The GAA is losing its way in an effort to increase revenue
‘NURSES ARE LIKE CLUB VOLUNTEERS, THEY KEEP IT ALL GOING’
IWAS co-commentating on RTÉ’s first live televised league hurling game at the Gaelic Grounds last Saturday night. Whether or not it was down to the conditions and the freezing fog, the first 25 minutes were awful. The scoreline was two points apiece with a sizeable chunk of the first half gone.
Talking to officials beforehand, they were expecting a crowd of around 12,000 for what was the first proper sighting of the All-Ireland champions against Liam Sheedy’s Tipperary. Normally they are spot on in terms of estimates but the expected crowd was down by a third with roughly 8,000 showing. I know the Ireland-England rugby match was on earlier but it was a disappointing turn-out.
There is no doubt that we’re the best men in the world for talking up the great game of hurling but the plain truth is that I haven’t been overly impressed with any game I’ve seen yet.
We all crave the matches but it’s very early in the year to be starting into a League campaign, especially in the middle of the Fitzgibbon Cup and with the All-Ireland club Championship not completed. We’re starting way too early – and the quality of hurling is suffering.
I watched Wexford-Limerick in Round 1 and the number of rucks made it like a rugby game at times. Yes, it was competitive, especially with the crowd getting into it, but there was not a whole lot of hurling involved.
Then you see Páirc Uí Chaoimh cutting up like a ploughed field for CorkWexford last weekend. The pitch is an absolute disaster and probably needs to be dug up and resodded. Also, why bring a tiny crowd into a stadium that size with Páirc Uí Rinn up the road?
Look at the GAA’s financial report which came out during the week, showing how attendances were down in a broader sense last year.
As soon as I heard the recent decision that Central Council delegates had agreed – unanimously! – to rubberstamp an increase in ticket prices, by as much as a third on a League match day from €15 to €20, my gut instinct was that it must be because they know attendances are down. To offset that then, their solution is to up prices. People can argue it’s only a fiver but the point is a lot of people are struggling. Their disposable income is down.
The GAA has a lot of great initiatives in terms of discounted ticket prices, which I have talked about at length before, and under-16s are let in for free. But they also have to think of the family with two or three teenagers who now have to pay 15 quid. All in, you’re looking at paying €70 to €85 on match day.
Overall, the GAA’s books balance out because of increased commercial revenue. In pure financial terms, they are doing a fantastic job.
But what is the GAA ultimately about? It seems to be about bringing in massive amount of revenue without any thought towards who or what the association stands for. The ticket increase is just the latest example.
It seems to be a case of bringing in more and more money to meet rising costs, particularly associated with inter-county teams.
You look at what is happening to nurses who feel compelled to strike for better pay, all the while the spend on the proposed new national children’s hospital runs into billions. Our nurses are like the GAA volunteers who keep the whole thing going, the club officers who are over-stretched and over-worked just to keep the show on the road.
Like so many others, I saw the work they do first-hand and how under-valued it can be. On a personal level, I remember the days in St James’s Hospital with my wife Edel when she was getting chemotherapy, how the nurses would be there all hours with barely a break. People need to support them if they feel the need to go down this route. In the GAA, we effectively put a levy on those who give so much of their time to the running of clubs by supporting their county team. I just can’t understand it.
Again, it begs the question: what is the GAA about now? The majority of clubs in Ireland, particularly rural clubs, are struggling, not breaking even.
The pressure on club officers is constant. The response will be to say that money is going back into the clubs, going into development projects. But there is not enough focus on the club.
For the whole of Central Council to be unanimous on such a hot topic – as president John Horan stated – is incredible really. Was there nobody from the grassroots to ask, ‘Is this really a good idea?’
The idea that delegates from 32 counties all agreed is a bit of a sham. Are counties merely sending yes men?
If I go to the pub with four lads, never mind 32, and a topic comes up for discussion, it’s never unanimous. Yet we’re told 32 all thought this was the way to go? Plus everyone else in the room?
Go to a committee meeting in your own club and you’ll say, ‘Ah no, not yer man piping up again’ – but at least the opinion will make you think.
A room where there is no dissenting voice is not healthy.
I would have said that the GAA would be better served with a smaller stream-lined management committee making decisions but it’s clear what’s coming down from the top is just being okayed anyway.
The statement too about ticket prices that there hadn’t been a meaningful review was just being disingenuous.
Tied in to all of that, my worry for the hurling League is that the product is in danger of being diluted by the jumbling up of the divisions next year which means no relegation this year.
I don’t think we’re going to have a cut-throat element to it – and teams will be in a comfort zone next year when the quality of Division 1A is diluted.
I just hope the quality of games pick up in Round 3.