Dubs bring in the money for Leinster

THE Leinster Council’s profit of almost €2 million last year was driven by the drawing power of the Dublin footballers.

With the Dubs in two doubleheaders in Croke Park before meeting Laois in the final, the three programmes in which they featured helped boost Council finances by €3.7m.

Their opening game, on June 5, was against Meath and it was paired with the Wexford/Carlow fixture. The gate, for an attendance of 65,865, amounted to €1,022,429.

Their semi-final against Wexford a fortnight later, preceded by the meeting of Laois and Kildare, attracted over 82,000 spectators. This was a record for a Leinster championship fixture of any kind and acknowledged at the time as the biggest attendance at a sporting fixture anywhere in Europe.

The gate that day was €1,231,025 and the return for the final was only marginally higher, at €1,491,192.

In sharp contrast, the hurling final between Kilkenny and Wexford raised €424,475.

Total gate receipts of €6,267,334 accounted for almost 90% of the Council’s income overall in 2005. That amounted to €7,264,281 - resulting in a surplus of €1,972,900, up more than €700,000 on the previous year.

Mr. Delaney pointed out yesterday that the Council had already allocated €1.3m in grants, €600,000 of it to clubs and the balance to counties. “We’re not exactly in the business of making money because most of any surplus is ploughed back into the games,” he said.

“We will also be allocating finance towards the installation of floodlighting in Navan and Portlaoise and our new hurling plan is another major initiative which will require a lot of money.”