bingo Night early in the year, the Golf Classic in the summer, a GoFundMe campaign before the Junior All Ireland final and the Easter Camp organised by the adult intercounty players. Those events were very successful and were very welcome to offset the higher cost. All other county teams have put their own fundraising in place to finance their own campaigns”, stated the treasurer before expressing thanks to “all management teams for their efforts to generate income”.
“Within Clare we have seen another year fully packed with activities and very good attendance at our games resulting in a further 10% growth in money taken in at the gate compared to the previous year”, the Newmarket-on-Fergus man stated.
“We also had our first year where we were able to take card and phone payments via a QR-code and a card reader at the entrance to our games to eliminate the need to have cash at the gate. This proved very successful delivering €3000 in gate income”, Kaiser explained.
Martin went on to say he was “happy to report a good year in relation to sponsors supporting our activities. Ei Electronics have again been our main sponsor for the senior team, and we had some smaller sponsorships and donations supporting the other county teams. Additionally, we got the Clare Credit Unions sponsoring our adult club championship, which I hope will develop into a long-term partnership. I would also like to specifically mention Elaine Lally and the Woodstock Hotel who have been very generous to Clare Camogie. Club Clare contributed €10k towards activities of our county teams, half of it spent on underage development.”
He continued, “Our total income decreased by €10k mainly because of a reduction of grants received while total costs have increased by €15k mainly because of the success of our intercounty teams. Overall, our cash position has improved by nearly €60k during the year and we are ready to start the improvement work on our second field as soon as we have all paperwork ready for the Sports Capital Programme and the County Council”.
The treasurer has now completed his five-year term in the role and before stepping down he expressed delight “at what we have achieved in these five years in stabilising our financial situation and being able to properly fund the development of our county grounds”. He went on to say it had been “a privilege to serve Clare camogie as treasurer in these five years and I wish Clare camogie and everybody involved with Clare Camogie a very good and bright future”.
Total income for the year was €244,796 with €69,374 coming from gate receipts, €59,193 from fundraising€46,953 from sponsorship and donations while affiliation fees realised €38,965.
On the expenditure side team expenses were €48,723, catering and hotel accommodation came to 25,152 with personal sports gear costing €23,162. The total expenditure for the year was €185,924 leaving an excess of income over expenditure at €58,873.
