All good in Finnegan’s wake
Operating profit and increase in gate receipts revealed
OUTGOING Wicklow GAA treasurer Colm Finnegan delivered his final finance report to Convention on Monday night where he reporter an increase income for the county and a significant increase in gate receipts.
“We’ve had an increase in income, from just over €800,000 to €923,000 during the year. Of that about €50-odd thousand of that was specifically due to increased contribution from Central Council to do with the increased costs that we have under the GPA agreements,”said Finnegan.
“I’m pleased to note that there has been an increase in the gate income from €115,000 to €145,000.
“There are some reasons for that, one of which is that at management level back in January and February I urged the CCC to be a bit creative with how they grouped fixtures when it came to championship to make them more attractive for people who want to come and see them.
“I would also at this point than Kieron Kenny and everybody on websites and social forum because the games have been much more publicised, whether it be the Wicklow People or online and clubs themselves who are putting a lot of effort into social media, they are advertising our games a lot more and I would urge that to be continued.
“Just on that, I would ask clubs to send people forward, we need a bit more assistance at gates, not only in Aughrim but in other grounds as well. It seems to be the same people all of the time. If we had a few more volunteers on that end of things we would be able to spread it around a little bit more. Sponsorship
“Sponsorship income is up this year. We had some new sponsors on board, particularly Joule Engineering. Thanks to everybody else who sponsored, particularly the Renault group, WH Scott Lifting, Philip Doyle, Arklow Bay Hotel, Arklow Waste, Hilltonne Engineering who came on board this year. Wicklow County Council and KWETB continue to support our games and to all the sponsors of the Garden County Academy during the year.
“The Academy fundraising group has undergone a revamp during the summer and we are hopeful that their efforts during the coming year will prove to be fruitful.
“Fundraising does remain a constant struggle but we need to continually raise funds so that we can not only provide the level of resources we need to improve conditions at various grounds but also to meet our obligations on developments already undergone.
“Expenditure has increased but a lot of that has to do with increased player costs arising from the GPA agreement but that’s been offset by the increased rebate from Central Council.
“The additional costs of the operation manager are included in staff wages during the year and there is an increase in the cost of maintenance and upkeep of our grounds and premises. However, along with my colleague Pat Doyle here particularly, we try to keep a constant watch on these expenditure areas to make sure that costs are kept to a minimum and where there is necessary expense that we get good value for money.
“We have an operating profit for the year before we write down the value of our grounds and equipment etc., of just over €95,000. We need to keep that sort of level up to meet our financial obligations as a result of commitments to existing projects and to fund future capital programmes that Billy (Byrne) earlier outlined that are in the pipeline.
“Thanks as well to Leinster Council and Croke Park for all the grant assistance. They’re always willing to give us expertise and advice during the year on everything that we are doing.
“This is my last report as treasurer and I think we have tried to put in place controls to keep tight reins on the day-to-day finances of the association and that’s your association and to make sure all funds are properly collected and distributed as necessary. We need to keep these standards as we move forward in the years ahead because there are renewed ambitions on and off the pitch and there will be expense involved thereon.
“For the past five years I have been extremely grateful to have the assistance of everybody in the County Board offices, especially Nuala and Jackie, and many, many thanks to them. And thanks to Martin Coleman and Pat Doyle for their assistance on the finance committee. I couldn’t begin to tell you how influential they have been in twisting arms in Croke Park in getting grant assistance and other assistance for us.
“Thanks also to all the grounds personnel and gate and turnstile operators and to the ever-present people Michael O’Rourke, John Magee, Tommy Murphy, Pat Cox, and others. To all members of the organisation, thanks to all the support you have given me over the years. If I have offended anyone it was unintended and I hope you can forgive me.
“Fundraising is down a little bit, partly due to the increase in insurance contribution that we had to give to Croke Park from the affiliation costs.
“Income from associated bodies, Croke Park and Leinster, has gone from €346,000 to €442,000, again largely due to the increased sums from the player expense rebate. Other income dropped slightly, various reasons for that and we’ll go through them in a moment.
“On the expenditure side of things, match expenses have gone up slightly from €39,000 to €42,000. County team admin expenses, while they have gone up there has been the offset from the rebate.
“The interest in bank charges are down a bit but that’s because we’re obviously paying back our loans. The admin expenses up a little bit, particularly in two areas, one of which is staff expenses, because we had a full year of operations manager where we didn’t have that in previous years. Coaching and Games around about the same and upkeep and maintenance of games, while it has increased, we have implemented structures, particularly in Ballinakill, to ensure that the level and quality of upkeep of the grounds is kept at as high a level as we can.
“Expenditure on grounds, that would be here (Aughrim), Arklow, Ballinakill, Bray, wherever is about €10.5m, about the same as last year. While there was depreciation of about €300,000, we also spent money on the grounds, on Ballinakill particularly with the flood-lighting that went on there.
“Current assets, amount receivable €300, 875, cash in the bank is gone up about €24,00 at that moment in time. Current liability, money we that we owe, has risen slightly from €212,000 to €248,000, but again, that’s mainly a timing issue. So, the total assets that we got less the current liabilities is €10.5m but then we got grants of €5.3m, the Croke Park loan is down from €505,000 to €474,000 and the total bank loan, we have a small bank loan in relation to gym equipment, it was €26 or €27,000 last year, it’s down to about €14,000 at the moment.
“If you look on page nine you will see how expenditure on the grounds has developed during the year. The addition of €244,000, as I say, that’s mainly the lighting in Ballinakill. And, although we would have spent €244,000, we did get €190,000 back in grants in relation to that and that will be shown in a later note.
“€103,000 is due to us, or was due to us on October 31, that would be an amalgamation of monies due from clubs, sponsorship money due to us, and other bits and pieces, but of that I would think that probably €45,000 has certainly come in since year end. In relation to the rest of it, any clubs who owe money to us we have payment plans in place for them.
“Amounts due from Central Council, again that should all be received and netted off against what we owe them in the next week or so.
“Finance due from Leinster Council, they owe us €101,000, but, as you’ll see later on, we owe them €74,00, a balance of €27,00 which has come in since year end.
“On page 14 we have a breakdown on some of the figures we referred to earlier. The gate receipts, see the football final, down ever so slightly, football semi-final is up. Senior hurling final is down but then there was a replay in 2016. Other matches, we had increased revenue from €63,000 to €95,000. Now, the football and hurling finals are skewed slightly because of the double headers involved. But, the other matches would be increased, a lot would be due to, as I said earlier, better double headers and also, I think it’s fair to say that the Junior A and Intermediate football finals were significant events, unique I suppose, in the pairings and that helped boost that figure.
“Sponsorship has gone from €66,000 up to €85, €86,000. Most of that would actually as a result of Joule coming on board.
“Fundraising, the club administration contribution, the figure is up from last year but that’s because instead of having the development draw this year it was greed that we would have a specific development levy to the clubs.
“You’ll see then below that, we take away the insurance we pay to Croke Park, that figure has gone from €62,000 to nearly €90,000 and we managed to deal with that this year without having to bill clubs additional money. I’m warning you in advance, however, we’ve been told that there’s likely to be another five to 10 per cent increase as well but we hope to minimise that as well.
“The Garden County Academy fundraising is down slightly but that’s a timing issue because there’s been a revamp of the Garden County Academy and where a lot of their money came in in the autumn of last year it has been delayed slightly due to the Leinster Council review and hopefully that will all be coming on board during the year,” he said.
There were no questions from the floor on the finances and County Chairman Martin Coleman thanked Colm Finnegan for all his work over the past five years.
“The finances are in good shape due to his work and watchful eye along with Patrick Doyle and, certainly, they were two men that you could entrust the finances of the county with,” he said.