I’VE BEEN GOING TO THE JIM..

Mckenna: Efforts have been made to assure Gavin about pitch but he’s hard to pin down

CROKE PARK stadium director Peter Mckenna says he has tried in vain to contact Dublin manager Jim Gavin to discuss issues with the playing surface. Gavin has repeatedly been critical of concerts being staged at Croke Park at the height of the Championship season as it causes a significant portion of the pitch to be replaced and, in his opinion, compromises the quality of the surface.

Last summer The Rolling Stones, Taylor Swift and Michael Buble all performed at GAA headquarters, with Westlife and the Spice Girls lined up this year.

With the GAA publishing its financial report yesterday, it emerged that Croke Park Stadium Ltd handed over €8m last year to Central Council, a significant portion of which comes from concert revenue.

But Mckenna insists that the shows aren’t justified purely from a monetary viewpoint.

“I stand over it from a technical point of view,” said Mckenna, who doubles up as the GAA’S commercial director.

“We test that pitch, all the metrics of it. Managers need to deflect from other conversations, so it is easy to say that I didn’t like this or whatever.

“The pitch is put down to the highest standards and we know exactly what the performance metrics of that pitch are in terms of stud turn, hardness and so on.

“And I have them there for every week for the last five or six years, so no, there is no issue with the pitch.”

He continued: “Managers deflect, they don’t want to talk about the issue that you want to talk about, so the pitch is an easy way to create a diversion, if you like. But the figures are there and I am happy to show them to anybody.”

Including Gavin (inset)? “I have tried several times but he is a very busy man, he is a pilot as well as everything else.

“I think criticism is really positive. I welcome anyone making comment because it helps us raise our game. “But I think if you do make criticism, it is nice to find out exactly what your issues were and let us respond.

“I am always very conscious that the fellas that do the pitch are just regular lads and they have millions of people scrutinising their work and they are back page invariably during the year. That’s an awful lot of pressure to be on fellas.

“They are part of my team and I will defend their ability to do their work because I think they are brilliant and if there is criticism, I will go and chat to the guy who is making it and say let’s talk it through and tweak whatever the issues are.

“But sometimes, and you guys [reporters] probably find the same, it is not always easy to catch managers on the phone.”