A GIANT STRETCH
As one top county splashes out €1m on management alone, smaller counties are falling even further behind
ISAW GAA president Aogán Ó Fearghail saying that the spend on inter-county teams is unsustainable with five counties north of the million mark for 2015. Well, I’m aware of one management team alone — never mind the players — that is costing roughly €1 million over their term in charge, a price tag which is being covered by the team sponsor.
Make no mistake, the gap between rich and poor has never been wider.
I just think the whole scene is so unfair. If you have more money, or a generous sponsor, then you’re fuelling this massive divide which is being reflected on the ground.
Counties aren’t going to close the gap on Dublin in football or Kilkenny or Tipperary in hurling if they don’t spend. But what do you do if you don’t have the money to spend?
What are we about as an organisation? There’s so many people getting paid now within set-ups. It has always been a bit of a black market but it’s the players who are being squeezed. We are asking them to put in massive time when so many others are pulling money from it.
If you create that professional environment that now exists at inter-county level, then you have to support it. And that’s why you have a medical team, nutritionist, stats team and so many others on board. But as more money has come into it, it’s the players who are being asked for more and more all the time. Some of the training schedules are tantamount to abuse.
Is this another sign of where the GAA is going?
Some of the figures in terms of the annual spend are staggering. The likes of Dublin spent €1.5 million — and in fairness they have so many teams doing well in both codes — right down to the Wicklow senior footballers on €277,000.
And that is then being used as a stick to beat the county board with, that not enough is being spent.
Look at my own county Offaly on nearly €600,000. That’s a lot for a small county.
I have a bit of experience on the ground in terms of the finance side of things. I was involved with the O’Connor Park development and we raised €1.2m towards the cost of the overall project.
Now we’re trying to raise €750,000 for the Centre of Excellence at Kilcormac and ensure it’s debt-free. At the moment, the funds totalled are heading for the half million mark.
We can all give out about county boards but the strain on them is enormous to keep up with spending. The financial aspect is very difficult.
People in it are under fierce pressure. You have volunteers across the country who mightn’t necessarily have a financial background.
GO BACK 20 or 30 years ago and there wasn’t the same disparity. Every county nearly had a similar schedule — they trained two or three times a week, and played a match at the weekend. The players mightn’t always have been brilliantly looked after in terms of meals or what have you but they had a life outside of the game.
The more money that has come into the game, the bigger the work- load that has been piled on players.
So many players are going to college now and know what is going on in other counties. They hear what is being laid on, and then as a result some won’t play because they feel they’re not getting the equivalent.
It’s all only diluting the love of place or playing for the love of the jersey.
Can you cap spending? Put a limit of half a million? Or €750,000?
The thing about that is that every county is different. A strong dual county such as Galway can’t be treated the same as Sligo in terms of spending.
When you see counties ploughing money into county grounds though, I think the GAA need to look at this on a national scale.
There is a residual debt on O’Connor Park — naturally because of it being an €8m development. Why not let Croke Park pick out the main provincial grounds in need of upgrade and take on those in a coordinated manner?
Otherwise, they are only going to have to come back in to counties who are struggling. Croke Park have had to take direct intervention with the likes of Kildare.
It’s clear to me that the sort of money being spent around intercounty teams is simply not sustainable, and something needs to change.
The more money that has come in, the bigger the workload piled on players