€5m fall in gate receipts a major worry

GAA ANNUAL REPORT:HAVING SEEN gate receipts fall by €5,000,000 last year, the GAA is facing the need for retrenchment in the face of the current recession.

Although Finance Director Tom Ryan described the overall figures of €1 million increase in revenue as “satisfactory”, his annual report says that performance in the area of the “core activity” of the “staging, promotion and development of our games is disquieting”.

The main performers in the association’s Central Council income were Croke Park stadium and commercial revenues, chiefly sponsorship and media rights.

These two headings make up roughly half of the total revenue with the stadium bringing in €15 million in earnings.

The stadium showed an eighth successive year’s rise in profitability to €18.7 million and although a €4 million decline is projected for this year, the U2 concerts, a possible European Cup rugby semi-final and a potential World Cup soccer play-off at the end of the year could impact positively on the anticipated reduction in profits.

All of the stadium’s energy needs are now supplied by renewable resources from a dedicated wind farm.

Stadium director Peter McKenna said that consideration was being given to making up the shortfall in revenue when rugby and soccer internationals returned to Lansdowne Road next year.

Over the years, revenue from these sources, which is likely to total nearly €40 million by the time the arrangement concludes, has gone straight into the national infrastructure fund, ring-fenced from general revenue.

In terms of the GAA’s sources of revenue, gate receipts have plummeted to just 41 per cent of total revenue. This continues a steep decline from 48 per cent last year and 60 per cent and 63 per cent in the preceding years.

According to Ryan, the ideal ratio should be two to one, gate receipts to commercial rather than nearly the other way around.

There are a number of reasons behind the fall in attendances. Last year, unlike 2007 and this year, the NFL didn’t open with a Dublin-Tyrone match in a packed Croke Park. The Cork strikes last year also cost league attendances and the new structure of the NHL has proved more attractive than the old one.

Championship revenues were also significantly down, but they are volatile, affected by the draw and also by the incidence of replays. Overall, attendances in all competitions fell from 2.3 million in 2007 to 2 million last year.

Sports Council funding remained unchanged, but there is uncertainty over the availability of public funds. There was better news in relation to insurance with the cost of the injury and welfare scheme reducing by €1.4 million.

Director General Páraic Duffy said concerns over attendance figures and recognition of increased hardship for many supporters had prompted the association to maintain admission prices at the same level for a third successive year.

“Our financial performance in 2008 was encouraging. I am conscious, however, that the country’s current economic situation will pose difficulties for the association – our gate receipts have already fallen substantially from 2007 levels, and are further threatened this year.

“While I am confident that our games continue to represent an attractive, value-for-money proposition for our supporters, we cannot take continued support for granted. It is for this reason that, in 2009, we are maintaining our admission prices at 2007 levels.

“We know, of course, that the attractiveness of any fixture depends hugely on the pairings, but we must, nonetheless use all means at our disposal – throw-in times, venues, facilities, promotion – to make our games as appealing as possible.”

Pressed as to whether the GAA considered reducing prices, Duffy said the need to distribute revenue throughout the association meant that it had to balance the need to protect revenue. He also said that the association in general needed to control costs.

“Pressures on revenues will, in turn, necessitate more rigorous financial control and resource allocation. This is true for more than simply Central Council – clubs and counties everywhere are already experiencing difficult financial circumstances and are struggling with high-cost bases or debt burden. There is clearly a responsibility on us to alleviate this burden.”

Disciplinary System

THE CURRENT disciplinary systems should be given a further year to settle, according to GAA Director General Páraic Duffy in his annual report, but may need to be reconsidered in the future.

He drew attention to a proposal from Dr Jack Anderson, a law lecturer and member of the association’s Disputes Resolution Authority, that the system be simplified to reduce the number of avenues open for those wishing to challenge disciplinary decisions.

“Dr Anderson has advocated a three-tier system, co-ordinated by a full-time disciplinary official, in which on-field referees would be backed by a citing-commissioner system, a permanently standing hearings committee, and a single avenue of appeal consisting of a permanent three-person committee (comprising law professionals) operating along similar lines as the DRA.

“These proposals merit serious consideration. In my view, however, given that our current system needs some more time to ‘bed down’ we should give our incoming committees time to operate within the current parameters before contemplating further reconstruction.”

Asked at yesterday’s media briefing how hopeful he was that such an approach would succeed, he replied: “If people were more prepared to accept decisions there would be less controversy.

“People appeal because of little loopholes and in fairness most of those have been closed and the pattern over the last year has seen fewer cases successfully taken to the DRA.

“I hope ultimately that people will realise there isn’t much point in going for appeals in search of technicalities.”

On the subject of the International Rules series, Duffy spoke positively, rejecting arguments that the series had become a recruiting tool for AFL clubs.

“While the success of the games in Australia last October cannot be taken as definitive evidence that all of the problems of the past have been put to bed, it has, nonetheless, offered a ray of hope to a series that at one point appeared to have little future.

“To my mind, the opportunity for our best Gaelic footballers to represent their country in a meaningful international setting is a bonus for the association, a view confirmed by any player who has had the honour of representing his country in this series.

“I do not subscribe to the theory that the existence of the International Rules series will somehow lead to a haemorrhaging of the best talent from Gaelic football to the Australian game.”