As we now enter our tenth month of Saffron Gael, and with the county and club season now in full swing, we make an urgent appeal for financial assistance to keep this project running.
We are looking for support from like-minded Antrim fans who will contribute to facilitate the continuation of the comprehensive reporting currently being carried out. Since its inception last June the Saffron Gael has already acquired a large following of Facebook and Twitter users which is growing by the day and the site itself attracted 6500 views on Sunday March the 25th on the first day of the All County hurling leagues and over 9,000 views on Monday March 26th. On day two of the leagues we had nearly 5000 views on the Sunday and just short of 9000 on the Monday so the readership of the sight continues to grow. Indeed we are fast approaching 1,000,000 views on the sight since it began last June.
When we launched our initial appeal for financial support we got a great response and a combination of sponsorship, advertising and donations kept us going over the ten months we have been in existence.
Unfortunately revenue has dried up of late and funds are very low. Our primary purpose when launching the sight was not to make money but rather an effort by genuine Antrim GAA lovers to promote Gaelic games in Antrim.
We believe, and indeed you have told us that the Saffron Gael has been a great success and it would be sad if a lack of finance would lead to a much reduced coverage or indeed the demise of the sight. The other option of course would be to put the sight behind a pay/wall but this is something we do not want to do as it would greatly restrict the youth and lifeblood of our county from having access.
. All money donated will facilitate the growth of match coverage.
HERE IS HOW YOU CAN HELP
Saffron Gael Friends Opportunities & Benefits ·
Your Organisation’s logo will appear on the member’s page of the website ·
Organisation logo will include a hyperlink to website ·
Access to imagery taken at all covered games
Cost: £500 Per annum Please note: This payment can be made via Standing Order monthly. For more details please contact john.mcilwaine@yahoo.co.uk or ptrckmclwn@yahoo.co.uk give us a call on 07885226348 or 07511111378
For those who feel they are not in a position to avail of the Saffron Gael Friends offer we are also looking for sponsors for our match reports. With the new season under way we have been busy covering all Antrim hurling and football games to date, we have covered the St. Paul’s Ulster minor football tournament and the Creggan Kickham’s Bank of Ireland-Paddy McLarnon U21 football tournament.
We carried comprehensive reports of every Antrim’s National football and hurling league game this year as well as reports on county camogie and ladies county football. We have brought you comprehensive coverage of Feile in South Antrim and South West Antrim and in North Antrim we brought you comprehensive coverage of the indoor hurling leagues.
Last season we carried reports and photographs of the majority of ACF League and ACH League games and covered every hurling and football championship game played in Antrim and followed the winners of those championships on their Ulster journey.
With so many important games to be played in the season ahead we are gearing adverts towards the participating clubs for the nominal fee of £50 a game, so for example if Cargin were playing Creggan in football or Dunloy were facing Loughgiel in the hurling there will be the opportunity for two businesses from each area to take an advert which will run with the match report.
As you may gather such coverage is time consuming and involves quite a large team of photographers and reporters which in turn incurs expense. We are extremely grateful to clubs who have made donations to the Saffron Gael to date and would encourage all clubs who have not done so to make a donation. This will enable us to continue our extensive coverage in the coming season.
Finally if you are not in a position to support us through any of the above methods but would like to make a personal donation you can do so through the link on the sight or by personally approaching John or myself (Paddy) at one of the games. No donation is too big or too small.
Good luck to all players, clubs and to our county in 2018 and we will hopefully see you at one of your games in the coming weeks.