GAA willing to put people before profit

In what may be described as backing measures to put people before profit, the GAA stand to lose millions of euro for the sake of freeing up their fixtures calendar to accommodate club teams.

Approximately €9 million was reaped from the three All-Ireland hurling final replays from 2012 to ’14 and roughly another €3m of additional gate receipts following All-Ireland football semi-final replays in the last two seasons.

However, from 2017, the association’s hierarchy are proposing the facility of extra-time apply to all games including All-Ireland finals. Replays would only be scheduled in the event of teams finishing level after two additional periods of 10 minutes. They believe it is a fundamental part of introducing a calendar-year fixtures schedule, which would see the All-Ireland Club finals played in December instead of the following February and March.