Money

[Annascaultilidie]

Sept 25, 2017 6:41:00 GMT thebluepanther said:

Annascaultilidie and Mickmack.

I don't disagree Dublin got a massive proportion , but it's not 5 times a player. We pay coaching and games administration staff out of the money. Other counties don't (their provincial councils do) So it would be a lot less .
I'm more pointing out its not the figures others are showing.
Certain journalists are conviently leaving out information.
I'm not going to win this arguement, nor am I trying to. Dublin have been well funded . But we have also used it well .
Now is the time for GAA to put incentives into other Counties.

It is based on the figures you presented.

I have never heard anything like this.

How else do you propose that funding be compared other than per capita?

Let me clear I am not trying to belittle Dublin's amazing team here.

[Mickmack]

Tories punch down and Northern Irish school sports take a hit

The killing-off of an acclaimed scheme that put GAA and IFA coaches in schools is shameful

about 8 hours ago
Malachy Clerkin



This is a small story from a small slice of a small world. But then, so is everything else. Mesh them all together and we have society, the walk-around, look-around stuff of life. So bear with us for a bit, if you will.
A month from now, on Tuesday, October 31st, the plug will officially be pulled from something called the Curriculum Sports Programme in Northern Ireland. The scheme has been running since 2007, at a cost of £1.3 million (€1.47 million) a year, and its purpose has been to place coaches from the GAA and the Irish Football Association with primary schools across the six counties. When November 1st arrives, 24 hurling and football coaches and 27 of their soccer counterparts will be out of a job. Moreover, 450 schools across Northern Ireland will lose the cornerstone of how they’ve taught PE for the past decade.


Pretty much everybody in the North thinks this is a bad idea. The list of things in Northern Irish life that can be said to be an unequivocal cross-community success is never very long for very long. But over the past 10 years, this programme would have always been nailed on for a place. In 2014 it won a UK-wide award for coaching project of the year. It has been held up as an example of best practice in Canada, where it was commended for co-operation between governing bodies and government departments. Everyone from politicians to teachers to pupils to parents to sporting bodies recognises it as something that works.


And now it’s gone. Or going, at any rate. Justin McNulty, former Armagh footballer and now an SDLP MLA, has been banging the drum for the past six months to try to get the decision to scrap the scheme overturned. It would be wrong to say he’s lost all hope; it would be equally wrong to say he has very much of it left.

“I led a delegation of MLAs to meet David Sterling, the head of the civil service,” McNulty says. “And he also understands how positive the scheme is but says his hands are tied, to a certain extent. But it’s also a bit ironic that over the last week, David Sterling was part of the delegation who were presenting the bid for the 2023 Rugby World Cup.
“For him to be on the one hand saying that, yes, we understand the positive effect of sport and the massive contribution the Rugby World Cup will make to Ireland going forward, and then, on the other hand, to be axing a programme that is specifically sports-orientated makes no sense to me.”



Everybody punches down
Well, here’s the sense it makes. The schools programme is at the back of the queue. It’s where the rubber meets the road. It’s the point at which nightly news abstractions such as austerity and Brexit and Stormont gridlock start to consume real life in gluttonous, indiscriminate chunks. One minute you’re smarming your way through Have I Got News For You, next thing 38,000 kids under the age of eight have a little less sport in their lives at the stroke of a pen.
Everybody punches down. The UK government, still addicted to austerity as it is, has for the past year been in the process of slicing the best part of £1 billion off the block grant to Northern Ireland. As a result the North’s Department of Education has had to find £159 million in budget cuts. As a result, schools have had to find ways of making those cuts or face having them made for them. The schools coaching programme is one of the cuts that have been made for them.



A minister would have to stand in front of the Assembly and the electorate and justify this. Obviously the head of the civil service is not an elected representative, so he is not answerable in that way
In turn the political vacuum has allowed the situation to get to this point. Because there is no government in Stormont, there is no minister for education. The deadlock between Sinn Féin and the DUP is as far as ever from being broken, and in their place, the civil service is running the country. By its nature, the civil service is faceless and nameless. David Sterling has no constituency to placate, no pressure group to yield to. He has numbers to hit and Westminster bean-counters to satisfy. The programme is a line in a budget sheet, easily crossed off.
“I would say it would be different if the executive was back up and running,” says McNulty. “Because if that was the case, then you would have a minister who would have to be accountable for this decision. A minister would have to stand in front of the Assembly and the electorate and justify this. Obviously the head of the civil service is not an elected representative, so he is not answerable in that way. So basically, it would be much more difficult for a politician to get rid of this scheme than it is for a civil servant.”



51 jobs gone
Eugene Young is director of coaching and games development at the Ulster Council. The schools programme actually started life as an Ulster Council initiative back in the early 2000s, with trained coaches working with schools to provide two hours a week of PE to kids between four and eight. When Caitriona Ruane took over as sports minister in 2007, she introduced it to primary schools across the North and broadened it out to include soccer coaches from the IFA. At its heights, the scheme employed 60 coaches; when it finishes up next month, 51 jobs will be lost.

The guiding principle for all the coaches working in the programme is the promotion of physical literacy. What that means in jargon-free terms is that they’re not really coaching football or hurling or soccer per se. They’re coaching the basics of running and jumping and throwing and catching and kicking, the stuff of sport in general rather than overloading on specific skills.


I think they’re trying to get an ‘out’. But I’m not sure how they would be able to get cover on it. I do believe that David Sterling recognises that it’s a very valuable programme and that it has huge positive impacts.
The upshot is that although these schools will still provide PE, they will do so now without the professional guidance of qualified coaches. And, as Eugene Young explains, the crucial follow-up element of the scheme within communities will now be lost.


“In my book, physical education is a specialist area,” says Young. “As would drama be, as would languages be. Teachers who are not totally comfortable with it will not put the same effort or expertise into it. The focus is on early years, four- to eight-year-olds. And it was all around this notion of physical literacy, rather than being sports-specific.
“What the coaches do is identify a particular class and work with it through nine months, the academic year. It’s not about the GAA driving an agenda or the IFA driving an agenda. It’s about children learning activities that they can keep for life.
“One of the key things for us is that the scheme linked into the community club. So for example, Joe McMahon worked in the scheme for seven or eight years in Tyrone, working with the Omagh schools. And then what he would do is work with the kids in the school during the day and then establish that link with the Omagh club outside of school hours. That makes a fantastic school-club link and it provides for continuity after school. That was one of the real benefits of it.
“The beauty of having the governing bodies involved is our capacity for keeping them engaged outside of the school building and outside of school hours. The scheme worked so well because we were able to facilitate that. We did some research on 11-year-olds who had been through the programme. The results we got were excellent – we found that they were involved in 13 different sporting activities and that 92 per cent of them were involved in at least one of them. So there was longevity there in terms of their participation. That’s what it’s all about.”



Any chance of a U-turn?
At a stroke Ulster GAA has lost 24 full-time GAA coaches. Antrim, with the biggest population base in the province, will lose six coaches. Fermanagh, with the smallest, will lose two. Tyrone, Derry, Down and Armagh all lose four apiece. The Ulster Council may try to replace them over time and possibly restart the scheme in another guise somewhere down the line, but there are no plans to do so at the minute. Unless there’s an 11th-hour climbdown by the department, the programme will wind up four weeks from now.


“I think they’re trying to see a way to work out how they could justify a U-turn on it,” says McNulty. “I think they’re trying to get an ‘out’. But I’m not sure how they would be able to get cover on it. I do believe that David Sterling recognises that it’s a very valuable programme and that it has huge positive impacts.
“But I’m just not sure will he have cover to reverse the cut. Because if he does it on this, then what about all the other cuts he has to make? There are cuts in health, cuts in education, cuts everywhere. So I do accept that his hands are tied to a certain extent.”

In politics everybody punches down until they find the people who have nobody below them. In this case, it’s kids between four and eight years old and a small, cheap initiative that worked for a decade. Through the recession, through everything. Gone, just like that.
How shameful. How self-defeating.

[Mickmack]

Balls.ie
Nov 30, 2017
By Maurice Brosnan


Sporting Grants Breakdown Show Massive Weighting Towards Dublin GAA Clubs

Today the government have revealed the 1,700 sporting projects who will benefit from the €56m grant allocation under the Sports Capital Programme. It covers a wide range of sports but is particularly interesting with regards to grants given to GAA clubs in Dublin.

Within the list, ten Dublin GAA clubs received the top allocation of €150,000. There is only one other GAA club in the rest of the country that received this amount.

The quality of applications can often be significant in determining how successful they are.

Dublin's Ballyboden St Endas GAA Club, Ballybougal GFC, Clanna Gael Fontenoy, Clontarf GAA Club, Erin's Isle GAA Club, Scoil Ui Chonaill GAA Club, St Olafs GAA Club, St Patricks GAA Club, St Sylvesters GAA Club and St Vincents GAA all received the maximum allocation of €150,000. In the rest of the country just one club, Louth's Sean O'Mahonys GFC, was allocated the same.

As well as those clubs, Dublin's St Annes got €149,767, Castleknock Hurling and Football Club got €145, 000, Clann Mhuire Gaelic Football Club got €133, 830 and Kevins hurling and camogie club received €121, 208.


In the rest of Leinster, the highest allocation to any other applicant was €125,000, which went to Wicklow's Aughrim Street 9/10th Scout Group. In terms of GAA clubs, it was Longford's Ballymore GFC who got €111, 500. This is also the highest figure assigned to a GAA club outside of those listed in the rest of the country.

This funding comes on top of the GAA's awarded grants, which also overwhelmingly prioritise Dublin. Last year Dublin received €1.463,000 in games development funding. The next highest was Cork with €249,000. The GAA has said this is something they would look at going forward.

As well as a well funded inter-county game, today's funding means 13 Dublin clubs have received more than every other club in the country bar one. The money will go towards improving facilities, new changing rooms, gyms and floodlights.

According to the latest census, Dublin's population accounts for approx. 28% of Ireland's total, with 38% in the entire Dublin greater area (Including parts of Meath, Kildare, etc.) If the argument is that funding should be in line with population, questions must be asked as to why the funding granted to Dublin is still disproportionate compared to that?

The funding granted to Dublin also does not match the number of players registered:



It does not match population and it does not match players registered. Therefore, what is the basis for granting Dublin access to significantly larger funding?

There's no doubt that on an individual basis, the grants to Dublin clubs may well be justified, and it's unlikely there is an actual bias, and it's more down to better lobbying and organisation, and better proposals. There is also the issue of capital expenditure being significantly more expensive in Dublin. That aside though, the massive difference in numbers suggests there will be an uneasiness around the country and a perception that Dublin continues to get special treatment.

The programme aimed to establish an "integrated and planned approach to developing sports and physical recreation facilities throughout the country." Workshops were organised throughout the country in order to demonstrate how to make an application.

It stated the following as its goals: Assist voluntary and community organisations, prioritise the needs of disadvantaged areas, encourage the multi-purpose use of local, regional and national sports facilities by clubs.

As a whole, the applications were closed in February and with a total of 2,320 received.

In total 26 counties were given grants today. 18 of the most funded projects were GAA clubs in each county.

You can see the full list of all projects allocated funds here.

[Mickmack]

Full list of projects allocated funds



www.dttas.ie/sites/default/files/publications/sport/english/sports-capital-programme-2017-local-allocations/2017-scp-list-grants-publication.pdf

[kerrygold]

3.3 million is the combined total to the Dublin clubs.


www.independent.ie/sport/gaelic-games/capital-gains-as-dublin-clubs-enjoy-33m-windfall-36369136.html

[playitfair]

Dec 1, 2017 10:28:05 GMT kerrygold said:

3.3 million is the combined total to the Dublin clubs.


www.independent.ie/sport/gaelic-games/capital-gains-as-dublin-clubs-enjoy-33m-windfall-36369136.html

In fairness they have 25% of the population.

[Mickmack]

GAA clubs in the 6 counties lose out on this obviously.

[Mickmack]

Dec 1, 2017 10:36:54 GMT playitfair said:

Dec 1, 2017 10:28:05 GMT kerrygold said:

3.3 million is the combined total to the Dublin clubs.


www.independent.ie/sport/gaelic-games/capital-gains-as-dublin-clubs-enjoy-33m-windfall-36369136.html

In fairness they have 25% of the population.

All things considered...... just one team representing Dublin is a farce and won't go on indefinitely in my opinion.

[kerrygold]

I cant see Dublin being split in two. We'll probably see a Dublin B team in time with players 31-60 in the county on this.

It would dilute the spirit of the GAA to divide Dublin.

[kerrygold]

Dec 2, 2017 19:24:36 GMT Mickmack said:

GAA clubs in the 6 counties lose out on this obviously.

Have they something similar from the UK government?

[kerrygold]

Jim's take on emotionless Jim and on splitting Dublin.

www.independent.ie/sport/gaelic-games/gaelic-football/did-i-do-anything-wrong-jim-gavin-on-the-criticism-he-received-following-allireland-win-36372878.html

[Seoirse Ui Duic]

Dec 2, 2017 20:08:18 GMT kerrygold said:

Dec 2, 2017 19:24:36 GMT Mickmack said:

GAA clubs in the 6 counties lose out on this obviously.

Have they something similar from the UK government?

They do.
Department for Education for the schools and in the north the clubs get money from the Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure.
With Sinn Féin's Carál Ní Chuilín in charge of the department until Stormont fell there was some criticism the GAA were getting too much funding, from the expected corner of course.
The annual budget for that department was £122 million, but I don't have a breakdown of how much was spent on sports and how much was spent on GAA clubs.
They are not exactly poor clubs up north.

[kerrygold]

Dec 3, 2017 12:22:21 GMT Seoirse Ui Duic said:

Dec 2, 2017 20:08:18 GMT kerrygold said:

Have they something similar from the UK government?

They do.
Department for Education for the schools and in the north the clubs get money from the Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure.
With Sinn Féin's Carál Ní Chuilín in charge of the department until Stormont fell there was some criticism the GAA were getting too much funding, from the expected corner of course.
The annual budget for that department was £122 million, but I don't have a breakdown of how much was spent on sports and how much was spent on GAA clubs.
They are not exactly poor clubs up north.

Yes, I would have thought the GAA in general would have been doing OK up there.

[onlykerry]

Aiken Promotions are applying for permission for a fourth concert in Croke Park this year - The GAA have written to the local residents to give them a heads up on the application and confirm the concert will be the only event scheduled for Croke Park in the month of May.

If granted this will mean a stage will go up in Croke Park on three separate occasions this year - and we will all be wondering why the surface is not in pristine condition for matches. The stadium was never designed for this type of switching in and out - it if was they would have done the pitch like the Millenium Stadium which is a series of boxes which can be picked up with a teleporter and moved about.

This growing divergence between the GAA as a commercial entity and the GAA as a community based sports association is increasingly apparent. Who is really calling the shots in the GAA.

[Mickmack]

The GAA have bought forty acres of the best of land in Naul Co Dublin that will be used to resod Croker, PUC and Semple.

Maybe more concerts are planned !

[Annascaultilidie]

Feb 1, 2018 11:14:02 GMT onlykerry said:

Aiken Promotions are applying for permission for a fourth concert in Croke Park this year - The GAA have written to the local residents to give them a heads up on the application and confirm the concert will be the only event scheduled for Croke Park in the month of May.

If granted this will mean a stage will go up in Croke Park on three separate occasions this year - and we will all be wondering why the surface is not in pristine condition for matches. The stadium was never designed for this type of switching in and out - it if was they would have done the pitch like the Millenium Stadium which is a series of boxes which can be picked up with a teleporter and moved about.

This growing divergence between the GAA as a commercial entity and the GAA as a community based sports association is increasingly apparent. Who is really calling the shots in the GAA.

Why not both?

In this case, the solution is right here.

[kerrygold]

Feb 1, 2018 11:19:18 GMT Mickmack said:

The GAA have bought forty acres of the best of land in Naul Co Dublin that will be used to resod Croker, PUC and Semple.

Maybe more concerts are planned !

They have applied for permission for an additional concert.

[mandad]

Fitzgerald Stadium have shown great foresight in cultivating a designated area in the front pitch, with the correct variety of grass, for use in pitch maintenance The playing surface in Fitzgerald Stadium is a credit to the manager and staff there - as indeed is Austin Stack Park now as well.

The condition of the pitch in Castlebar, at the moment, is deplorable and in the interest of player's welfare must be considered almost unplayable. It’s not acceptable that players should wallow about in the mud with the increased risk of an injury that could mess them up for a long time. I’m not knocking Mayo here; it’s just the way it is.

[kerryexile]

Why not have the concerts on the farm - a sort of Irish Woodstock.

[onlykerry]

Feb 1, 2018 11:42:48 GMT Annascaultilidie said:

Feb 1, 2018 11:14:02 GMT onlykerry said:

Aiken Promotions are applying for permission for a fourth concert in Croke Park this year - The GAA have written to the local residents to give them a heads up on the application and confirm the concert will be the only event scheduled for Croke Park in the month of May.

If granted this will mean a stage will go up in Croke Park on three separate occasions this year - and we will all be wondering why the surface is not in pristine condition for matches. The stadium was never designed for this type of switching in and out - it if was they would have done the pitch like the Millenium Stadium which is a series of boxes which can be picked up with a teleporter and moved about.

This growing divergence between the GAA as a commercial entity and the GAA as a community based sports association is increasingly apparent. Who is really calling the shots in the GAA.

Why not both?

In this case, the solution is right here.

All the best stadia manage traffic on the pitches - this is how they remain the best. If you visit Barcelona, Arsenal, Manu or indeed any well maintained stadium you will not be allowed walk the pitch. There is a direct link between use and wear and tear.

Putting concerts (with thousands of people) plus the weight of a stage and the associated construction traffic on a pitch puts massive pressure on the pitch which will have a negative impact on the playing surface. Doing this on three separate occasions is lunacy from a pitch surface point of view. Multi purpose stadia can be designed for multi purpose use and the Millenium stadium model is one of the ways to deal with this - the pitch is removed for concerts and other events and brought back in for matches. Croke Park just absorbs the traffic and the surface suffers as a result.

[Mickmack]

Reborn Galway face Dublin on skewed financial playing field



Friday, March 30, 2018
After a decade of suffering, Galway football supporters are beginning to believe again.

Reaching a first national football final since 2006 is seen locally as a spectacular achievement by manager Kevin Walsh. While Mayo on May 13 remains the focus, Galway will go to Croke Park Sunday looking to secure their first Division 1 league title since 1981.

In 2006, when we met Kerry at the Gaelic Grounds in our last Division 1 league final, we were overcome by a Darran O’Sullivan and Colm Cooper-inspired Kerry. But back then, Galway supporters still believed they were entitled to a seat at the top table.

The county still had many of the greats of the 1998 and 2001 All-Ireland wins such as Padraic Joyce, Michael Donnellan, and Declan Meehan, inspiring young players like myself who grew up watching these heroes at Croke Park.

But in 2018, we are in a new world. For Galway, a national final is new territory.

On the field of play, any sport is about the battle of equals playing by the same rules. As a player, the best feeling was winning a game knowing you had overcome a great opponent like Dublin, as we did in 2002 in an All-Ireland U21 final. But it’s hard to ignore the off-field advantages conferred on Dublin over the last decade.

In the period 2007-2017, Dublin received €16.6m in direct coaching assistance, €15.4m more than Cork, the next highest county, and €15.8m more than Galway (€784,077).

Connacht in its entirety collectively received €3.1m.

Most clubs across Dublin receive subsidies of around €15,000 to €20,000 towards the employment of club coaches, which in turn help clubs drive large membership incomes.

Should every county not get the same funding on a pro-rata basis?

Galway have seen firsthand the benefits a full-time coach brings to a club. Liam Mellows hurling club hired a full-time coach a few years back. This year they won their first county senior hurling title in 47 years. Mellows funded the coach themselves; they got little or no funding support from Croke Park. They are now the model that every club in Galway in hurling and football aspires to.

The Dublin coaching system is conducted in a professional and businesslike manner and they must be admired for this. They’ve always enjoyed population advantages but were never as dominant in football as they are today. Other counties must heed their coaching template. But if we did, would we get the financial support from Croke Park?

The Thomas Davis club in Dublin closed a land deal for a reported €4m in late 2017 and former All-Ireland champions, Ballyboden St Enda’s, have secured a similar deal in the past. These clubs must be commended for their financial savvy. But even clubs with bulging bank balances are still getting financial coaching support. Do they need it? Could this funding be better distributed?

Croke Park says they are taking action. In 2017, Dublin GAA received funding of €1,298,630, an 11% reduction on the previous year. At that rate, Dublin will be on an equal footing with other counties by 2023! This rate of change is far too slow.

For Galway, there are other, unique issues. From 2009 to 2017, the participation of the Galway hurlers in the Leinster Championship generated €3.47m in gate receipts.

The Leinster Council returned a paltry €130,000 to the Galway County Board.

Essentially, every team in Leinster has benefited financially from Galway’s participation, except Galway.

Galway fans have paid to see Galway hurlers playing in Croke Park, with most of our money going towards the capital and coaching development of every team in the competition, bar ourselves.

Thankfully, with the advent of the new round-robin Leinster Championship, Galway will now receive their fair financial share.

Separately, however, Galway GAA CEO John Hynes must manage the clubs of Galway in the financing of repayments to Croke Park on the €2.8m loan for the failed training centre development outside Athenry. Surely there could be leeway, a write-down on the capital owed to reflect the lost contributions to the county between 2009 to 2016?

Galway does not have access to even one floodlit 4G pitch or all-weather GAA pitch to host games or train.

In the bad weather last year, the Galway senior footballers spent weeks driving to Ballyhaunis in Mayo to train on the only full-sized football pitch in Connacht.

In Dublin, there are more than 20 such pitches — before we begin to discuss the recent Sports Capital allocations by the Department of Sport. Population imbalance alone does not explain this equality.

Dublin GAA is in a good place and the GAA needs the capital to be strong. But fairness is important too. Maybe a discussion through the forum of the Dail Committee for Sport would be the best way to resolve the equality issue.

*The author is a former Galway footballer and current director and owner of Money Maximising Advisors Ltd.

[Mickmack]

Radical GAA report proposes payment of allowance to county players


The proposals of the Towards 150 committee are wide-ranging and far-reaching

Seán Moran
0


A radical report has proposed the payment of an allowance to intercounty players and a root-and-branch overhaul of GAA administration including the abolition of central council, management committee and the provincial councils.

On the controversial issue of subscription television, it believes that the association should “retain the right to charge for a portion of its elite games as an income stream” but that this should be “discussed and reviewed regularly” and floats the idea that the association “retain its own media rights and establish its own broadcasting mediums”.

These are among the proposals from a committee established by former president Aogán Ó Fearghail.

They are contained in the findings of Towards 2034 – the 150th anniversary of the GAA, which has yet to be published but a copy of which has been seen by The Irish Times.

It is a thought-provoking document, which in the foreword sets out, “to generate the kind of widespread debate that is now required” and “outlines the salient issues and challenges facing the GAA and makes recommendations on the future direction of the organisation”.

Chaired by former INTO general secretary John Carr, the committee was appointed by Ó Fearghail in 2015 to try to envisage what the GAA should look like in 2034, 150 years after its foundation. It consulted widely before finalising its findings.

The committee reported in January, as it was required to, before the close of the outgoing president’s term of office. Publication was perhaps held back pending the arrival of new director general Tom Ryan in the weeks ahead although the proposals will cause controversy as well as the hoped-for discussion.

Issues identified are: mission and vision of the GAA; stated core values of the GAA; the association’s governance; role of clubs, games and competitions; provision of GAA facilities for players and spectators; marketing of GAA activities; management of GAA finances; development of the GAA on the international stage.


The report sees the maintenance of core values as threatened by various developments.

“However, overcommercialisation, inconsistency in adhering to core values and impediments to good governance as well as relentless quests for victory, for glory or profit-making have the capacity to change the purpose, principles and ideals on which the GAA was founded.
n
Perceived mission
“For example, concerns around the future direction of clubs, the continued amateur status of the GAA’s inter-county players, the welfare of all players, the levels of accountability and the capacity of the organisation’s members to feel that their voices are being heard are, this committee asserts, largely symptomatic of a weakening of an adherence to the values which underpin the GAA.”

In the report’s introduction these values are spelled out in a section on the association’s perceived mission.

“Its mission is as a community-based, volunteer organisation, promoting Gaelic Games, Gaelic culture and lifelong participation and engagement … The values identified with this mission include community identity, amateur status, inclusiveness, player welfare and teamwork.”

It accepts however that establishing precise agreed values and “gaining the support of the majority of its membership for their promotion, will constitute the central challenge for the GAA in the short term”.

The recommendations of the report are wide-ranging but the most radical relate to the financial compensation of players and reforming the association’s administrative structures.

Arguing that the traditional expenses system, based on travel costs, is “neither equitable nor fit-for-purpose,” the report goes on to recommend an allowance for inter-county players.

“By 2034 the GAA will have developed a model to recognise the time and effort contributed by senior inter-county players and their respective managers. This will facilitate effective budgeting where senior inter-county players and managers will retain their existing amateur status but have their value to the Association, and their enormous commitment to their sport, recognised by a defined and agreed allowance.”

At other levels below inter-county, however, the report is adamant that no such compensation should apply.

“At club level no payments will be made for playing, coaching, or team management.”

It also proposes that club players should have “a meaningful competitive pathway, including schedules of games” and that “excessive training regimes will be reduced, in tandem with improved games to training ratios”.

Future governance
The central question posed in relation to the future governance of the GAA is outlined as follows:

“In simple terms, how will those charged with governing and managing the GAA still retain total control by 2034 as there are many examples of governing bodies of sport becoming irrelevant bystanders amid the rampant commercialisation of the very sports they are charged with overseeing?”

The structural reforms proposed envisage amalgamating central council and management committee into a board of 18 directors. This is to reflect what the T150 committee feels is the unnecessary duplication between the work the two existing bodies.

The new board would consist of “a mix of elected and appointed GAA members, independent non-executive personnel and GAA executive professionals or senior office holders (as non-voting members)”.

It would also have competence in respect of another controversial matter – extending beyond Croke Park the relaxation of the rule forbidding rugby and soccer being played at GAA venues.

The board “will establish criteria for the use of Association facilities by other sports organisations.”

Below national level there would also be changes in the abolition of provincial councils, a core structure in the GAA since the 19th century:

“Provincial Councils will be replaced by new administrative hubs called Regional Councils with regions to be decided by agreed criteria such as population size and geographical proximity.”

[kerrybhoy06]

The GAA is in that odd position (that very few companies manage to get in to) whereby they have taken a successful product, pumped a lot of money into it and spent their way into a bit of a crisis.

An almost criminal level of mismanagement

[Mickmack]

GAA TV is on the way.........


floats the idea that the association “retain its own media rights and establish its own broadcasting mediums”.

[glengael]

Would there be anything to be said for recognising the reality and splitting the GAA in 2 at this stage. One section for the Elite monied inter county level and one for Clubs and underage?

Incidentally, what big games are fixed for the weekend 25th /26th August? Will they be Dublin, what with the Papal visit scheduled for that weekend? I know a million won't turn up as in 1979 but surely some few of the faithful will be there?

[Mickmack]

No big games fixed for the weekend of 25/26th August. A replay of the hurling final could go into September




14/15 July

All-Ireland Senior Football Quarter Finals Phase 1

15 July

All-Ireland Senior Hurling Quarter-Finals

21/22 July

All-Ireland Senior Football Quarter Finals Phase 2

All-Ireland Senior Hurling Relegation Play-off (If Required)

28 July

All-Ireland Senior Hurling Semi-Final

29 July

All-Ireland Senior Hurling Semi-Final (Replay 05/06.08.2018)

4/5/6 August

All-Ireland Senior Football Quarter Finals Phase 3 (Group 1 & 2)

11 August

All-Ireland Senior Football Semi-Final

12 August

All-Ireland Senior Football Semi-Final

19 August

All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship Final

2 September

All-Ireland Senior Football Final

[ataboy]

Apr 2, 2018 10:31:08 GMT glengael said:

Would there be anything to be said for recognising the reality and splitting the GAA in 2 at this stage. One section for the Elite monied inter county level and one for Clubs and underage?

Incidentally, what big games are fixed for the weekend 25th /26th August? Will they be Dublin, what with the Papal visit scheduled for that weekend? I know a million won't turn up as in 1979 but surely some few of the faithful will be there?

2 separate seasons I'd suggest.

Inter county. Feb - June
Club. July - Nov.

Will never ever happen unfortunately though.

[glengael]

I wonder would 2 seperate seasons work though? The temptation would still be there to extend one at the expense of another ....

Was watching Nuacht TG4 last night, a report on day trip visit by young lady footballers, they seemed to be from Gaeltacht areas only (Kerry, Donegal, Galway were featured) to play in Croke Park yesterday. One mentor from Kerry mentioned that some of her charges had never been to Dublin before. One young lady said she'd been up since 4.30 and got the bus at 5am. A throwback to the ghost train. The delight they showed at being able to play on the hallowed turf was very clear. A world away from the commercialised corporate tripe that we sometimes see in HQ.

[Jigz84]

Mar 30, 2018 19:50:19 GMT Mickmack said:

GAA TV is on the way.........


floats the idea that the association “retain its own media rights and establish its own broadcasting mediums”.

The suggestion of GAA TV was mooted in an article earlier in the year. I think it's inevitable.

[kerrybhoy06]

I'd prefer to pay 10/15 a month for GAA TV than the current situation where games are split across Sky & Eir subsription services