IT’S TIME FOR GAA TO CASH IN
THE GAA can boast that it is cash rich and has no ‘thirdparty borrowings’, and it did boast as the association’s finance director, Ger Mylryan, revealed the accounts for 2018 in the middle of the week. But the bottom line on the year was, nevertheless, dispiriting. Attendances are down 18 per cent across the championships. Gate receipts are down 14 per cent. But hey, we are told that the association is as rich as ever in volunteers — no reason whatsoever not to plough on. Doesn’t matter a little bit that there are barely 10 counties out there playing hurling at the highest level. Doesn’t matter either that football’s evolution has supporters closing their eyes for long spells. Or that, this evening, the numbers travelling down from Dublin to Kerry for a meeting of football’s superpowers will be in no danger of causing mayhem on trains and roads. With Dublin in third gear and Kerry filling their team with some audacious young talent, we’ll get a good game. Dublin might get beaten, but even if that happens, not too many people will pass a blind bit of notice in February. Dublin’s dominance is a problem for the GAA’s finances. And with only four counties capable of even laying a hand on them at this moment in time, Gaelic football is, in fact, even less intriguing than hurling. We have 15 teams out of a total of 64 teams on this tight little island of ours who have something to play for in 2019. Which means supporters in all the other counties have nowhere to go — except sit at home and watch games on RTÉ and Sky. The GAA needs to start putting some serious money into saving our games in three quarters of the country. And if they need to go to the banks in order to do so, then borrow away. Sure, as they told us this week, they’ve never been sitting as pretty.