Conor Lally speaks to the GAA's head of finance, Kathy Slattery, about non-payment to the stars of the game and the media speculation surrounding gate receipts

Summer 2002 will be remembered in GAA circles as a new dawn. With the unveiling of the €200 million redevelopment of Croke Park in July, the amateur code at last has a ground of which it can really be proud. Pilgrims of both hurling and football have flocked to the new venue all summer to pay homage to the action on the field and marvel at what is now Europe's fourth-largest stadium.

And with the new stadium and bigger crowds has come the talk. Talk of how much the GAA is making and how little of that money is finding its way into players' pockets.

It has also been the summer when the Bertie Bowl clung to life before (it would seem) dying a slow and undignified death. As the prospects for the national stadium recede, the media's scrutiny of the GAA has intensified. Will they allow soccer to be played at Croke Park so the nation has a chance of hosting the European Championships with Scotland in six years? Will Government grants for Croke Park be stopped if they refuse to play (foreign) ball?

Marshalling the financial arguments for the State's largest voluntary organisation is Ms Kathy Slattery, the GAA's head of finance. A full-time employee of the GAA for 20 years, "mostly in finance", she says recent times have been hectic. The media's speculation on how much her organisation is pulling in has, she says, been wildly inflated.

In the week that UEFA came to view the ground, there's one obvious question to ask first. Surely if soccer and other codes were allowed play at Croke Park, the GAA could hire out the stadium and help fill its coffers?

"That's not something that I can decide or any individual can decide," she says. "That will be something that has to be decided by a vote at congress. It was quite close two years ago but last year not so close."

She insists the GAA's willingness to allow UEFA access to Croke Park this week was a courtesy call and nothing more. And there is no chance of a once-off relaxation of the ban on soccer for the European Championships if congress fails to sanction the move, she says. No way, no how, despite the fact Croke Park could generate around €1 million per soccer or rugby international.

The financial viability of Croke Park, she says, will never be dependent on revenues from renting the venue to either soccer or rugby. "The budget for the redevelopment was done without factoring in any revenue from having other sports using the ground. And we are confident everything is going to plan," she says firmly.

But while budgets are on track, the GAA may be in for a rude financial awakening whether it likes it or not. Last week, when news broke that the so-called "Bertie Bowl" National Stadium would not be financed with public money, the Minister for Finance Mr McCreevy indicated that, unless the GAA is willing to allow soccer to be played in Croke Park, €38 million in yet-to-be paid grants for the stadium might be reviewed. It would be a nightmare scenario for the GAA but one which Ms Slattery, for the time being at any rate, refuses to entertain. "We have not been told that there is any problem with the money and, until we are, we will proceed as planned."

The use of Croke Park aside, in recent years the GAA has also been forced to contend with the issue of improved conditions for players. The Gaelic Players Association (GPA), headed by Dublin footballer Dessie Farrell, believes players playing for their counties in the hurling or football championship should get €127 per week in expenses. Ms Slattery insists paying players any more than present levels is a non-starter.

"What the GPA has asked for is €127 per week per player on top of their normal expenses. That would not even be a situation that would be acceptable to Revenue. As far as I am concerned, pride in the jersey should be enough. How can you say what someone like Dessie Farrell is worth or any player?"

Well, they say they are worth €127 a week for the duration of their championship involvement. It's not that much, is it? "Whether we can afford it or not is not the issue. We are an amateur body, that's our game. It's what has built our organisation. As far as pay per play goes, there is no question of it. The medals are their prizes."

But what if the players strike? Surely that would concentrate minds at the GAA. Not so she says. "I hope it's a situation that would never arise but how many members do they have?" Around 1,000. "We've got a lot more than that" (500,000 registered to play according to the GAA's own records.)

Turning to the financial wellbeing of the organisation, she says recent media reports that the Dublin-Donegal games in Croke Park netted the GAA around €3 million were fantasy. "It was more like €1.2 million," she says.

And while the GAA will make "around €1 million" extra from the two All Ireland finals this year, because of Croke Park's extra capacity, the overall gate receipts for the season will not be as high as last year.

The qualifying rounds, or the back door as it has been called, has not been as successful in attracting fans through the turnstiles this year, she says.

According to its 2001 accounts, the GAA's Central Council, which runs hurling and football, pulled in revenues of just over €25 million, €16.4 million of it from gate receipts.

Match expenses accounted for €4.4 million of that money while just over €4 million was spent on games development. Just under €1 million each was spent on the players' injury scheme, teams' expenses and finalists' grants and conference and travel expenses. Around €500,000 went on promotional expenses and grants and donations. An operating surplus of €14.64 million was left, all of which bar €56,000 was spent on developing Croke Park, provincial, club and county grounds development and other "urban" and "special projects".

"We are simply not earning the money that everyone says we are," says Ms Slattery. "And anything we do earn goes back into the development of the game. But nothing is ever made of that by the media, nothing is ever said about this organisation's contribution to Irish society."

On the issue of the GAA selling its television rights to Sky Television in a deal similar to that recently signed by the Football Association of Ireland, she sticks tightly to the organisation's policy on the issue.

The GAA, she says, has a responsibility to ensure the games are seen not only by the people with the time and money to catch the action live but also to sports fans in their homes.

Another area seen by some as an untapped source of revenue is replica kits. For some premiership soccer clubs in England, merchandising, of which replica kits form the backbone, has been central to their growth in recent times. The GAA has an exclusive contract with O'Neills, rumoured to be worth around just €1.3 million per year to produce the kits.

At the GPA, Dessie Farrell believes the kit market could raise the €5 million needed to fund the players' expenses system that the GPA is calling for.

But Ms Slattery believes firms such as Umbro and Puma would not see the Irish kit market as "all that lucrative" because Irish footballers and hurlers have no profile away from Irish shores.

"And we also believe that we should support Irish firms. O'Neill's is an Irish firm and Puma and Umbro are not," she says.

The message is clear: the GAA is an amateur sport and an Irish one at that.