From basket case to model county: How Galway GAA turned their finances around

What a difference a year makes.

At the 2018 Galway convention, the county board executive were pilloried by club delegates for failing to call out the financial mismanagement within Galway GAA during the period 2015-17.

The “serious abuse” of the Galway GAA credit card for the payment of personal expenses, officer expenses totalling €45k in 2016, and the accrual of almost half a million in ticket debt were among the explosive revelations, as outlined by county board treasurer Mike Burke 12 months ago, which had given rise to an independent audit commissioned by Croke Park.

Pádraig Pearses’ Paul Bellew, addressing the top table at last year’s convention, described the culture within the county board as “absolutely rotten”; Shane Forde of St James said Galway GAA was “toxic” and questioned whether the board’s auditors, DHKN, had been misled as to the true state of the county’s finances; while Claregalway’s John Morrin queried how the accounts could be signed off on in light of the “outrageous practices” that had gone unnoticed for a period of time.

Fast forward to last night’s Galway convention and the mood from the floor was altogether different, despite an overall deficit of €261k for 2019 being incurred and the collapse of the county’s fundraising income to the tune of €715k.

The establishment of an independent audit committee, the ongoing work and oversight provided by Croke Park’s David Connellan, and the appointment of Mark Gottsche as the county’s first-ever finance and operations manager means there are now seven pairs of eyes pouring through every red cent Galway take in and expend.

Treasurer Mike Burke told delegates at last night’s convention that Galway’s gate receipts income, which totalled €1.24m this year, is unmatched by any other county, while chairman Pat Kearney said their financial systems were the “envy” of others.

Officer expenses, meanwhile, are down to €11k, a quarter of what they were two years ago.

Paul Bellew was again among the contributors from the floor at convention 2019 but his remarks and, indeed, tone were far removed from 12 months ago.

“A 20% increase year-on-year in our gate receipts is pretty unprecedented and pretty excellent. If we could maintain that, it would be worth more than €600k to us over the next couple of years. It is bucking the trend nationally, when you consider the figures coming out of Wexford, Dublin, and Cork. That is a fantastic testament to what we have and hopefully, that pushes on,” he began.

“There was a piece in the Irish Examiner in October praising the foresight and vision of Cork GAA in setting up an oversight and risk-committee. Galway GAA has an external audit committee in place since before that, with significant representation on it.

“The net effect of that is since this time last year, between Mark Gottsche’s appointment, David Connellan, and the oversight committee, there are six additional people looking at and monitoring Galway’s financial affairs. And that is something that needs to be highlighted very, very strongly because there are too many myths and too lack of facts out there.

We are now gone from probably being termed a basket case to being the model of how that would be followed. I would have laughed at that a year ago.

Bellew said county board officers need to get the message out there that Galway GAA is open for business so as to counter the negative publicity which continues to dog the county.

“Some of the media commentary this year, we didn’t help ourselves by [not] tackling it. As someone who served on the internal audit committee, to see this year lost on the negativity that was out there, when there was so much reform happening, was really, really disappointing. I tore the heads off a few of [the executive] last year. I stood over what I said at the time. But I must give credit where credit is due.

“Galway is very much up for business. What is very disappointing is people abusing Galway’s failures when they were down and kicking them when they were on the ground. We mightn’t be up the hill just yet, but we will certainly get there. Galway is not in the midst of a financial and governance crisis. That needs to be very clear.

“People that are putting down Galway to grind axes need to stop and we need to do a better job of publicising the work that is being done.”

Brian Keville of Liam Mellows was also complimentary of the reforms brought about, but believes Galway GAA cannot simply forget their troubled past.

“Looking back at the 2017 accounts, inter-county gate receipts over the past two years have increased from €195k to €297k and club gate receipts have increased from €866k to €1.2m. With a difference of €483k in three years down to the new bosca system (tickets are purchased at a van outside the ground on match-day to eliminate cash changing hands at the turnstile), does it, unfortunately, shine a light on past practices? Until we deal with matters of the past, it is very hard to move forward with confidence.”

Burke was adamant Galway must “draw a line in the sand” and look ahead, rather than back.

“Personally, the future is onwards and upwards. I hope to be back here this time next year with larger gate receipts. It is all down to control and management. If we do not have that at our games, you run the risk of losing two-thirds of the gate. Going forward, a major percentage of our revenue will be our club gates because we need the money.”