Systems and transparency - how Galway GAA got its house in order

HOUSE IN ORDER: Galway football manager Padraic Joyce stands for a portrait during a Galway senior football media conference at Pearse Stadium in Galway. Photo: Seb Daly/Sportsfile

The weather coming in off Galway Bay was pretty foul as delegates entered the Salthill Hotel on a dreary December night in 2018 for the annual county GAA convention. The atmosphere wasn’t much better in the room as another night of tribal bloodletting was about to unfold.

Delegates, many who, as usual, would take no active part in the meeting, were wringing hands with glee at another evening of craic as accusations would fly back and forth and fellas, with the backing of their cronies already in the bag, would dig in and move on.

Except this night was different. One of the top table occupants was spitting fire and those sitting around him were in the firing line. Mike Burke, a successful businessman from Kinvara well accustomed to balancing books and ensuring accountability, had come in as county treasurer the previous year and was horrified by what he found … sloppy accounting, hidden debts, massive expenses and surprisingly low gate receipts. And an accusation that certain individuals had done everything in their power to impede his investigation into the county’s finances.

Explosive stuff. Most of the delegates just sat back and digested it all. But some had had enough. Not everyone in the room that night knew of Paul Bellew before the meeting but they knew all about the delegate from Padraig Pearses, only in his 30s, when he declared that having worked on an audit committee, he found sections of ‘Galway GAA rotten to the core.’ Unlike many before him who unleashed a scud and disappeared, Bellew pushed on and walked the walk. Within a year he was elected chairman of the hurling board, two years later he eased to the top job in the county when he was elected Galway chairman last December.

It hasn’t been a one-man job, far from it, but Galway GAA is now in a different space since that explosive night in December 2018. There is still debt, but it is now managed and transparent. So too are all the procedures. Gate receipts jumped by 20% the following year as a new system came into place. Galway GAA is determined to become cashless. The days of the satchel are over. It had distributed 90% of its All-Ireland final tickets electronically by last Sunday.

Databases have been compiled, as much as possible is carried out by electronic transfers. Key individuals have been appointed across the board, committees have been empowered and there is a high level of transparency and accountability.

A key appointment has been that of Mark Gottsche as operations and finance manager. He arrived in Ireland when he was five from Germany back in 1992 when his father Jurgen took up a role lecturing in catering at Galway RTC. Somehow Jurgen became involved in the GAA and became a regular at Galway football board and county board meetings.

He was a stickler for rules and procedures and regularly delegates would nod in agreement as he brought some German pragmatism to an issue. Then the delegates would usually go off and vote the opposite way!

Mark Gottsche played for Oranmore Maree and worked his way into Galway underage sides and into senior, before moving to London where he resumed his playing career but also became involved in administration. He was a key figure on and off the field as London reached the Connacht final for the first time in 2013.

Gottsche was an ideal fit for Galway when he returned home a few years ago. A meticulous, low-key operator, he set about building from the bottom, putting good systems in place.

Galway are confident that not a single ‘genuine supporter’ will be without a ticket this week. They have not been shy or apologetic in cashing in either. On Tuesday night 300 attended a dinner at €300 a head (match ticket included) in the Lough Rea Hotel. Another 300 were booked in for Thursday night at the same venue which is owned by sponsors Supermac’s. Another 600 bought tickets for an ‘up for the match’ dinner in the Galmont Hotel in the city on Wednesday night, while hundreds are expected to attend a €25 a head stand-up gig at the Árd Rí Hotel in Tuam on Friday night. The profits from all events go to Galway GAA.

Various other events have been organised around the county, all of them transparent. Homecoming events have been planned, kept under wraps pending the outcome of the game, and team managers have been backed to the hilt.

Of course, Galway were going well too in 2018 on the field when the fireworks went off in the boardroom. They had narrowly surrendered their All-Ireland hurling crown to Limerick, while Kevin Walsh’s footballers reached the All-Ireland semi-final for the first time since 2001 and underage successes continued to flow in both codes.

The difference now, though, is there is not much wrong with the core of Galway GAA.