€600m full cost of Croker exit

RUGBY and soccer’s move back the Lansdowne Road will cost the local economy millions of euro each due to the smaller capacity at the new Aviva Stadium, GAA president Christy Cooney believes.

Speaking at the GAA and Croke Park Stadium’s annual accounts, Cooney estimated that the hosting of games and concerts at their own flagship venue was worth half a billion euro to the city last year.

Stadium director Peter McKenna estimated the figure could be as high as €600m while both claimed that the net worth to the area per game at Croker stood between €30m and €35m.

The size of the new venue in Dublin 4 has already caused some disquiet, as has the fact that the IRFU and FAI are locked in to deals which prevent them from playing home ties anywhere else for the next 10 years. That means that the bigger games, such as the Ireland-England Six Nations clash and soccer qualifiers against Grade A opposition cannot be switched to the much larger Croke Park.

“We estimate it is worth about €35m per event if you take all the events that we have,’’ Cooney said.

“Everybody has to spend money when they come, one way or another. We see it as an injection into the local economy. From us, it will be gone, from our role in Croke Park as the association. Other venues will not be able to hold the same crowds as we can so it won’t have the same volume. Definitely, we would envisage there will be a drop overall. It has been very good for the economy.”

The estimate of €30m-€35m per match is very much in line with a recent independent survey on what weekend international soccer matches at the stadium are worth to the greater Dublin region.

Taking that as an average figure – and the first Ireland-England game injected €83m into the city – the 26 soccer and rugby matches played on the northside this last three years will have helped pump between €780m and €910m into the economy.

That is cash which would otherwise have been lost to the UK.

Yet, as association officials were quick to acknowledge yesterday, the accommodation of the IRFU and FAI in Croke Park has been just as beneficial to the GAA since it opened its doors in 2007.

The accounts for Páirc an Chrocaigh Teoranta for the year ended 2009 show a profit of over €21.5m – the ninth consecutive year of increased profitability. Not bad business in these harsh times.

A total of €17m was handed over to the GAA, in itself an increase of €2m (13%), which means that the stadium has contributed a total of €51.5m to the association coffers since 2006.

The success that is Croke Park is further illuminated by the fact that, for every €100 spent by the GAA on the stadium, the association will have received €136 in return by the end of 2010.

However, leaner financial times are around the corner with the loss of rental – €13m in 2009 alone – from the IRFU and FAI. Only two rugby matches – none in soccer – are being hosted there in 2010.

The number of concerts is down in 2010. Having hosted four in 2009, including three U2 gigs, Croke Park will provide the backdrop for just one this year – Westlife in June.