Connacht Council CEO Prenty in favour of Croker ground control

Control over county ground development projects should be taken away from county board officers and handed over to Croke Park, according to Connacht Council CEO John Prenty.

Prenty is in favour of Croke Park overseeing the planning and budgeting of a county ground or centre of excellence that a particular board may wish to build or redevelop.

County board officers, in his opinion, cannot be expected to possess the necessary expertise to undertake such significant projects.

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“It became clear in the middle of the year that the amount spent on the stadium way exceeded what people thought,” McKenna told the Irish Examiner. “We’re probably close to €110m as a final cost, and what was the ability to pay that? In order to stem the debt or put a shape to it, we needed an experienced management team involved.”

Galway GAA is another county board to run up significant debts following their failed plan to develop a centre of excellence towards the end of the Celtic Tiger era. The Galway county board are currently servicing a €3.1m loan after the purchase of a 103-acre site in Mountain South outside Athenry, bought for €2.5m in 2008, which was to be developed into a training facility for their county teams.

It is time, Prenty writes in his annual report, for Croke Park to step in and put an experienced hand on the tiller when county boards begin the process of developing or upgrading their county venue.

Looking at past experiences in infrastructural development, it is obvious that county officers cannot be expected to have the financial acumen or practical experience to undertake major developments on their own.

It is time for the Association to put together a unit that will take this burden out of the hands of our counties and that all aspects of planning, budgeting for and development of training centres and county grounds should be handled at a central level.

Prenty added: “Financing the development, maintenance and upkeep of county grounds and training centres is proving a major headache/noose around the heads of county officers. Currently, the national infrastructure committee, under the chairmanship of John Murphy, is drawing up a strategic plan and template for all counties to follow when undertaking any type of infrastructural development.

“Benjamin Franklin once said that: ‘In this world, nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes’. It appears in the GAA world this could be restated as: ‘Nothing can be said to be certain, except debt and levies’.”

The Connacht Council CEO also questioned the spend on inter-county teams in the province. Connacht counties increased their spending on inter-county team preparations by 8% to €4.88m in 2018. Prenty believes a limit must be put in place.

“Huge amounts are being spent on backroom teams and professional services which appear to be uncontrollable, with numbers as large as a small hospital! It appears that we are locked into a system where we must copy what other teams, including professional outfits, are doing and to hell with the cost. It is ironic that at a time when we are spending more than ever before, that Gaelic football, in particular, is losing spectator appeal and TV audience appeal.”