CREDIT CRISIS
GAA face €4m bill to play National Leagues in empty stadiums
RIGHT now, the engagement between the Government and various Irish sports bodies resembles a high stakes game of poker, one where cards are being laid on the table in order to earn a share of the pot.
The GAA is at the table, hoping for a pay-out to get the organisation through the coming months and cover the Allianz Football and Hurling Leagues. As Offaly chairman Michael Duignan outlined in stark detail in these pages last week, any county like his own is facing costs of up to a quarter of a million euro attached to participation.
He went so far as to question the viability of the competitions, wondering what was the point of it all if public health measures meant that it would all take place behind closed doors. There would be no gates, and players would be asked to go through the whole slightly soulless experience of training and playing against the backdrop of a public health crisis.
He also flagged the fact that at the very least, the planned return date for collective training after January 31 and start of the Allianz Leagues on February 27/28 would have to be pushed out if the competitions happen at all.
Take a figure of €200k and multiply it by 32 counties and the GAA is quickly looking at costs of €6.8million. With income of a couple of million for sponsorship and broadcasting arrangements, the GAA is still looking at a potential loss of around €4m.
The question is now being asked privately and publicly: who is going to underwrite the competitions? Will the GAA write a cheque to save counties from further losses when 2020 left so many in financial trouble?
Offaly, for example, rolled into 2021 with a deficit of €260,000 after their usual gate receipts took a hammering due to Covid.
Duignan said that most county finances are such that more financial support will be needed. ‘Some of the gear costs you’re spreading over a number of weeks but you’re looking at somewhere between €200,000 and €250,000 for us, just hurling and football, for the League. And we’ve no money.
‘It’s amazing when you get down into the nitty, gritty of it. Every player is 1,200 or 1,300 “quid”. Hurling and football panels. Plus GPS for the year. The cost of every night’s training.’
Last week was the deadline for all counties to submit budgets to Croke Park for the year ahead. The number crunching and scale of the financial challenge will no doubt then be outlined to Government and to Catherine Martin and the Ministry that incorporates sport under a broad umbrella – Martin is the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media.
And the feeling at the moment is that State support is way down the list of priorities as far as the League is concerned.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin was quick to hail the playing of the 2020 championship as ‘a symbol of a country fighting this virus’, and the Government backed up that conviction with substantial support in the shape of the €15million in grant aid allocated to the GAA, LGFA and Camogie Association to help run the winter All-Irelands.
Right now though, the Government has three far more pressing concerns – the roll-out of the vaccination process, getting schools back, and untangling the financial complexities of Brexit.
Whether the GAA proceeds with an already truncated Football League format – which is important in determining seeding for the inaugural second-tier Tailteann Cup – is well down the list. Understandably so.
The FAI is in a similar bind with the planned start of the League of Ireland season put back until March 19 at the earliest. A proposal for financial aid from the State is being put together on behalf of LOI clubs who can’t afford the weekly running costs. There is a growing reluctance to start unless there is a pot of money out of which they will get a share.
Which is going to leave the GAA with some stark choices. One is to forego the League competitions altogether, as Duignan suggested. That would save county costs and protect players who might be nervous about competing.
The other option is to push the dates for any planned intercounty season back, as expected, at least three weeks or until public health protocols allow.
Already, the smart money is on the GAA pushing out the start of
“Will the GAA write a cheque to counties?”
“The odds of Government help are slim”
the National League by a month and, in turn, pushing back the planned April 17 start to the All-Ireland championships.
The National League is long established as a popular and vibrant national competition and the GAA will be reluctant to give up on it unless public health restrictions decree.
Which brings us back, once again, to who is going to cover the costs?
Forecasts for 2021 have the GAA looking at reduced income of €17m. The GAA is likely going to have to borrow and pledge the necessary financial support to counties before any restart.
The odds of Government pulling a spring rabbit out of the hat in the shape of substantial grant aid look slim.
As Duignan spelled out: ‘Croke Park lost a lot of money last year and they’re going to lose a lot of money this year so it will likely be a combination of Government funding and borrowing – that’s the only way I can see it. Then take the longer view that when we get back on track, it will be a relatively small debt in terms of the income that the GAA can generate long term.’