Mayo GAA ready to reap financial rewards of historic All-Ireland success
A Mayo-decorated Lamborghini during the homecoming celebrations at Hastings Insurance MacHale Park. Pic: Sportsfile
It’s on good authority that we report Ballina ran out of Guinness and Heineken on Monday. And Sam has yet to arrive. Supplies have been sent for ahead of its long-awaited appearance on Wednesday.
In Dublin on Monday morning, a publican on Dorset Street close to Croke Park reported takings from the previous day were up more than two-fold on what he would expect on a usual All-Ireland SFC final day.
Mayo, considered the cash cows of the GAA for the guts of a decade up to 2021 - in Croke Park, they still talk about the crash of 2018 when the team finished up nowhere in Newbridge - are spending again.
Attendances for league games in Castlebar had been on the wane in recent years but boy will the stadium be thronged come the end of January. Mayo should have four home games in Division 1 and their season ticket allocation of 3,500, which has often been oversubscribed, will be coveted like never before.
The special edition All-Ireland final white jersey, that had been available for pre-order before Sunday, is expected to be one of the best-selling jerseys ever produced by O’Neills.
The power of Mayo football has also manifested itself in the streaming charts where The Saw Doctors’ has shot to No. 1 and fills the No. 3 spot.
There may have been a temptation for the Mayo County Board to charge people into Hastings Insurance MacHale Park for Monday’s homecoming of homecomings. Similarly, to watch proceedings could have come at a premium on Mayo GAA TV but sense was seen and it was streamed on the Mayo County Council website for free.
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Right now, Mayo are nickel and diming it with the by now traditional 26-MO-SAM car registrations for €5, with proceeds going to the players’ training fund. Their holiday coffers will be boosted to the tune of €150,000 from the GAA.
But make no mistake, Mayo GAA are ready to reap the financial rewards of this historic success. The appointment of Ruairí Conway as the county’s new chief executive in April couldn’t have been better timed.
Conway, a former employee of Google, EMEA and US software company Diligent, took up the role at the beginning of last month and his considerable sales experience is seen as a boon for the county.
His brief includes expanding the commercial opportunities as well as overseeing the development of the centre of excellence in Bohola between Swinford and Castlebar. What was considered a hefty €18 million development for a county that has had more than its fair share of financial issues doesn’t look so ambitious now.
As Mayo look to build on this euphoric success, no money is likely to be left on the table. The visit of Sam Maguire to Mayo’s home-away-from homes in Chicago, New York and London in the coming months will be lucrative as they will be joyous occasions.
In his post-match press conference on Sunday, manager Andy Moran spoke of his visits to the US at the end of last year and the inspiration provided by the success of Mayo’s diaspora.
He had been presented with a Chicago Cubs cap by one businessman.
“I wear that just to remind myself of the Mayo people, successful Mayo people who went around the world and made millions of euro, hired heaps of people, hired all the Irish boys when they were going over. If they can do it, why can't we do it on the football field?”
But Moran, as the likes of Jim McGuinness have done before him, was savvy enough to look across the seas for financial support early into his term. The training camp in Portugal last December was done on a tight budget. The next one might not be.
Sources suggest Mayo GAA will look to raised approximately $3 million (€2.64m) from their fundraising activities in the US in the coming months. That could turn out to be a conservative figure this year, but the hope is to raise it on an annual basis.
It had been the vision of Liam Horan 15 years ago to create a worldwide supporters club for Mayo, become “a super-power of the GAA world” and tap into the county’s demographic wealth abroad.
The county board at the time wasn’t ready for it and Horan’s plan as chairman of a strategic action committee was left to rot. The current one might be prepared to realise his vision.
Moran is right. Mayo have a raft of high-achieving ex-patriates. Before he left to return home to New Zealand for family reasons in early June, a signed Mayo jersey was presented to MetroLink programme director Seán Sweeney, whose father hailed from Castlebar.
What was a special going away present has become prized. Everyone with Mayo lineage will want a piece of them now.
Last year, Mayo GAA reported a surplus of €500,000 having accrued record income of €4.2m. They spent €1.35m on preparing teams. Mid-table, the 16th of the 32 counties. They have about €3m in cash. Their MacHale Park debt, which was almost €8m last year, is currently being repaid at €25,000 per month over 32 years.
It wasn’t so long ago, 15 months in fact, that GAA president Jarlath Burns and director general Tom Ryan visited a special county board meeting in Westport to show support to a beleaguered executive.
They were forced to deny claims of financial mismanagement, while a tax liability of €350,000 for the years 2018 to ’24 was later disclosed.
What a reversal of fortune it has been for those officials, some of whom have endured serious illness in the face of what Burns described as "bullying, intimidation and threats”. In his speech on Sunday, Mayo captain Jack Coyne heartily thanked a few of them.
Previously, Cork GAA chief executive Kevin O’Donovan has spoken about an All-Ireland victory as the best way of helping to clear their own stadium debt and realising tangible ambitions.
Mayo are in that envious position now. They can’t but grasp it.
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