Cooney focused on challenges ahead

PRESIDENT-elect Christy Cooney hopes the GAA’s 125th year celebrations’ coinciding with the economic downturn will help to focus minds on meeting the challenges ahead.

Emphasising the importance of maintaining the ‘community base’, he said celebrating what had been achieved to date should be used as the launch pad to grow stronger ‘and be steadfast in the ideals that had served them so well over many years’.

“I exhort all counties to use this year as a springboard in moving our Association forward in a strong and dynamic fashion,’’ he said in an address to the Munster Convention. “Undoubtedly we are going to have challenges — serious challenges.

“Everyone has spoken about the economic situation and the difficulties that will create for us, but we have had that kind of a situation in this country before and we have come through with a dynamic forward-looking Association, supporting our people through difficult times.

“Do not look at this as a time of great difficulty for us but as a time of opportunity where we can continue and strengthen our games and give people a sense of belonging to an Association which is so much part of us all.’’

It was a time to stand up and be counted, he said, in terms of how they promoted their games, increased participation levels and creating a dynamism that would stand them in good stead in better economic times. But he warned they would have to tread carefully.

“We have to have good planning, that we be realistic about our projects and that we cut our cloth according to our measure.

“It is very important that we don’t extend ourselves into situations that we can’t do what we cannot do. We have to be realistic and we have to be practical.

“We are in a situation that government grants are not going to be available in a significant way as they were through lottery funding, if they are going to be available at all over the next three years. That is going to have a serious impact on counties.’’

And, while they also faced the prospect of a downturn in gate receipts over the next few years, he welcomed the approach being adopted by the Munster Council in expanding the use of family tickets. “We need to market our games in a way that will encourage more people to come to our games.

“If we do that we’ll get more people in, our gate receipts won’t be down and at national and provincial level we can continue to support our clubs.

“Whenever there is challenge, there must always be ambition. And the ambition within this organisation must always be to succeed and to succeed in a way that is of benefit to our Association as a whole, in a way that can stand the test of time and will be true to the standards and history of our Association over the past 125 years.”