Sport Northern Ireland

Sport Northern Ireland logo
Abbreviation	Sport NI
Formation	December 31, 1973; 50 years ago (1973-12-31)
Type	NGO
Purpose	Development of sport in Northern Ireland
Headquarters	House Of Sport
Location	2a Upper Malone Road, Belfast, County Antrim, BT9 5LA
Region served	Northern Ireland
Chief Executive	Antoinette McKeown
Main organ	Board of Sport NI (Chairman - Brian Henning)
Parent organization	Department for Communities
Affiliations	UK Sport, UK Anti-Doping, The National Lottery
Budget	£31,304,000 (2011-12)
Staff	83
Website	www.sportni.net
Formerly called	Sports Council of Northern Ireland

Sport Northern Ireland (Irish: Spórt Thuaisceart Éireann) is the regional government sports council (funding body) for Northern Ireland.

History

It was established under the Recreation and Youth Service (Northern Ireland) Order 1973^[1] as the Sports Council for Northern Ireland, with its purpose defined by Article 3 of the Recreation and Youth Service (Northern Ireland) Order 1986.^[2] Another organisation, the Youth and Sports Council for Northern Ireland, had been established by the Youth Welfare, Physical Training and Recreation Act of 1962.

From 2006, it organised Northern Ireland's involvement in the UK School Games.

It has recently contributed £7m to the building of Northern Ireland's first 50m swimming pool, for North Down Borough Council, approved in September 2009,^[3] being built by Farrans (Construction) (owned by CRH plc).^[4]

Structure

Its head office is based at the Malone Roundabout of the A55 and B103, near Barnett Demesne.

Funding

It receives around £7m a year from the National Lottery; the rest comes from the taxpayer.

Centres

It has a national outdoor training centre, the Tollymore National Outdoor Centre, at the base of the Mourne Mountains. This is a training base for mountaineering and canoeing. It was built in 1970.

At the Jordanstown campus of Ulster University, it has the Sports Institute for Northern Ireland. This was created in 2002.