Novel Galway city business venture is great sport

Lifestyle – Judy Murphy meets the men behind a ‘sports fusion’ venue that provides fun and games in Galway

Adrian Reen is an understated, self-contained type of person, not given to exaggeration. So when he says it was “a hairy ride” for the first few years after setting up in business, it’s a safe bet things were tough.

Adrian, an industrial engineer by training, and his business partner Patrick Flanagan, a production engineer, opened the unique sports and leisure facility that is Pure Skill in Galway City in 2009.  This ‘sports fusion’ venue gives people a chance to experience 10 of the world’s most popular sports – soccer, hurling, golf, tennis, golf, rugby, Gaelic football, basketball, cricket and baseball – in one indoor venue.

Rugby legend Ronan O’Gara did the honours at the height of his success with Ireland and Munster. All was looking good for Patrick, who had previously worked as an engineer in Australia, and Adrian, who had been a plant manager with Pepsi Cola in Dubai before returning to Ireland where he worked with Boston Scientific before embarking on this project.

But Pure Skill and the recession hit the ground together, a nightmare scenario for a start-up.

However, Adrian and Patrick kept their heads and kept faith in their project. In five years they have catered for 150,000 people of all ages and sporting ability and now, five years on, Pure Skill is very much a business on the up.

On Friday afternoon, a group of hillwalkers come through the doors of the 20,000 square foot venue in Galway West Retail Park, Knocknacarra. They are given an introductory talk by Adrian before being divided into teams of three. Each person receives a scorecard and the teams set off in different direction to compete in a range of activities. It’s a competition, but one driven by fun and good-natured banter.

There’s no set sequence, so teams can start wherever they want, and will have two hours to complete the circuit in this fully automated arena, where the 10 different activities are housed in 20 different cages. Two cages are devoted to each activity, with the arena being fully floodlit and floored with Astroturf. Music plays in the background and there’s a constant hum of machines as they release various balls for different sports.

Each participant completes the 10 activities and their scorecard is marked following each one. The highest possible score is 100 points, but that’s nigh on impossible to achieve. England and Manchester United soccer player Gary Neville visited a couple of years ago as part of a stag party and his score was 43. Thirty to thirty-five is a good score, says Adrian, adding that having such a variety of sports on offer is “a great leveller, because people won’t be good at all 10”.

A contestant’s card is marked by his or her teammates, so there is no scope for cheating. In any case, everything is monitored by CCTV, which will be called upon in the event of a dispute.

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.