Is corporate Croke Park calling shots?

The former GAA president on how the organisation is balancing its commercial responsibilities with its traditional core

The bad old days are back for the GAA it seems. Prior to the opening of Croke Park to rugby and soccer, the GAA was often the whipping boy for all sorts of often illogical reasons.

Phrases like ‘The Grab All Association’; ‘all they care about is money’; ‘the ref played for a draw’; ‘a backward looking shower’ were a constant recourse of clichés for critics of those charged with overseeing gaelic games.

Then Croke Park opened and as a result the GAA could do no wrong. It was held up as a shining example of right while the church, banking systems and politicians squirmed under the spotlight. The GAA enjoyed a decade of virtual immunity from criticism. 2014 has changed all that. Why? The three big public controversies that have given rise to such vehement criticism of the GAA this year are all bound up in commercialism.

Sky Sports, Garth Brooks and now the All-Ireland semi-final replay have all been interpreted by critics as indications of “greed and blatant commercialism” by the GAA.

No less a loyal life long servant of the GAA than Mickey Ned O’Sullivan fumed in this paper on Wednesday: “the game is second place to financial greed. Corporate Croke Park is calling the shots.”

Mikey Ned’s views have been echoed by other critics both within and outside the Association. Is corporate Croke Park, the commercial wing of the GAA, calling the shots?

Perhaps, but is it not their job to seek out and avail of commercial opportunities?

Indeed, Peter McKenna and his staff have done a tremendous job. But are they calling the shots? This is the nub of the problem. The commercial department makes proposals. They are supposed to be discussed and then rejected or accepted by GAA officialdom. Is it possible the GAA’s Management Committee and Central Council are letting too many proposals go through ‘on the nod’ rather than properly analysing them in terms of the Association’s overall ethos?

If Mickey Ned’s assertions are true then its time that the elected representatives of the GAA looked for more information prior to decisions being made and analyse the consequences of any deals which proceed.

The Sky Sports deal is a case in point. The commercial department went for the best deal but going with Sky was a major policy shift for an organisation religiously favouring Irish industry. The policy decision was made and when many genuine GAA people vented their anger they were told the issue was ‘a commercial matter’.

Today’s American Football game (which has forced the Kerry v Mayo replay to Limerick) is a great opportunity and should pay rich dividends commercially both immediately and more importantly down the road.

The problem is the timing and the consequences for our own players and our own fans. Our best players, all amateurs and our most loyal supporters, all volunteers are banished from Croke Park today, while a foreign game with all foreign players takes over our ‘field’.

Naturally it doesn’t fit too well with a lot of people. When Croke Park was being opened to soccer and rugby one of the major stipulations was it wouldn’t interfere with the staging of our own games. And it didn’t.

Could you imagine the outrage if an All-Ireland semi-final was moved out of Croke Park to accommodate a soccer match? I can understand giving the go ahead to today’s game in Croke Park for the chances of last week’s game finishing in a draw were remote enough, one in ten or thereabouts, but what I cannot understand is the rejection offhand of Mayo’s proposal the game be played on Saturday week in Croke Park.

So what if tomorrow’s Dublin and Donegal semi-final finishes in a draw? Just play two semi-final replays together and divide the tickets as fairly as possible as has to be done for every All-Ireland where countries get far less of an allocation as they would for other games. This would be the fairest solution and it would be the same for all as it should.

Now, we come to Limerick as a venue. Personally, selfishly, I’m delighted. From a Kerry viewpoint its about a third of the way to Dublin, it’s a good Munster venue and the GAA in Limerick as well as the wider community are getting recognition. It will be a great occasion and won’t do Kerry any harm.

John Maughan gave the Mayo viewpoint logically in this paper. If I were a Mayo fan I wouldn’t be too happy. I’m not going to go over the obvious points but one that John raised, if true, demands an answer. John stated: “The Gaelic Grounds was deemed am unsuitable venue for this spring’s All-Ireland Club semi-final between Dr Crokes and Castlebar Mitchels on the basis it was handing unfair advantage to Dr Crokes as a Munster venue. The game was then moved to Portlaoise, but the same committee decided the Gaelic Grounds is an appropriate venue for a Mayo v Kerry clash!”

If this is true it would be wise and right to explain the logic of the two seemingly contradictory decisions to Maughan and every Mayo fan. That apart, today’s game will be one for the history books. It will be a great occasion but lets pray it doesn’t finish in a draw again!

I’m going for Kerry, but if it goes to a second replay, I propose the income generated should be used by the GAA to buy Hayes Hotel Thurles, which is shortly being put up for auction.

That would be a commercial matter well worth considering.