Déise chiefs reiterate debt woe
That agreement by Cork and Tipperary to meet the Waterford asking price of €50,000 in return for the Déise playing the provincial hurling decider in Páirc Uí Chaoimh or Semple Stadium was abandoned even more speedily than it was instigated after the Waterford players, management, and supporters vociferously vented their opposition to it.
At last night’s meeting in Dungarvan county treasurer Michael Hogan left delegates in no doubt about the enormity of their financial problems.
However it was also crystal clear that the €50,000 Munster final venue “deal’’ was taboo and that there was not going to be any discussion on it.
The statement carried exclusively in the Irish Examiner last Friday was read out to the meeting and the chairman said the matter was now in the past and was not going to be revisited.
Hogan told delegates that Waterford wasn’t playing on a level pitch with the likes of Cork, Kerry, Tipperary, and Limerick, all of whom had the capacity to garner huge amounts of money from rent for championship games.
“Last year,’’ the treasurer said, “we spent €730,000 on our county teams and as of now we are more than €100,000 worse off than at the same time last year.’’
When one delegate asked about the €50,000 the board had “lost’’ over the Munster hurling final venue, chairman Tom Cunningham speedily interjected to stress “that we are definitely not going down that road tonight’’.
The chairman went on to state that when Waterford play Cork or Limerick in the Munster hurling final next month it is a game that will yield a “gate’’ in the region of €1 million.
“From all of that however this board will get a paltry two or three thousand euros. That cannot be right and its about time the Munster Council got its act together.’’ the chairman said.
Tim O’Byrne, secretary of the East Divisional Board, warned that the county board’s financial situation is “spiralling out of control’’.
Eventually after a lengthy debate on ways and means of raising money, a vote was taken on two proposals to impose a levy of €3 or €5 on ticket prices for all Waterford senior hurling games in the current year – subject to Croke Park approving the measure.
In a tight vote it was agreed 20/18 to impose a €5 levy, starting with the Munster hurling final on July 11th.
Some delegates however, including Dungarvan’s Paddy Fitzgerald, warned of a probable public backlash against the move.
