High team costs under fire

LEADING GAA officials have questioned the escalating costs involved with intercounty teams.

Connacht Council secretary John Prenty and his Leinster counterpart Michael Delaney have both addressed the pressing financial issues in their annual reports to provincial conventions which are being held over the next week. Prenty has questioned whether GAA teams ‘have lost the plot’ with the experts being drawn in from other codes and has called for a return to the ‘core values’ of coaching in gaelic football and hurling, ahead of the Connacht Council Convention this Thursday night in Claregalway, Co. Galway.

“Since County Conventions I have examined the costs incurred by Counties on training and administering county teams,” said Prenty. “From a rough estimate it appears that it cost almost €3million to train the teams from Connacht. Almost all teams now have a coterie of different types of experts involved with them drawn from physiotherapists (two or three), dieticians, sports psychologists, athletes, training experts etc. Most of those have been drawn in from other codes and seem to come at enormous expense. An industry has been set up around county teams which are not reciprocated by gaelic games coaches being involved with teams in other codes.

“I would have to ask is it working? Is it paying off? Have we lost the plot? Have we an inferiority complex about our own ability to coach our games, despite having the best developed resources in the world. It’s time to get back to the basics to what gaelic games are about, catching, kicking, scoring, team play. Maybe we should look at the programmes being adopted by the successful teams in hurling and football and return to our core values.”

Meanwhile, Leinster secretary Delaney is adamant that the solution lies in reducing the number of competitions that are played at intercounty level, echoing the views expressed recently by GAA Director General Páraic Duffy. Ahead of next Monday night’s Leinster Council Convention in Tullamore in Offaly, Delaney calls for the abolishment of the All-Ireland junior football and intermediate hurling competitions. A proposal to scrap both is set to feature on the agenda for the GAA’s Annual Congress in Newcastle, Co Down in April and Delaney believes drastic measures need to be taken to avoid some counties heading for ‘the realms of insolvency’.

“Each year most counties in the province provide us with a copy of their Annual Accounts. It is clear from the vast majority of these publications that our County Boards are finding it increasingly difficult to make ends meet. We note reductions in sponsorship money and supporters club contributions, fundraising activities are decreasing in return, local gate receipts are static, costs are rising and reserves are diminishing.

“Jumping off the pages is the fact that inter-county teams are proving to be a financial millstone. We know that County Boards nowadays make serious efforts at budgeting and, for the most part, our counties in Leinster practice good husbandry. Yet the role of County Treasurer is becoming an increasingly stressful one. I accept that county teams must be prepared properly, treated properly and turned out in an appropriate fashion.

“This brings me to an old hobby horse of mine. In my opinion the only solution is to reduce inter county activity. For many years I have questioned the value of Junior and Intermediate County Championships, Special Competitions, Shield Competitions and even the Under 21 grade. To this mix I would now add my reservations about the value of the qualifier competitions and the provision of separate league competitions for those counties involved in the Nicky Rackard and Lory Meaghar Cup Competitions. We must seriously examine our Inter County schedule. We must address the ways and means of preventing these counties from heading for the realms of insolvency.”

Meanwhile both the Connacht and Leinster Councils have reported drops in their operating surpluses for 2009 despite both provinces recording decreases in their expenditure. The Connacht Council saw their surplus drop to €364,866 compared to €615,247 in 2008. A decrease of €381,000 in sponsorship income was a major contributory factor although total gate receipt income increased by €113,312 in 2009. The Connacht Council received €1,404,472 in payments from Croke Park to cover coaching and other expenses during 2009, in addition to €510,163 in grounds grants. Total expenditure for the Connacht Council decreased by €389,913 in 2009. Coaching and development expenditure amounted to €1,276,674, while the cost of staging games increased from €389,178 to €444,664.

The Leinster Council showed a surplus of €1,273,687 compared to €1,432,981 in 2008. Total gate receipt income in the eastern province decreased from €5,930,155 to €5,709,369, but sponsorship income did increase from €470,058 to €498,053. Total expenditure decreased from €9,103,103 to €8,680,127, with match expenses decreasing from €1,810,406 to €1,738,654.