Minister for Sport defends government support for Katie Taylor Croke Park fight

Editorial Photos of the Year - April 2022 Katie Taylor vs Amanda Serrano Weigh-In, Madison Square Garden, New York 29/4/2022 Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano Mandatory Credit ©INPHO/Gary Carr

The Minister of State for Sport Thomas Byrne has rebutted suggestions the government was not willing to engage with all parties to organise Katie Taylor’s potential homecoming fight at Croke Park.

Matchroom promoter Eddie Hearn said last night that the World Champion’s anticipated rematch with Amanda Serrano would likely take place in Dublin's 3Arena on May 20 due to costs. During Leaders’ Questions in Dáil Éireann, Sinn Féin TD Chris Andrews asked would the government pull out all the stops to ensure Katie Taylor has her fight in Croke Park.

“I absolutely agree it would be wonderful to see Katie Taylor in Croke Park,” Byrne said.

“To that end, the very first meeting I took with anyone outside of the department was with Katie Taylor’s manager, Brian Peters in the early part of January.

“They explained to us there was a funding gap between what the promoters were prepared to pay for the fight and what the fight would actually cost. We said, ‘yes government does support major events.’ Absolutely, but there is a process to go through. What we did immediately after that was raise queries on what the costs would be and other details that would be necessary.

“The department is currently considering the responses to those queries. I would say one of the difficulties is with the date. If you are doing the calculations for cost benefit in terms of tourism which major events have to go through, May 20 is already hosting the Heineken Cup final which is a huge event in European rugby and Dublin tourism would be full that particular night.

“A fight in November which was previously muted last year would be an entirely different calculation. The consideration is still ongoing.

“What Mr. Hearn said on some MMA channel yesterday that the government had not been in touch is simply not the case. There has been a range of meetings and correspondents over the last while.” 

Earlier today, Croke Park commercial director Peter McKenna a disagreement over security costs may have scuppered a potential Katie Taylor deal. Hearn claimed the cost of staging the fight is almost three times more than Wembley.

“The last time we talked to them properly was before Christmas,” McKenna said. “We would love to have the fight here. We set our stall out on that basis. So our rent was coming in around €400,000. I think the rent for Wembley is about £250,000/£300,000.

“The real issue here is about security costs which we felt the promoter should carry and having gone through this with statutory services and our own team, we looked at the risk analysis on the event and we felt that the amount of security that you’d need would be at the top level and that is not inexpensive.”