Bury the past for future growth

THE countdown has begun to what is, hopefully, the end of the Rule 42 debate. I have never made any secret of the fact that I am completely in favour of opening up Croke Park to rugby and soccer.

Forget this 'other sports' lark, that's just for those who find the above sports to be the two unmentionables.

Quite frankly, I find it very difficult to swallow the arguments put up against opening the GAA's primary stadium.

"We don't need the money, the Croke Park stadium debt is already being managed."

Tell that to the thousands of GAA clubs around the country struggling to make ends meet from year to year, going back time after time to the same people with begging bowl in hand.

"Opening up Croke Park will only open up the floodgates, with every GAA ground in the country coming under pressure to facilitate rugby and soccer."

In the first place, the various motions refer to Croke Park, and Croke Park only, so regardless of what pressure any other ground in the country comes under, their hands are tied.

In the second place, and far more importantly, every unit of the GAA, club or county, is more than capable of making any such decision in an intelligent and rational manner on a case-by-case basis.

If Munster, for example, wanted to use the Gaelic Grounds in Limerick, Fitzgerald Stadium in Killarney, or even (heaven help them) Páirc Uí Chaoimh in Cork, while their own two stadia (Thomond Park and Musgrave Park) were being developed, are the Limerick County Board or their Kerry and Cork equivalents not competent enough to make an informed decision? Could those county boards do with the extra revenue that would be generated?

It was primarily though their own foresight and hard work that those grounds were developed. Surely they are entitled to decide whether they should be rented out to whatever organisation is prepared to pay?

If Charleville, Midleton or Clifden GAA clubs were approached by the rugby clubs in those towns for rental use of their facilities, are those individual clubs not best-placed to decide for themselves whether or not they are in a position to do so, in the first case, and whether or not it would be cost-effective to make such an arrangement?

"Neither the IRFU nor the FAI has asked for Croke Park."

So what? Because of the saturation coverage given to the issue (most of it negative, from a GAA point of view), everyone in the country, regardless of whether they have the remotest interest in sport, is aware of the upcoming situation.

They know that in the next few years, Lansdowne Road will be demolished and a new stadium built, and in the meantime, Irish international soccer and rugby will be homeless. Croke Park is the only obvious venue for their home games.

THE only reason they haven't asked is fear, fear of upsetting anyone's sensitivities in what is certain to be a close debate.

"Croke Park is the GAA's USP (Unique Selling Point, business jargon), and by allowing soccer and rugby in, that will be diluted, with young lads all over Ireland turning in their thousands to non-GAA sports because now they can also play those sports in Croke Park."

Spare us that drivel, please. Anyway, that was dealt with in a Sunday newspaper last weekend by Liam Griffin, a man who knows more about business than most in the GAA.

What good is a USP, asked Griffin, with irrefutable logic, if you're not selling?

Outside of Ireland, who knows about Croke Park, about the GAA? Open Croke Park to rugby and soccer, and you open the GAA to a much wider world.

"We don't owe the FAI or the IRFU anything, they should have had their own house well in order by now."

Of course they should, and certainly the GAA doesn't owe either of the two organisations. But what of generosity, of the neighbourliness recommended by Tipperary's Len Gaynor; do we not owe the nation as a whole? What of all the lost revenue, if the Ireland home internationals have to go abroad?

"The hotel and bars might lose out but the travel industry, for instance, would win," said Tyrone chairman Pat D'Arcy, in an utterly damning comment, in a newspaper interview.

Ah yes, Tyrone, and Derry, and the other four counties from The Wee North; Monaghan, and New York, and those others who are still fighting the Civil War, opposing garrison games. Because that's what this is boiling down to, now that the Rule 42 pimple is being really squeezed.

They can offer up all the spurious arguments they like, but one by one, they have all been flushed out.

"I have nothing against soccer or rugby, but ..."

Those voting against the Rule 42 proposals are not voting for the future of the GAA; they are voting for the past.

Hopefully, by this weekend, they will be a part of that past.