INTERNATIONAL RULES SERIES:THE IMMEDIATE cost of agreeing to Australia's request to postpone the International Rules series for a year may be minimal, but the GAA is facing a potential biennial shortfall of over €1 million if, as now feared, the series is cancelled in the long term.
Although the AFL are claiming financial difficulties as the only reason for seeking the postponement, it would appear there are other reasons, and that even if their financial situation does improve, the GAA will find the partnership at an end. Under the revised series agreement reached last year, the host country now gets all the revenue generated, unlike previous years when the revenue was split – and that clearly affected the Australian decision.
The GAA, therefore, would have kept all the revenue generated from the 2009 series, with the two games scheduled for Limerick on Saturday, October 24th, and the following Saturday in Croke Park. Clearly attendance figures would most influence that revenue, but when television and sponsorship revenues are also factored in, the potential income would be well over €1 million, to the GAA, every two years.
According to Croke Park’s commercial and marketing manager Dermot Power, the immediate cost of the postponement is not significant, but would be if the series were to be cancelled in the long term. Power also said the series would need to go ahead next year to remain viable, but in the meantime the GAA could only assume the reasons were purely financial.
“In terms of financial investment, there is no major loss at this stage,” he said. “Nothing major has been committed. Obviously hotels have been reserved, but I wouldn’t think there’s too much of a loss there. Another few weeks later there might have been more difficulties.
“One of the issues, though, is the huge amount of work already done in Limerick. They’ve been really looking forward to it, and already put in a huge effort.
“I’ve been talking with some people in Australia over the course of the day, and the message I’ve been getting is that it is financial, that the AFL’s finances are coming under pressure. When you’re in that situation you’re looking to make cuts somewhere, and this is an obvious one, when a lot of other commitments couldn’t be cut. I suspect if our finance director was in the same situation as the AFL he would target it as well.
“It may be that they haven’t budgeted for the downturn in their economy, at this stage, whereas maybe next year they will. And they have no income coming in from it. I wouldn’t know what their exact costs are to bring a team over here, but it would be significant enough, close to Aus$1 million (€582,000).
“If someone rings us up and says they can’t come, it’s very hard to beat them over the door when there is no financial guarantee involved.
“But I think it would want to happen next year. I think that would be important. But remember as well, we pulled out of the series in Australia a couple of years ago, after the disciplinary problems. The reason was different, but the end result was the same in that the series was put back a year.”
While Power was unable to put an exact figure on what the potential loss to the GAA would be were the series to be cancelled in the long term, it won’t be easily made up elsewhere.
“No, I wouldn’t put an exact figure on it, but it would be significant. It would depend on attendances, obviously, but around €1 million would be a reasonable figure to guess at.”
Regarding attendances, the International Rules has always been financially kinder to the GAA than the AFL – particularly with the difference in the cost of tickets. The last time the series was held in Ireland, in 2006, it drew a sell-out 35,000 at Pearse Stadium in Galway, then a virtual sell-out of 82,127 at Croke Park. Last year’s series in Australia drew just 35,153 to the Subiaco Oval in Perth, and 42,823 to the MCG in Melbourne.
In their statement on the issue released yesterday, the GAA claimed they “had received a guarantee from the AFL that Australia will travel to Ireland in October 2010 for a resumption of the series”.
Power also said the GAA were ready to announce a new sponsor in the next few weeks. “We would hope that deal would now transfer to next year, but obviously, having only got the definite news yesterday, we have to sit down with them again and see.”
Power also pointed to the change in the series agreement, whereby the host country keeps all the generated income, as a possible reason for the AFL to seek the postponement: “What had happened in the past was the GAA and the AFL shared all of the revenue, no matter where it was hosted. But that model was changed ahead of the last year’s series, whereby we would retain our whole revenue when staging it here, and they would retain their whole revenue when staging it.”
In the other words, the GAA didn’t get a cut of last year’s revenue in Australia, and the AFL wouldn’t have got a cut of the revenue this year. It seems inevitable that also affected the AFL decision.
“They were going to pay their own way, and they weren’t going to have any revenue,” added Power.