A TICKING TIME TOM
ALARM BELLS OVER COST SPIRAL Ryan: The spending on intercounty sides has doubled in the last 15 years to nearly €40m and we’re going to hit a ceiling with it
GAA director general Tom Ryan has warned that spending on inter-county teams “will hit a ceiling” as the figure spiralled close to €40m last year.
Ryan sounded alarm bells about the outlay on preparing county teams back in 2020, describing it as “unsustainable” when the figure approached €30m, and he returned to the topic yesterday as his annual report to GAA Congress in Newry later this month
was published.
He said: “I don’t want to characterise it as a cost of any particular cohort or group of people. It’s endemic everywhere.
“You see it in the size of backroom teams that are associated with county teams, not just at the top level, it’s right the way through.
“You see that manifesting itself at club level as well.
“I don’t have an immediate answer, except that I’m flagging it here now as
something that urgently needs a focus from us.
“We need to change our thinking in terms of how we go about it.
“There are some ideas in the ether, I won’t pre-empt those.
“It’s doubled in the last 15 years; interestingly the income that is generated in counties has doubled (as well) so it’s not a question of affordability, the funds are there, but people have to work increasingly hard to generate the funds.
“You have to wonder are
there other better ways that we could be deploying those funds. But we will hit a ceiling with it.
“If you had to identify priorities for the years ahead, that is definitely one.
“I know it’s glib to say it, and to repeat it every year, but we can’t ignore it.”
Elsewhere, Ryan acknowledged a deterioration in Gaelic football as a spectacle, saying that “we cannot simply ignore the prevailing commentary around the
attractiveness” of the game.
To that end, with in-depth data already compiled, experimental rules are set to be rolled out later this year.
“We’ll be assembling at the next phase in the next couple of months, in terms of who’s going to do that work and setting the parameters around that but I won’t pre-empt because those people will have a big say in timelines and the specifics of what is to be delivered,” Ryan explained.