Keane says Covid-19 crisis is putting Kerry GAA finances under pressure

KERRY GAA treasurer Tom Keane has said that Association in the county is already feeling the negative effects of the Coronavirus pandemic in regard to its finances, even though the country is still in the relatively early days of the crisis.

Speaking to The Kerryman, Mr Keane said that while it was still too soon to speculate on what the long-term financial implications for the Kerry County Board might be, he said there has already been a loss of revenue from unplayed National League fixtures and the postponement of the county club championship, which was due to be played across the month of April.

When asked if the COVID-19 public health crisis has affected the county board’s revenues already, Mr Keane said: “Absolutely. This is all about cash-flow in that when you come into the Championship, either the Munster Championship or the All-Ireland series or Super 8s or whatever, a lot of your money is spent already. Last year we had a great year [financially] because of the All-Ireland finals, but all the money we had was spent during the Super 8s.

“At the present moment in time if we go into an All-Ireland quarter-final or semi-final in the present format, have I money to go as far as that? At the moment I don’t because I’m losing all the gate (receipts) of my club championship, I’m losing the percentage of the gate receipts of the National Leagues, etcetera, so you must take that into account.”

The treasurer said that while overall the expenditure on team training might be reduced because of the hiatus of all sporting activity, there is still the day to day costs of running the GAA locally.

“There’s staff, there’s maintaining football pitches, there’s maintaining Currans, Caherslee and Stack Park, and all these things have got to be paid for. If it’s only a litre of diesel today it’s something else tomorrow.

“At the same time I don’t want to be too hard on the whole thing because I suppose we have our health, and I don’t want to give the sense of being the fear bocht at this time because there are far more important things right now like people’s health and well-being.”

TOM Keane is fire-fighting this week. Not in the literal sense, not with hose and helmet in hand, dousing gorse fire and the like. No, Tom Keane is putting out financial fires all over the place right now. As a business manager with Bank of Ireland, Keane is helping customers to come to terms with a new world order, one in which the Coronavirus crisis has been a real game changer. In the banking business it’s about getting in there first. Making the call to a distressed customer before they have to ring him. Getting ahead of the problem. Being proactive rather than reacting. Trying to shine some light into a tunnel that, for now, has no light at the end of it.

If all that wasn’t enough to keep Tom Keane (pictured) busy in these weird and not so wonderful days, there is also the not so small matter of Kerry GAA. As treasurer of Kerry County Board, Keane is the man with his hands on the biscuit tin, only nowadays the biscuit tin is a bank account that sees millions of euro run through it every year. Last December at County Convention Keane presented a set of accounts that showed Kerry in reasonably rude financial health. Income tallied up at a shake more than €6.1 million with expenditure a couple of grand under the €6 million mark.

These are eye-watering amounts for what, still, is an amateur sporting organisation, but that’s just the way the numbers game has gone now. You spend big, you play hard, you knock on doors and shake the tin and gather up what money you can, and at the end of the year you hope there’s a few bob in the tin to start it all off again the following year.

Of course, it’s a little more complicated than that, but that’s the gist of running a sports organisation, whether it’s a small rural GAA club, and County Board, or the Gaelic Athletic Association itself. And in the GAA, a not-forprofit organisation that, for the most part, spends it as it earns it, cash is king.

Already the Coronavirus has seen two rounds of the National Football League (and four division finals) postponed, as well as hurling fixtures, the All-Ireland U-20 football semi-final and more at national level. In Kerry the county club championship, which were due to commence last weekend and next, and run over the whole month of April, have been postponed. In the case of all the above fixtures, and more to come, there remains uncertainly which, if any, will be played at all this year.

It seems an obvious question, then, to ask a County Board treasurer: has this crisis affected revenues yet?

“Absolutely,” Keane says. “This is all about cash-flow in that when you come into the Championship, either the Munster Championship or the All-Ireland series or Super 8s or whatever, a lot of your money is spent already. Last year we had a great year (financially) because of the All-Ireland finals but all the money we had was spent during the Super 8s. At the present moment in time if we go into an All-Ireland quarter-final or semi-final in the present format have I money to go as far as that? At the moment I don’t because I’m losing all the gate (receipts) of my club championship, I’m losing the percentage of the gate receipts of the National Leagues, etcetera, so you must take that into account.

“Last year was a super year because of the League Final and you’re losing that as well, and although players are not travelling for travel expenses and the like, there is still going to be other things in the background that you have to pay. There’s staff, there’s maintaining football pitches, there’s maintaining Currans, Caherslee and Stack Park, and all these things have got to be paid for. If it’s only a litre of diesel today it’s something else tomorrow. It might be the blade of a lawnmower or whatever. It’s affecting us no different than it’s affecting everybody else,” Keane explains, although he is quick to put things into perspective.

“Look, I don’t want to be too hard on the whole thing because I suppose we have our health, and I don’t want to give the sense of being the fear bocht at this time because there are far more important things right now like people’s health and well-being.”

Keane, understandably, is reluctant to speculate too much on what-ifs and the like, just as he is wary of peering too far into the looking-glass on what the rest of the summer might hold with regard to the whole thing cranking up again, teams getting back training and playing, and - obviously - the biscuit tins starting to rattle again.

In the immediate to short-term he says “there is sanding of pitches ear-marked to go ahead for the month of April, that’s gone because we don’t have money for it.”

The GAA Store in Killarney is closed with a loss of revenue there, as well as a loss of revenue from the hire of pitches at the Centre of Excellence. On the issue of sponsors, Keane says “a lot of your sponsors might be even closed down at this present time, hotels and the like. Are they in a position to carry on with sponsorship? Who knows.

“We’d plans in place to develop Austin Stack Park further. Those plans are still in place, of course, but it’s all about revenue at the moment and it’s all about trying to finish Currans off a little bit more, to develop other pitches and that sort of stuff. Fitzgerald Stadium always requires money so all these income streams and outgoings are affected.”

A little further down the track important fundraising events like the Race of Champions at the Kingdom Greyhound Stadium, which brought in €63,000 last year, could be in doubt. “It’s a huge revenue stream that is a little bit up in the air at the moment,” Keane admits. “It’s very hard to know where things are headed. Incomes

are being hit and fundraising in general terms is being affected big time, be it at home or abroad. It’s very hard to go fundraising at the moment when you’re looking at people who have possibly lost their job, going to businesses that are presently closed and turning around and asking them to donate a few quid towards different schemes or whatever. It’s hard.”

July is a little way off yet, and the hope is that the worst of the virus will have passed and some sense of normality will have returned. By then the hope is that every GAA pitch in the county will be teeming with young children taking part in the annual Cúl Camps. That’s the hope.

“July income could be affected,” the treasurer concedes. “You could have an element where a lot of the instructors we’d have got traditionally, will there be a need for them this year because there may not be any camps, that’s another avenue of concern. You’re then looking whether you’re making any saving on the training of development squads and you possibly are, but it’s very hard to draw a line under anything right now because we simply don’t know.”

It goes without saying that there should be less expenditure overall on team training expenses, especially in areas of the player’s mileage allowance, food after training, and physio and medical costs while the training embargo remains in place. Also, the overnight trip to play Monaghan last month, and a potential League Final in Croke Park, probably won’t at this stage be a drain on the coffers.

Keane’s predecessor, Dermot ‘Weeshie’ Lynch, established a capital sinking fund a couple of years ago, a prudent move to keep a little money in reserve for a rainy day. Has that rainy day come?

“Not yet, not yet,” Keane stresses. “I suppose you could realistically say we’re only a week or two into this yet but that rainy day could be brewing. Our main objective as a board is to provide the best facilities for all our inter-county teams and to prepare them to the best of our ability. I’m probably no different to any other finance man around any other sporting organisation or any business for that matter, we want business as usual, we want to grow our business and grow our income. We were on the right road until, unfortunately, this has happened. And in fairness in Kerry there was a good appetite for football and hurling in recent times and we would like to get back to that as fast as we can.”

No better man to fight the financial fires on all fronts.