Recession cools the reign of the foreign train

THEY have been the GAA’s Celtic Tiger equivalent of the New York shopping trip: fashionable, hassle-free and, according to many, excellent value for money, but the foreign training camp is in danger of becoming another victim of the recession.

County boards have long been concerned about the escalating costs associated with the preparation of their flagship sides but the economy’s downward spiral is already being reflected by attitudes towards trips, which routinely cost €40,000.

Pat Gilroy is currently in La Manga with the Dublin footballers but the Spanish resort said yesterday that they have no further bookings currently confirmed from GAA sides for the coming months.

La Manga’s operators, MED Group, have bigger problems to tackle right now however.

The club went into voluntary administration last November with debts of €97m as a direct result of the credit crunch.

The new economic reality here is being reflected in Armagh, where the modern trend for foreign training stints started under Joe Kernan back in 2002.

Their first trip to Spain was ridiculed but opinions changed when they won the Sam Maguire that September.

Armagh travelled to Spain four more times over the course of the next five years before tweaking their preparations with a journey to northern France last year. But such excursions are off the agenda for 2009.

“I wouldn’t think they are viable any longer in the current climate,” said secretary Paddy Nugent. “We meet with Peter McDonnell and his management team on a regular basis and they are fully understanding of the situation as it stands.

“We don’t have any plans to run a foreign training camp this year as of now. That may change if things pick up and circumstances change but I can’t see that happening this season anyway, whatever about next year.”

Iberia has been the destination of choice for most jet-setting teams in recent years. As well as La Manga, Browns Sports and Leisure Club in the Algarve has welcomed a host of inter-county hurling and football squads.

A spokesperson for Browns said yesterday the complex has received a number of enquiries from GAA sides this year, with a number apparently considering trips in the latter half of February when there is a two-week gap scheduled for the National Football League.

At least 12 county sides have made trips to one or other of the complexes. Some, like Armagh, Kerry and the Cork footballers, have been frequent guests, lured back by the state-of-the-art facilities which were originally targeted at soccer and rugby teams.

However, both resorts quickly recognised the potential of the GAA market. Browns launched a concerted, marketing campaign to attract more GAA teams some years ago while the La Manga club introduced specialist Gaelic football facilities.

Other destinations have been as diverse as Prague, Sunderland and the Catskill mountains in the USA. Though the furthest away, the last of those may actually continue to be frequented by GAA teams and those from Connacht specifically.

John Maughan visited New York for Connacht Championship games with Mayo and New York

in recent years and, with a large percentage of the costs for those trips covered by the provincial body, the cost of staying on for a few days is far from exorbitant.

Mayo secretary Sean Feeney estimates the actual cost of the extra few days in the Catskills amounts to approximately half that needed to spend a week in La Manga or Vilamoura and confirmed Mayo will again be paying a visit this May.

“Luckily (the money) won’t be much of an issue for us this year as we are going to New York to play them in the Connacht Championship,” said Feeney. “We will be staying on for a few days’ training which won’t actually cost us that much money.”

In the longer term, however, Feeney believes that trips to continental Europe will be off the menu as long as revenue from sponsorship and gates continues to be hit as a result of the recession. However, his Armagh counterpart believes training trips are here to stay in one form or another.

“I wouldn’t see the entire concept of the training week away disappearing but what you might see is they become more home-based affairs,” said Nugent. “We might look at going down south or maybe over to England to one of the specialised centres there.”