Massive drop in cost of preparing Lake County teams

WESTMEATH have revealed a massive drop of almost €150,000 in the preparation of their intercounty footballs teams this year.

The Lake County spent €264,654 in 2010, down €148,694 from the 2009 figure of €413,618.

County board treasurer Denis Coyne said more prudent spending was called for over the past 12 months and revealed a number of areas where cost-cutting proved effective.

He said: “The cost of running our teams was something we needed to address. Medical expenses in 2009 were €77,000 but down to €38,000 this year. That’s an even bigger drop when you take into consideration that in 2009, the GAA’s insurance scheme was paying physio fees but this year, we had to pay them ourselves.

“Catering is down by €21,000, player travel is down €8,000 and team administration dropped by €21,000. Buses and overnights are also down by €12,000. The GAA at Central level changed the rules so that you must have a round trip of at least 150 miles to qualify for overnight expenses.”

Coyne added: “We were in a Leinster U21 final and obviously, the more progress you make the more costly it becomes. The senior team would have a similar number of games to last year so it was a good achievement to get our expenses down.

Overall, Westmeath’s income dropped by just over €73,000 in 2010, coming in at €567,846 compared to the 2009 figure of €640,875.