'This is a wake-up call': Annual losses of half a million 'unsustainable', says Cork GAA chief
Cork GAA chief Kevin O’Donovan has admitted that finances in the county are close to “crisis point” but he believes there is a route out of the problem in 2020.
Ahead of next week’s annual GAA convention in the county, he revealed at a press briefing that Cork GAA faces a 2019 shortfall of almost €560,000. While there were exceptional once-off items accounting for around one-quarter of that, he said those kinds of losses are unsustainable into the future.
“Crisis is a dangerous word, but we can’t have another year like this. Yes, our reserves are secure but it’s not sustainable to continue with losses indefinitely. This is a wake-up call for Cork GAA.
One of the key elements in the Cork County Board’s €560,000 shortfall is the decline in attendances at club games within the county.
Last year the Board took in €1,030,365 from those games, while this year that figure is down to €825,664 - and the latter figure includes €37,500 in media rights.
“The drop in attendances was huge,” said county secretary Kevin O’Donovan.
“Did we run our games differently? I was chair of the CCC last year and secretary this year and I didn’t see a significant difference in how we run our games.
Yes, shutting down for the summer is killing us, because as a county with a dual nature, crashing multiple games into August and September weekends . . . only the supporters of the clubs involved can go, you can forget about neutrals because they’re all on at the same time.
“We were unfortunate there were no replays of county finals and semi-finals but that’s not something we should be budgeting for anyway - that should be a bonus.”
O’Donovan accepted there has been criticism of divisional teams reaching county finals, with some observers blaming them for the low attendances in the deciders.
“The divisions have got the flak for the attendances at county finals, and that’s a bit unfair. If they’re in a competition they’re entitled to progress as far as they can.
“People’s loyalty is to their clubs but we’ve modified the championship a bit this year in that only one team will come out of the colleges and divisions, and I’ve given a few other suggestions to see how we could balance it a little more.
“I don’t think we want a division to win ten in a row: I don’t think that’s good for the club scene in Cork and it’s certainly not good for our gates.
“But those are only one or two games, in general gates are suffering and we have to start playing games in the summer time.” County board treasurer Derry Gowen added: “It’s very hard to plan and budget for games. 60% of our games income comes from quarter-, semi-finals and finals. A few bad games at that stage and you can be down €200,000 in three games.
“We didn’t have replays at that level this year, which shows you can be lucky or unlucky.”
The championships will have a different format next year but O’Donovan pointed out that “it’s not as simple” as increasing the number of games to boost gates.
“We have already reformed our championship structures, we’ll have extra quarter-finals and semi-finals, more teams on the road, more teams playing games - we know that’ll catch the neutral supporter but it should lead to an increase in attendances and an improvement in our coffers.
“We will be playing games in the summer time next year. Anywhere we can find a game without a county player in round two of a three-team series, were playing that game in July. We know guys have J-1s and so on but we’ll have a fixture programme before Christmas so they can plan accordingly.
“It’s a community game and a summer game, it wasn’t invented for floodlights in the cold when children can’t go.
“We also incurred expenses in hosting games, and that hurts us because as our attendances go down our expenses go up.
“The general change in championship structures has already impacted on people’s habits in attending games, he added.
“Is there ever going to be a million euro come in to this board’s accounts again (in attendances)? My club used to be knocked out in June but we’d follow every senior team in west Cork for the rest of the year “Now, though, my club has the back door so there are more games, and we follow just that team. I can’t say double the games and we’ll double the money.
“There’s no point in running away from this, it’s the key aspect of the secretary’s report and there’s no point in saying otherwise.
“The Board lost over half a million euro this year. We are at crisis point and crisis is a dangerous word to bandy around, but we can’t have another year like this.
“Yes, our reserves are secure but it’s not sustainable to continue losses like this indefinitely.”
Cork GAA chief Kevin O’Donovan has admitted that finances in the county are close to “crisis point” but he is confident measures taken will improve the situation for 2020, writes
Ahead of next week's annual convention, he revealed at a press briefing that Cork GAA faces a shortfall of almost €560,000. While there were exceptional once-off items accounting for around one-quarter of that, he said those kinds of losses are unsustainable into the future.
“Crisis is a dangerous word, but we can’t have another year like this. Yes, our reserves are secure but it’s not sustainable to continue with losses indefinitely. This is a wake-up call for Cork GAA.
The drop in attendances was huge this year. You look back and see if there was a notable difference in how the games were run and I didn’t see that. Yes, shutting down for the summer is killing us because of our nature as a dual county.
Key losses for the year were gate receipts of nearly €200,000, a €60,000 drop in commercial income, a €100,000 increase inter-county expenses, and a €50,000 drop in revenue from Cork GAA Clubs' Draw.
“Crashing games into August and September weekends, with only supporters of those teams present – you can forget about games as a neutral anymore, because they’re all on at the same time – that’s killing us.
“We were unfortunate that there weren’t replays in county finals or semi-finals but that’s not something we should be budgeting for, that should be a bonus.
“Next year, anywhere we can find space for a game without county players, in round two of a three-game series, we’re playing that game in July. We know guys have J1s and so on, we will give a fixture programme in December so they can plan accordingly.
“But it is a summer game, it is a community game, it was not a game invented for floodlights in the freezing cold, where children can’t go. It is a summer game – it’s grand to go to the county final in October but not grand to be going to a second-round game in mid-September, when we’re all back to school.”
In 2018, Chill Insurance paid Cork €400,000 but this figure was €330,000 for 2019.
“Our sponsors are brilliant supporters but new deals are now performance-related,” O’Donovan said.
“While our underage teams were successful, it’s not linked to that, it’s linked to the success of the senior teams.
“We need more commercial partners, we are behind the curve with other counties in that. There will be a commercial manager appointed in the medium term, possibly shared with the stadium, possibly in a role with [fundraising body] Cairde Chorcaí, but that has got to come urgently.
“You might that if we’re running losses then the last thing we need is staff, but we need people who can generate revenue.”
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