Slipping through the cracks: Banbridge RFC feeling the financial strain
- Published
Former Ireland and Ulster captain Rory Best played for Banbridge from an early age
Accompanying every message of tentative optimism that we are past the peak of the coronavirus pandemic is a reminder that the road ahead is long.
As society begins the most delicate of re-openings, most clubs in the sporting sector know that theirs will be one of the last to resume under restrictions.
An optimistic picture still projects that a resumption of team and contact sport is months away, meaning the financial strain of inactivity is unlikely to ease any time soon.
While the Northern Ireland Executive's various financial support schemes have offered a lifeline to many, there are a number of clubs who have not met the funds' eligibility criteria.
Over the next week BBC Sport NI will hear from a range of clubs for whom the lack of enhanced financial support has cast a long shadow over their future.
'Get up and help each other' - the ethos of a club
Like most teams across sport, Banbridge Rugby Club believe their role within the community is far bigger than providing on-field entertainment.
The home club of former Ireland and Ulster captain Rory Best, Banbridge's brief over the last two months has been to act as a support network for their members and all those in the surrounding areas.
Rory's brother Simon, also a former Ireland international, is on the coaching staff of the club's first XV and is now a member of the small working group tasked with navigating Banbridge through the current crisis.
"Clubs become community hubs, and that is always the feeling that I have had a Banbridge," says Best.
"The whole ethos of our club, and of many clubs, is that you get up and help each other.
"Very quickly after this pandemic started our guys started engaging with each other and delivering food packages, supporting pharmacies with deliveries.
"Even our social media usage has gone up, the amount of work that those guys are doing in terms of keeping everyone together and supporting our sponsors and key workers has been really impressive.
"That just shows the role that we can play though this, but also the role that maybe isn't recognised in normal times.
"Fitness and recreation is what we are about, but the support and the assistance around comradery and mental health shouldn't be ignored either."
Grant would have gone a long way - Best
Esteemed alumni are only one of the factors to have built Banbridge's reputation.
Their membership is one of the biggest in Ulster, with a large youth set-up complimenting the five senior sides.
With the first XV eyeing a top four finish in All-Ireland Division 1B, the club is hopeful of adding a sixth side next season.
However such plans, Best accepts, may now be on hold as the focus has shifted from expansion to preservation.
The indefinite halt to proceedings has rid the club of a number of revenue streams including match day admission and on-site bar takings, while there are still a number of outgoings that must continue to be paid.
"We don't own our grounds," explains Best.
"We have a lease to keep up and we are very close to our landlords and they are in hospitality as well and it's important that we stick by them, we see that as a priority.
"The summer is an essential time for ground maintenance, it's nearly the only time you can uptake all of this so we have expenditure to go into that, and there's clubhouse upkeep as well.
"All those expenses are still there and unless we make those spends and continue our light, heat and maintenance, we won't be here when it starts up again."
'We want to be here when rugby starts up again'
As the Executive began rolling our their support grants, clubs such as Banbridge watched on anxiously hoping they could avail of the schemes.
However, the club have not yet met the criteria required to qualify for a support grant, although they did receive £2,000 from the sport Hardship Fund.
Agonisingly, Banbridge's Net Asset Value (NAV) stood at £14,500, meaning they were £500 short of the threshold for the retail, tourism and hospitality grant which offers £25,000 to bodies with a rateable value of between £15,000 and £51,000.
Currently most sports clubs do not qualify for the small business coronavirus support grant which caters for bodies whose NAV falls below that threshold, as they are not in receipt of Small Business Rates Relief.
"That grant scheme would have gone a long way to getting us through what now looks to be the summer and even into the start of next season," Best says.
"All clubs are going to need support and there has got to be a fairness and equality around how that is issued.
"There's no question that, given that this crisis is going to continue for longer than we initially thought, I think it's essential that we try and achieve some support from other sources.
"We are a business, we provide a service to our community, we have upkeep that needs to be maintained and we want to be there when we return to normal."
The Executive's new Micro-business Hardship Fund, which was announced on 15 May, may offer Banbridge and other clubs in a similar situation a new source of financial support.
However at present it remains unclear how much will be available to each business through the new scheme, while the Department for the Economy has confirmed that other Covid-19 related grants, such as the sports hardship fund, will be deducted from the final grant awarded.