Fogarty wants GAA to consider its own TV channel
“For far too long we have depended on others to do this for us, often to our detriment,” he stated at the council’s provincial convention.
He recalled that the council had to reprint 50,000 tickets for one particular game after a change was made to the starting time to facilitate RTÉ.
He also referred to the awarding of six live games in the National League to Setanta Television, conceding that in doing so the association had moved ‘ever so slightly’ into the pay-per-view world.
In the course of his wide-ranging address, Mr Fogarty said that the establishment of the DRA (Disputes Resolution Authority) had not eased the problem of disciplinary procedures as anticipated.
While it had eradicated the problem of individuals seeking temporary injunctions in the High Court, it had made the task of dealing with disciplinary issues within the association more difficult.
“We now have to look at every case from a legal view point, as appeals to the DRA seem to attract more attention to the technical detail, rather than to the substantive issue,” he added.
He also expressed concern about the increasing difficulties being experienced by small rural clubs fielding juvenile teams because of insufficient numbers.
“The current trend of people being encouraged to live in urban areas will have huge detrimental effects, not alone for the GAA but on society in general. Needless to say, the rapid expansion of practically all our towns and cities presents us with the opposite, but equally challenging, problem. The question now is, how do we cater for the greater numbers of young people who we would like to see playing our games.”
At the convention, Kerry secretary Eamonn O’Sullivan questioned the decision to ban ‘forums’ on county websites, saying that for a website to be worthwhile it needed feedback from the public. It was his understanding that the decision was recommended by the National IT committee and agreed by the management committee.
Christy Cooney said it would be a sad situation if they could not listen to what their patrons had to say about various matters.
Mr Fogarty said that he would definitely raise the matter at the next management meeting.
