Strike Zone GoFundMe Fundraiser

About Strike Zone

Baseball Ireland believes the future of the game in Ireland is linked to the growth and development of youth and young adult players in Ireland.

In 2020, BI invested in a new indoor facility, Strike Zone.  Strike Zone is the only purpose-built indoor training facility for baseball within Ireland.  Its facilities include batting cages with a pitching machine and Hit Trax machine, dedicated pitching lanes with mounds, gym facilities and open areas for warming up, exercise and fielding training.

Strike Zone’s primary tenant is the Irish Baseball Academy, a youth focused program dedicated to improving the skills and enjoyment of players within Ireland.  The Academy consists of over 100 members, most of whom are under the age of 18.

The Irish Baseball Academy is not targeted at elite athletes.   It is open to players of all genders in Ireland with an enthusiasm to play the game and grow as a player, regardless of ability.

Additional users of Strike Zone include member clubs of Baseball Ireland, Softball Ireland and Cricket Ireland.

Fundraising

In order to help keep fees for the Academy down, Baseball Ireland, the Irish Baseball Academy and Strike Zone have started a  GoFundMe campaign to raise funds to cover future operating and capital costs of Strike Zone.

Strike Zone’s lease is up for renewal for another 5 years at the end of 2025 and a decision must be made in May 2025. Baseball Ireland is looking to raise funds to provide cost certainty to members of the Academy and other users of the facility over the term of the renewal.  Strike Zone opened between waves of the COVID 19 pandemic resulting in lower than planned revenues and donations from benefactors.

The GoFundMe campaign is one initiative in a multipronged international fundraising plan.  To date, we have raised over half of our target. We would like to thank everyone involved in the superb efforts to date and ask that members and friends in Ireland and abroad, support our goal.

Please donate here.

https://gofund.me/6c4a5db2

Impact of Strike Zone

Strike Zone is the only purpose-built baseball training facility in Ireland, allowing for year-round training.  As the base of the Irish Baseball Academy, it has had a monumental impact on the game in Ireland by

• Improved skill levels of players
• Increased confidence and enthusiasm of players
• Increased camaraderie between players of different clubs.

As the home of the Irish Baseball Academy, it has allowed highly motivated players to access additional, high quality training sessions in addition to what is provided by volunteer coaches of their clubs.  A player who might only be able to train once a week with his club is now able to train an additional 2 or 3 times a week through the academy programme.  This has resulted in 6 members of the Irish Baseball Academy obtaining scholarships to play baseball in the US.

Year-round training in Strike Zone as part of the Irish Baseball Academy is a requirement for domestic participation within our national team programmes.  In 2024, Ireland hosted a European Baseball Championship Qualifier.  Overall, 13 domestic players from the Irish Baseball Academy were on the national team roster with 4 domestic players as starting position players.

The members of the Academy rose to the occasion as Ireland lost to Austria in the final.  Overall, Academy players played well with one player finishing 6^th in batting for the tournament and a pitcher recording a win and a save with a 1.50 ERA in 6 innings of work.

In 2025, the U18 National team will be travelling to Bulgaria to compete in a European Championship Tournament.  It is expected this squad will feature 14-15 members of the Irish Baseball Academy.

Strike Zone is integral to the future of the growth of the game in Ireland.  It provides players with year-round access to train in a purpose-built facility.  Its role goes beyond developing better baseball players.  It is developing the future leaders necessary to continue to grow the game in Ireland.

Thank you for your support.  Please donate here.

https://gofund.me/6c4a5db2

About Baseball Ireland

Baseball Ireland (BI) is the National Governing Body of Baseball in Ireland and recognized as such by the World Baseball Softball Confederation, the Olympic Federation of Ireland and Sports Ireland.

BI is a non-profit organisation – a CLG (Company Limited by Guarantee). It is governed by a board of directors. It operates on a volunteer basis with no paid employees.

Despite being recognised as the National Governing Body of the sport within Ireland, BI does not meet the eligibility requirements for membership within Sports Ireland and therefore receives no government funding. As such, we have made considerable efforts over the years to secure additional funding support for the programme from US-based donors. This has been very successful and has provided much needed support to fund both Strike Zone as well as coaching support. However, annual donations are not guaranteed and have reduced from initial levels due to a number of factors, including COVID19.