Croker’s €41m debt to be clear by 2010

THE debt on Croke Park, currently standing at €41 million, is expected to be cleared in four years.

And, significantly, for the first time in five years, the Central Council did not need to allocate any of its surplus towards reducing the debt. To date, they have contributed €43m from central funds.

The management of the stadium is the responsibility of Croke Park Teoranta and Director Peter McKenna points out in his annual report that this death reduction comes five years ahead of strategic plan projections.

The fact of being relieved of this burden meant that the disbursement of Central Council funds through grants and special projects did not have to be cut back after a year in which the return from the qualifier competitions saw a significant reduction.

Mr McKenna, who expressed concern at the number of pitch invasions, pointed out at yesterday’s Croke Park briefing that the cumulative attendance at games - 27 in total, 11 of them finals - amounted to 1.3 million. This represented an average of 49,000.

Reporting increased profitability for the fifth consecutive year, the company achieved a surplus of €17.97m on a turnover of over €30m. The biggest single items were €9m on the rent for corporate facilities and €4.76m on the hire of facilities - primarily the stadium rent for three U2 concerts last summer.

The actual amount which the promoter paid was not revealed - Mr McKenna remarking that it was “commercially sensitive” - but it’s reckoned to have been in the region of €3m. And, he said they took obvious pride in Billboard Magazine’s rating of the stadium as “the premier rock venue in the world”.

Meanwhile, GAA Financial Controller Cathy Slattery stressed the heavy reliance on gate receipts, pointing out that it accounted for 63% of their total income.

The total of €22.45m marked a reduction of €1.7m on the 2004 figure, and would have been lower but for the replay of the All-Ireland football quarter-final between Dublin and Tyrone.

The return from the qualifier competitions fell by 47%, a fact influenced by the unattractiveness of many of the pairings.

Likewise, attendances at the major Championship games were “a major factor” with a crowd of 39,594 for the Kerry v Cork senior football semi-final producing a gate of €917,000. In contrast, the second semi-final between Tyrone and Armagh (65,858) yielded a return of €1.76m.

Total income came to €35,435,387 and expenditure amounted to €25,392,210.

The bulk of the surplus - apart from €333,000 - was redistributed, with county committees benefiting to the tune of €2.9m in payments from the qualifier competitions. A figure of €3.2m has been allocated for urban development, with the rest paid out in club and county grants, capital projects in Dublin and other strategic developments.

* Mr McKenna revealed that they hoped to have floodlighting in place for the International Rules Series in November.