Mayo must produce debt plan
The board had been paying off interest-only loans to Croke Park (€4.5m) and the Ulster Bank (€6m) until last month after receiving a €5m grant from the GAA to pay for the project.
When the terms were drawn up in 2008, capital payments were due to be incorporated into the repayments after two years but, due to financial difficulties, the board restructured the loans.
Those first capital payments were due to be paid at the end of October but the board told club delegates on Monday night they were attempting to renegotiate the €500,000 bill which was due in order to return to interest-only payments.
Croke Park officials travelled to Mayo on Monday morning for an urgent meeting with the board’s executive where they were told to get their finances in order. As a result the board have been given two weeks to draw up plans to restructure their loans and service the mounting debt.
So far the board has paid off €784,076.82 in interest payments to the bank with a further €534,062.73 on the principle sum but the bank and Croke Park require a steady payment on the capital costs.
The board had already been struggling to raise the €400,000 per annum in interest repayments with some clubs stretched to the limits. However, should capital repayments be added to the costs that sum would rise to €1m per year forcing fundraising efforts to increase by 150%.
Work in MacHale Park is still not finished though, with an estimated €1.6m required to finish the media centre and other elements of the grounds.
Delegates in attendance called on the board to renegotiate the original deal while others blamed the debacle on a loss of €3m in planned lotto funding.
This follows a recent decision to sell the naming rights to the stadium to main sponsors Elverys Sports in order to provide a steady cash flow into the board’s coffers. The board had claimed it would alleviate the burden of fundraising from clubs.
“A lot of research went into the ins and outs of the entire stadium, especially the financial aspects,” said secretary Sean Feeney.
“Money has to be raised to meet our repayments. Clubs are always the first port of call when fundraising but there’s a limit on what you can ask them because they all have their own debts. That’s why this deal was so important to be concluded and we’re very grateful to Elverys for coming on board.”
It also comes seven months after the board rejected an independent body’s strategic review plan which included a way to service the full debt through the creation of a commercial director’s role.
The Mayo GAA steering committee had been put together charged with creating an action plan for the county over the next five years, following the county’s losses to Longford and Sligo in the 2010 championship.
The seven recommendations made by the committee, which was chaired by journalist Liam Horan, also included the creation of a director of football role, a five-year financial and fundraising plan and a full and independent review of Mayo GAA finances. However, the board had opted to go with a separate plan of its own, a move which has sparked discontent from Horan.
“Mayo GAA board asked us to do this work over the winter of 2010/11,” he said at the time.
“Our committee did not force itself upon them. Our work was to form part of a ‘root and branch examination’, the board’s words, not ours, of Mayo GAA. The final plan now produced ticks a box but does no more than that. Somewhere, an entry can now be made, ‘Yes, Mayo now has a strategic plan’. But it is a dry document without any soul or heart.
“The plan produced does not provide for Mayo doing something dramatic, something bold, something truly innovative. It is hard to disagree with any of the proposals in it, but it certainly will not inspire.
“If adopted, it means that Mayo GAA is happy to keep doing what it has always done, thereby continuing to fail to realise its vast potential as a GAA force. Our committee has written to Mayo County Board to disassociate our names from the plan.”
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