County boards and clubs need to be vigilant with spending

OVER the past few weeks, and right up to the middle of January 2009, county boards and clubs all over the country will be holding AGMs and releasing their accounts for club delegates and club members to study.

Some of the figures in the public domain already make for uncomfortable reading for those charged with raising the revenue to keep the wheels turning.

For example, the Waterford hurling board spent nearly €2 million in preparing their teams in 2008. The Galway hurlers alone cost over €1m to keep on the road last season and, despite Joe Canning’s Herculean effort against Cork, they didn’t even reach the last four.

How much would it have cost to keep them watered, fed and clothed, if they got to the final? Cork delegates will hear tonight that it cost €1,121,405 to prepare teams this year — admittedly a notable reduction on their spend in 2007, €1,423,666 (due to their belated league start in hurling and football).

That kind of loot takes a lot of collecting, and such expenditure is difficult to maintain on an ongoing basis. While the bigger and more successful counties may attract or maintain more sponsorship than others, the overall spend at county board level is a real concern for most GAA organisers, and especially those charged with keeping the Association on an even keel at national level.

GAA president Nickey Brennan is adamant that the booming expenditure on inter-county preparations must be tackled immediately, advising that those dealing with county budgets should consult players to streamline outgoings for 2009 and beyond.

Brennan insisted yesterday that genuine uncertainty exists over the levels of future allocations from Croke Park, adding that counties cannot continue to spend colossal sums on their teams.

Brennan pointed out to me: “County boards are seeing the cost of their inter-county teams rising at a steady pace. And this is just not sustainable in the future. Some counties have done well this year with their accounts, expenditure is rising at an alarming rate in most counties and clubs. With the economic forecasts as they are for the coming years, such over-the-top expenditure is utter folly.”

The Kilkenny man advocates an inclusive process between the county board and the players they represent which — let’s be honest — would require a monumental shift in mindset in some counties.

“Counties are going to have to sit down with their players and decide on how best the money that is available can be spent. Counties cannot continue to increase their spending at the level that they have been doing and there’s certainly going to be a lesser pool of funds available from central level to counties.

“Our revenue is down and therefore we will not be able to distribute as much money to county boards as we have heretofore. There are very stiff winds blowing at the moment and all of us in the GAA have to careful over the next couple of years to ensure that we don’t create debts that will be difficult to handle.

“Some counties are overspending on an annual basis and have been on a regular basis, which is madness. You have to cut your cloth to measure in everyday life and it is the same within the GAA.”

The fact that the mileage rate for county players is due to go up from 50 cent to 60 cent per mile in 2009 will not make things any easier for county boards, as travel for players to and from training, physiotherapy, team meetings and games is a significant expense and a 20% increase there will be felt on the bottom line.

The Galway senior hurling squad produced a travel bill of €247,000 in 2008; a 20% increase for 2009 would add another €49,400 next season. Assuming that John McIntyre brings them a game or two further than Ger Loughnane did this year, where will that travel bill stop? Could it hit half a million just for travel?

Connacht council secretary John Prenty believes increasing expenditure is such a real problem for county boards and clubs that training may have to be restricted to reign in costs.

“Counties and clubs will really have to look at the value for money that they are getting for their spend. Some clubs have lost the plot entirely and are spending colossal amounts on money with no real tangible progress at the end of the year.

“That has to be looked at, and club treasurers and chairmen or women will have to run a very tight ship or they will find themselves in a very poor financial position. And they cannot expect Croke Park to dig them out if they have dug their own holes.”

Absurdly, much of the expenditure is from counties with little prospect of major success. In the case of many counties, irrespective of how much money they pump into their current county side, they are limited by the stock of players to hand. It would make a lot more sense in the long-run to divert some of the major expenditure that is in the main spent on the county senior side and reinvest it in coaching at an underage level.

Carlow spent over €1m on their various teams in 2008, an increase of almost 75% on the previous year. What value for money did that represent?

“Certain capital expenditure for counties and for clubs must continue and make a lot of strategic sense,” says Brennan. “If our infrastructure is not up to scratch, attendances will suffer. We have plenty of capacity, however some of our grounds do need money spent on them. It is current expenditure that has to be curtailed. Anyone who does not see the need for that reduction in spending is not au fait with the economic situation the country and GAA are in.”