Leinster’s finances take a massive hit

LEINSTER Council finances took a huge drop last year with a reduction in gate receipts of close to €2 million.

Partly explained by the fact that in 2007 they had a lucrative Dublin/Meath replay, the loss was offset to a significant degree by increases of € 667,000 (Central Council grants/other income) and € 450,000 through commercial income.

The end result was the surplus was lower by only € 760,000 from the 2007 figure.

The Treasurer’s annual report reveals that the actual drop in total gate receipts in 2008 was €1,952,215 — down from € 7,882,370 to €5,930,155.

Notably, not one single game in this year’s senior football championship — other than the final (Dublin v Wexford) produced a gate of over a million euro. The nearest was € 940,496, for Dublin’s semi-final against Westmeath.

Conversely, Meath’s first round game against Carlow (in Croke Park) produced a gate of only just over a quarter of a million euro, while their quarter-final against Wexford in Dr Cullen Park netted a mere € 116,658.

Contrast that with returns of € 1.32m for the drawn Meath/Dublin quarter-final game in 2007 and € 1.35m for the replay, which was played along with a Wexford/Louth quarter-final. And, Dublin’s semi-final (against Offaly) produced a million and a half euro gate, which was marginally lower than the figure for the final.

Looked at another way, three quarter-final games in 2007 netted € 4.2m. whereas the four quarter-finals last year brought in just over €1.3m.

Council Secretary Michael Delaney commented that the quality of opposition in games against Dublin is invariably a key factor in attendances. “And, we had Meath/Dublin twice in 2007.’ In terms of the significant drop in overall receipts, he pointed out that they got a ‘drastic’ return for the 2008 hurling final between Kilkenny and Wexford (attendance 18,000). That produced a gate of €262,081.

“It’s probably a sign of times. I’d say that unknown to us, the recession has already caught up with us,’ he said.

“Last summer we had smaller numbers of people going to our games.’ Total income for the past year amounted to €9,749,555, with expenditure totalling €8,316,574 (a figure comparable to 2007). It produced a surplus of €1,432,981, compared to € 2,192,248 the previous year.

Meanwhile Council chiefs have confirmed that ticket prices have been kept at 2007 levels for Croke Park and local venues for all their senior championship games and their ‘family friendly’ tickets will continue to operate.

Stating that Leinster GAA were the first to introduce this concept, Delaney says that on many occasions in the past they have filled six sections in both the lower and upper Cusack Stand in Croke Park as well as a substantial portion of the Davin (Canal End) Stand – in real terms upwards of 25,000 supporters. In terms of the recession and the effects it will have on attendances and revenue streams, he says that the Council has fixed the majority of their ten senior football and six senior hurling championship games for local venues, ‘thereby reducing mach-day costs for patrons.’