Lilywhites tackle €200,000 deficit

KILDARE GAA officials will be meeting with players and managers to discuss cost-cutting measures for 2012 to wipe out a €200,000 deficit.

The Lilywhites’ board have asked clubs to come up with ideas before county convention next month. County treasurer Martin Whyte broke the news to club delegates at Tuesday night’s board’s meeting, insisting management and players will receive the full backing of the board.

However, the process of clearing the debt will take a minimum of two years and county chairman John McMahon said no area could be ruled out for cuts and he will be meeting Kieran McGeeney and the players to discuss their options.

“There’s no point in bringing in additional money on one side, and we all know how difficult and onerous that job is too, if we didn’t seriously look at our expenditure on the other side,” he said.

“That will cut across the board. We will examine everything, look at everything, consult with our team managers. We’ll go down through the whole thing to all of our levels. Everyone is singing off the same hymn sheet. Money is tight and we will have to negotiate with all those people.

“And most of all, the most important people are our players. Be it our senior hurlers or footballers, minors or U21s, it doesn’t matter. We all know the commitment and time and energy they put into their sport. They are also cognisant of how difficult things are. Some of them have lost their jobs, they’ve all had reductions in initial salaries so they’re only too aware of the difficulties we have.

“We’re expecting, when we get ready to talk to these lads as part of the bigger frame of people we’ll be talking to, that they certainly will sit down and listen to us because it’s their aim, it’s our aim, it’s every supporters’ aim in Kildare to try and bring a bit of silverware back to the county for 2012.”

McMahon accepted times are hard and realised the clubs would not be able to take the full burden of the costs. In examining extra ways to grow income the board hope to launch a new county jersey before Christmas in order to cash in on that market.

Plans to open a Kildare GAA shop and launch the new jersey are almost complete but the board insist this measure would not be sufficient and cost-cutting measures would have to be put in place to avert a similar deficit in the future.

“That just came fortuitously for us. As you know Tegral have been sponsors of Kildare for more years than we can remember and we’re fierce appreciative of that fact,” he said.

“Tegral are re-branding the product so as part of the new branding they asked us to consider their new brand and their name on the jersey.

“It was just a bit of luck that it happened. We would always comply with our sponsors’ requests so we just took the opportunity to re-brand the jersey.

Once that has been achieved McMahon aims to target on three areas: expenditure, income and fundraising number three.

“Regarding expenditure, we are looking at that in detail since I took over office, during the year.

“We’ve been looking at different details as best we can, trying to look at it for a part year this year, which is the case, and expanding that to look at all our costs and outgoings for 2012.

“Our main source of income is our colleagues in Leinster, Croke Park and our various supporters paying at the gates at matches we have within the county and on the county scene.

“You don’t need me to tell you it’s hard times we’re living in.

“People are looking at all the ways they are spending their money, including their leisure activities.

“We’re no different from any other counties.

“Most of our gate incomes were reduced this year and part of that reason was reduced admissions. At our county football final tickets dropped from €20 to €15 and the hurling went from €15 to €10.

“Number three then was new ways of raising finance.”

Kildare look to McCreevy to cut deficit

KILDARE County Board have recruited Charlie McCreevy’s services to help reduce the county’s growing deficit.

The former EU Commissioner and Minister for Finance has been a member of the county board’s finance committee for several years and is a life-long supporter of the Lilywhites.

However, county board chairman John McMahon said McCreevy is not the only high-profile name they are planning to bring in to help them.

“Charlie has been involved in the backroom for a long time, not just today or yesterday,” he said. “The man with his contacts and experience and ingenuity [would be an asset]. The fact he is already a fully committed Kildare supporter, we have to acknowledge the worth and value he can bring to the table. He wouldn’t be the only one. We have several high-profile GAA supporters who are willing and able, coming from club backgrounds, willing to work for the county’s success. There’s a huge amount of goodwill out there.”