GAA crowds buck the trend

THE GAA appears to be standing up to the recession’s buffeting thus far, judging by attendance figures released yesterday and Christy Cooney’s positive utterances about projected income figures for the year.

Combined attendance figures for the hurling and football championships in 2009 amounted to 1,523,000 against the previous 12 month period, an increase of 4,000 on last summer.

Though there are no concrete figures available, those numbers may even represent a record combined attendances for the GAA’s championships, thanks in no small part to the fact that there was an extra round of football qualifiers in 2009.

“It’s extremely positive,” the GAA President said. “We are very happy. It is mainly down to the ingenuity of our ticketing people and the packages they put together this year. Also, the good work that was done in the provinces. We are very pleased to be up a few thousand. Even a break even situation would be very welcome in the difficult economic situation we have had in the past year in this country.

“It shows that our games are very attractive. People want to continue to go and be present at them. They feel that they get value for money and it is equally important that we do give value for money.

“Our players performed extremely well. The standard of sportsmanship this year has been absolutely outstanding and the packages we have put together have been important for brining families to our games, which is so important to us.”

The association will now review the success of the annual season tickets, introduced for the first time this year and the emphasis next season will be to push for an increase in uptake for National League games.

With that in mind, loyalty schemes linking league and championship will be discussed and Cooney was enthusiastic about such schemes despite the reduction in income arising from them.

“We are going to be down financially this year because of the packages but so be it. The most important thing is that we get people to our games. We always have to manage our money. That is always a challenge, for any sporting organisation,’’ he said.

The association braced itself for a drop of 7% in its income earlier this year and, despite that, Cooney has also confirmed that there were no plans to raise ticket prices next season

“We would hope that our numbers hold their own. What exactly our income is will be hard to work out at this stage because it depends on the returns the provincial councils got as well. While we are going to be down a bit we are very pleased with the numbers coming through our stiles.

“That is more important, at the end of the day. My understanding is that the crowds turning out at local championships are very good as well. All in all, I think this is going to be an excellent year for attendances at club and county levels.”

Cooney was speaking at the launch of the seventh annual Games Development Conference, described yesterday as the largest of its kind in Europe, which will be held at Croke Park on November 20/21 this year.

Speakers this year will include Tipperary hurling manager Liam Sheedy, Tipp trainer Cian O’Neill, Cork football trainer Aidan O’Connell, DJ Carey and Gary Keegan from the Irish Institute of Sport. For further information log on to www.gaa.ie