Urban myths becoming a reality
Leinster GAA’s revolution started on Wednesday night at their Council offices with a five-year plan.
A packed boardroom filled with secretaries, PROs and chairmen from the 12 counties thought they were attending another humdrum presentation. Some may have left believing that’s what they’d been to.
But, if the Leinster Council’s strategic vision and action plan is implemented, it will prevent a looming disaster.
The province’s population will boom in the coming years. The Central Statistics Office predicts it will hold 50% of the state’s population by 2026.
For the GAA that could be a nightmare. Urban clubs like Portlaoise, James Stephens and Kilmacud Crokes have never possessed the same cult status in their communities that the likes of Rhode, Tyrellspass or Rathnure have.
Rooted in family structures and rural environments where it became more than just a game, the GAA maintained its status as the biggest sporting organisation in the country. But the province’s rapid urbanisation could catch it cold.
Fewer bums on seats, loss of revenue and members would lead to stagnation, decline and dissolution.
It’s a dark picture but one they readily accept as being a possibility if they don’t resolve their urban issues.
“If we get 75% of this done it would transform the Association and that’s the challenge,” said Leinster Council chief executive Michael Delaney in conversation with his marketing and commercial manager John Cotter and Shane Flanagan, the province’s games development manager.
“You can have all the science and statistics you like, inherent in this plan is recognition that we have basic problems in our structures. If you let 100 hurling kids out of the Go Games and into the U12 and U14 system in Carlow town where do they go? They’ll find a place in football because there’s four or five clubs, and Carlow’s just a common example, but there are so many others around the place. It’s our own structures that are letting people slip through as well. We’ve recognised that in there.”
The plan focuses on three key areas: funding, facilities and personnel. Given the Leinster Council’s erratic ticket revenue (2007’s income was twice as high as 2010’s) it will require a grassroots volunteer-driven approach.
“We must have more imaginative use of funding, that includes shared use of facilities and more flexible use of resources,” said Cotter. “We need a huge recruitment drive of volunteers because no amount of full-time staff will be able to carry the load. Even when it comes to full-time staff we’re going to have to be more imaginative.
“When kids are young they don’t mind if they’re good or bad they just want to play together. As they get older they become conscious of the fact, when they hit a certain age, that the result is crucial. If you were being very controversial you could say that Féile itself introduces a cut-off point beyond which clubs are only interested in kids who can deliver a result. Up to Féile there’re encouraged to participate.”
Twenty urban areas outside Dublin, which has been identified as a group on its own, will be targeted. In the next five years the Leinster Council will focus on these fast-growing towns with 57,243 children aged between four and 18.
“Look at Navan, its population between the ages of four and 18 is not far off Waterford and not too far behind Limerick which are cities,” said Flanagan.
“These areas have gone from rural areas to urban. Some of these areas still have a rural mindset and that’s the difficulty. There are guys involved in clubs for 20 years and suddenly they’re trying to cope with the big numbers and that’s the challenge. Because of the rural nature of a lot of clubs the urban clubs can only fit in a competition structure that suits everyone else. We’re looking at the likes of Naas, Newbridge, Celbridge and Boyne.
“We’d love to see Kildare, Wicklow, Dublin, Louth and Meath coming together and saying ‘can we provide during the gaps some competitions for these teams so alike?’ There is a danger the current structures will hold them back.
“We can’t do this on our own. We don’t have a huge amount of personnel working with us. There are plenty of green areas available owned by the local authorities. There’s a myth out there that we need a full-sized pitch. We need a small area and that will do us. We need local authorities to come on board and we’ll help make games successful.”
Providing more games with better facilities is the crux of the issue.
“If we’re going to have a huge bubble of kids coming through because of the Go Games, the big challenge is putting proper structures in place when they’re 14-16,” said Flanagan.
“A lot of counties need to look at creating more flexible competition structures whereby there’s more competition at consecutive years rather than 14 and 16. There was a study done in France of U14 and U16 competitions. There are some kids playing two years younger than the rest and they can feel psychologically inferior and they drop out.
“The drop out rate globally is between 40-50% between primary school and 16 so we’re not on our own there.”
Further studies have shown them that this will not be a battle for the 20% pool of kids active, rather a battle to keep the 80% who quit in their mid-teens active and involved.
“Our biggest competition is not soccer or rugby, it’s the great vacuum that’s there that’s being filled by young fellows and girls doing nothing,” said Delaney.
Cotter added: “It’s not even a question of competing with soccer or rugby for the hearts or minds or souls of these kids. It’s actually being in a position if we do win their hearts and minds to be able to provide them with what we want, which is games and facilities.”
While acknowledging that depopulation is a huge issue too, Leinster’s difficulty is how to accommodate the huge swell in numbers they face. Clubs will be asked to change radically. Big towns traditionally with just two clubs may some day have four or five. Urban competitions will increase the workload and volunteers will be needed.
Huge changes, but without it they fail. Without it the GAA fails, as Delaney put it. “We’ve got to think differently from the way we’ve always thought. It got us to the top but it won’t keep us there. The big message is we’re at the end of the them-and-us era and it should be all of us now.”
LEINSTER GAA chiefs believe the success - or failure - of their strategic plan will have massive consequences for the Association nationally.
“I was at a national development meeting one night and Leinster was described as the bread basket of the GAA,” games development manager Shane Flanagan said.
“It was said by an Ulster man, but it puts Leinster’s challenge into perspective. The argument was that if we don’t get it right in Leinster, who is going to walk through the turnstiles in Croke Park and fund the rest of the organisation?
“The big thing is getting around structural issues within the organisation which have hamstrung us. It’s a massive issue that we’re not providing opportunities for the youngsters during the summer periods when the games programmes aren’t there.”
Council chief executive Michael Delaney revealed they have approached Government about funding for their programme.
“We’re pitching for help. They’re saying the Government has no money but they have to provide funding for this. Shane (Flanagan) has spoken to the ministers. Wexford, Louth and Westmeath local authorities have come on board and are co-funding personnel, but we’d love if more came on board. We’ve got to think differently now. It got us to the top, but it won’t keep us there.”
For marketing and commercial manager John Cotter, the issue is something club members have to buy into. “The future of our clubs in Leinster hinges on this plan, the county plan and their club plan,” he said.
“It’s all tied together. We’re going to have 50% of the organisation living in the 12 counties by 2026. We always have a greater percentage of youth and that trend is going to continue and accelerate.
“As an organisation, the GAA has to make sure this works in Leinster. It’s a partnership.”
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