Kevin McStay: I’ll struggle to cut Roscommon’s €15,000 weekly costs

The battle most counties face to finance teams is illustrated by Roscommon manager Kevin McStay’s claims that he will struggle to shave more from the estimated €15,000 per week it costs to turn out the county’s senior team.

McStay paid tribute to the Roscommon supporters and business community, who raise funds, and he said he hoped to avoid the embarrassment of being unable to pay for vital team services in 2018.

The €15,000 a week cost, disclosed at the recent Roscommon convention, covers transport, meals, training costs, gear, and other expenses.

In his first year in sole charge, McStay led Roscommon to the Connacht title, but after a long season culminated with a replay defeat to Mayo in the All-Ireland quarter-final, he admits it was a struggle to fund the team.

The management has appeared before the county’s interim finance committee, which has a representative from Croke Park, to sort out the long-term cash flow problems. His budget for the new season was approved.

McStay will forego a mid-season training camp to trim costs, while finance from a fly-on-the-wall documentary made about the team went straight into funding a hotel stay in Dublin.

“The budget is signed off, it’s agreed. My budget had to go in front of the Croke Park interim finance committee. Everything is being watched here.

"There was certainly a difficulty around it and you’d prefer if it hadn’t to be that way, but that’s where some of the counties are. They are living from week to week, month to month, trying to [survive]. I just don’t see where we, personally, can cut any more corners.”

At the Roscommon convention, former treasurer Seamus Maher said the Croke Park interim finance committee had to rescue the county, due to an initial creditors bill of over €550,000. That total has since been reduced by advances on grants from Croke Park.

“I have asked people to join our backroom team, professionals who are providing a service,” said McStay. “We agree a fee — it is never slaughterhouse money — and then they find after they have done the [job] that they don’t get paid at the end of the week.

"That’s tarred on me. Who are they ringing when they don’t get paid? They don’t ring the chairman, they ring me, because I was the one that invited them in, so that’s embarrassing, it’s stressful, there’s no doubt about that, but it’s a reality and I’d say most county managers have that reality. It’s not nice.”