Costs of relegation from Hurling's Division 1A have rarely been greater
GOING DOWN?: Aidan McCarthy of Clare comes up against Simon Donohue of Wexford. Pic: INPHO/James Lawlor.
The costs attached to relegation from Division 1A have rarely been greater and they will come into sharper focus for counties after this weekend’s Round 5 series of games.
Defeat for Clare against Limerick combined with wins for Cork and Wexford and the All-Ireland champions’ demotion to Division 1B will be all but confirmed.
Whoever goes down, the repercussions are unthinkable. But why?:
In 2023, Dublin broke a 21-year cycle of Division 1 football teams winning All-Ireland titles in the same year. Armagh repeated that trick last season.
In hurling, not since Wexford in 1996 has a team in an eight-county second tier go on to win the year’s All-Ireland.
Limerick claimed the Liam MacCarthy in 2018 having played in Division 1B earlier that season but the quality of that six-team group was stronger as it was the previous year when Galway did the same.
In 1996, all seven of Wexford’s Division 2 opponents competed for the Liam MacCarthy Cup. Currently, three of the Division 1B are in the Joe McDonagh Cup.
Some Division 1A managers have lamented the lack of opportunity for developing players in the new cut-throat top level but nobody will want to be afforded that in Division 1B when it is at the expense of exposure to facing All-Ireland contenders.
Net home gate receipts in the league go back to the counties. In 2011, Limerick secretary Mike O’Riordan said that Division 1B hurling was costing the county in excess of €100,000 per annum.
"With respect to the other teams in Division 1B, we won't be attracting big gates to the Gaelic Grounds,” he said.
“When you add everything together, we put the cost at €100,000. We won't have Kilkenny or Tipperary in the Gaelic Grounds and that won't draw the crowds. The raised profile we were anticipating has been taken away.”
Consider inflation and that figure would be around the €125,000 mark now but that doesn’t take into account just how attractive Limerick have become since winning five All-Ireland SHC titles in seven seasons.
Their clash with Tipperary attracted over 11,000 to TUS Gaelic Grounds and the Clare game this Sunday will draw another large crowd before Wexford arrive on the final round on March 22. Last year’s Division 1 finalists Clare and Kilkenny’s national league shares were €146,477 and €149,568 respectively.
In future, will a county be able to spend as much on a team in Division 1B as that in the seven-team elite?
Let’s talk about the immediate ramifications of relegation. Say a team is sent down on March 22 – is four weeks enough time to put their worries behind for a tilt at a provincial championship starting on April 19/20, Easter weekend?
The last team to be relegated from the top flight and win an All-Ireland a few months later? Clare came close in 2013, staving off relegation in a play-off, but Cork in 1978 rallied after being relegated from Division 1B with Tipperary to land the ultimate title.
Counties are wise enough to sign up for multi-year agreements but woe betide a county if relegation coincides with a renegotiation or a search for a new backer.
It may very turn out that teams who go down this year will come straight back up but companies prefer certainties if they are to make investments in teams.
Limerick spent eight straight years in Division 1B. Trying to source and consolidate associate backers will be made all the more difficult if the team is playing off Broadway for half of the inter-county season.
As much as counties would like to believe local patrons will be there in the bad times as well as the good, some may be too keen to pay the same at a lower level if there are less eyeballs on their brands.
Kilkenny last year drew €129,900 in advertising and signage, Wexford accrued approximately €67,000 and Clare €63,500. Match programmes revenue for league is not chicken feed by any means, bringing in net incomes of tens of thousands in some counties.
Broadcasters, who come with chequebooks, will also be more disinclined to show a Division 1B game than a 1A affair. Jersey sales will almost certainly decline with a fall in divisions. In their exile from Division 1A, Limerick’s fundraising suffered considerably.
Winning hearts and minds will be onerous in Division 1B especially when the €5 ticket admission for U16s applies there too.
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