Large revenue drop for GAA

THE Aviva Stadium’s opening last May was the primary reason for the GAA’s €10m drop in revenue in 2010.

Nobody in Croke Park was hiding the fact the decrease from €68m in 2009 to €58m was largely down to the return of Ireland international rugby and soccer teams to Dublin 4.

The three Six Nations games last year brought in €4m compared to the €13m which was generated by the four international rugby and five soccer games in 2009. Worse still, this year’s accounts will show a further drop of €4m.

The organisation’s 2010 accounts also showed their operating surplus had almost halved, from €24.7m in 2009 to €13.4m (a drop of 46%).

However, the GAA were dwelling on the positives. Gate receipts were up from 2009 to €26m, for one. At €19.75m, commercial revenue was only slightly less than the 2009 figure.

And it wasn’t as if the end of the FAI’s and IRFU’s tenancy at Croke Park came as a shock.

“We did generate a reasonable drop in return,” acknowledged GAA director of finance Tom Ryan. “That was foreseen and planned for and was largely, if not exclusively, due to the reduction in stadium rental — the fact that we only staged three rugby games as opposed to a full quota of rugby and soccer games in 2009.

“Our core revenues are actually ahead of where we thought they would be, actually ahead of where we were in 2009, which is very, very encouraging.”

Croke Park director Peter McKenna was keen to put the three-year period in which the FAI and IRFU used the stadium into context.

“We had some rugby here in 2010 but obviously there will be none here this year. I think we have to see it for what it was,” he said.

“It was a huge benefit when it came through. We knew we were only going to get it for a short period of time.

“I think, very intelligently, Coiste Bainistí (GAA management committee) decided to ring-fence the expenditure and then earmark that for capital developments around the country. So the benefit of soccer and rugby will be across 32 counties forever.”

Although gate receipts were up, attendances were down by 2% to €1.4m although Ryan admitted the decrease could have been more substantial but for high-profile replays last summer.

Despite the GAA’s plans to cut ticket prices this summer and devise more ticket packages and incentives, there are concerns the increase in fuel prices could be an extra deterrent.

However, Ryan pointed out the habits of supporters attending matches are more sophisticated than just that.

“We have done some market research as to what it is that gets people to go to matches or what it is that maybe precludes people from going to matches. And there’s far more to it than purely the admission prices.

“Our fortunes depend very much on admission prices on a very small number of games really so tinkering with those is not something we would do lightly.

“You talk about fuel prices, the cost of meals for families, all of those things. They’re outside of our direct control and to a certain extent what you want to guard against is that you lop off another fiver or whatever off the admission price and all you’re doing is sacrificing revenue.

“We’ll monitor how things go throughout the league and we always have our mind towards the supporters, of course we do, so we’ll keep an eye on things and see how they go throughout the league and assess things from there.”

GAA President Christy Cooney, meanwhile, insisted they have no designs on getting rid of the likes of the Christy Ring, Nicky Rackard and Lory Meagher Cups.

The accounts showed the lower level hurling competitions significantly tax the association’s coffers.

“The promotion of hurling is crucially important to us. It’s important for us to promote our games and give everyone the opportunity to play our games at the highest level they possibly can. So we have no intention of dropping any competitions.”

Ryan concluded by stating the GAA were “in a sound and stable financial state to meet the year ahead”.