GAA president-elect Seán Kelly yesterday offered a remarkably personal view on the issue of opening Croke Park to other sports, calling it a monstrous asset to be lying idle for such long periods and backing the stadium's use on a more regular basis.

In an interview with Radio Kerry yesterday morning, Kelly made it clear that he had no difficulty in opening Croke Park to other sports, adding that in his view the pros of such a decision would outweigh the cons.

Current president Seán McCague, whom Kelly replaces at the GAA Congress in April, adopted a more neutral attitude towards the issue throughout his term and generally refrained from offering his own views on allowing other sports to be played in the stadium. Kelly's comments are thus unprecedented, by any GAA president, either incoming or in office.

"Personally, I would have no difficulty in opening up Croke Park," he said, "provided everything was in place. I would like to see an audit done of the pros and cons and my own personal view is that the pros outweigh the cons.

"Essentially, it is all about looking at our options, and certainly having attended recent meetings of the Croke Park executive, it is a monstrous asset to be lying idle for so long. It is something we have to look at as it is a great, great asset to have, while at the same time it is a very expensive asset to try and run, and it may be just too costly to try and run it entirely on our own."

Kelly's comments come at a time when the GAA is facing continuous pressure to generate greater revenue from headquarters - and therefore amend the relevant Rule 42. The remaining Government funding for the stadium's redevelopment work is currently being reconsidered, and with the Stadium Ireland plans abandoned, there is clearly a demand for Croke Park's facilities.

"I think that allowing Croke Park to lie idle from the end of September to June too long a period," said Kelly. "A time with nothing on the pitch only the seagulls and the snails and historically the odd couple - hopefully only one - but it maybe too long to have Croke Park idle.

"And I have been consistent in my views, as indeed has the Kerry County Board over the last 10 years. In fact, the Kerry County Board were the first county to put a motion to Congress regarding its use when I was chairman over 10 years ago, as far as I recall, in the name of Tarbert. It came to the Kerry convention in Killarney and was passed and went to Congress, though not much was made of it at that time."

Yet another motion to open Croke Park to other sports will be on the agenda of the next GAA Congress on April 11th-12th, tabled by the Kilmore Club in Roscommon. It calls for a referendum by way of a general meeting of all affiliated GAA clubs on the proposal to amend Rule 42 and give Central Council the power to authorise the use of Croke Park in certain circumstances for field games other than those controlled by the association.

During McCague's three-year term there were two similar motions at Congress, one defeated by the infamous vote of 2001. McCague also endured the pressure of the Ireland-Scotland Euro 2008 soccer bid, which was built around Croke Park's availability, although he consistently reaffirmed the GAA's position that such a change of rule or policy requires a decision of Congress - representative of all 32 counties and units, at home and abroad.

There were, however, some low-key references from McCague on the issue. In late 2000 he explained to radio audiences in Northern Ireland that he expected to see rugby played in Croke Park, but then in April of last year outlined on Tipp FM that he couldn't see any sports other than Gaelic games played in Croke Park in his time.

For Kelly, who will become the first GAA president from Kerry, the issue is more clear-cut: "We should look at the options, see what the pros and cons are, and maybe do an audit on it, outlining what we would gain and lose by opening Croke Park. And then seek a decision from the clubs.

"That's my own view at this stage, but we have not looked at any figures, not looked at any fall-out in the event of it being against the principles of some people. I have been up front on it at all times and I would be quite open to utilising it on a more regular basis."

Kelly also ruled out any possibility of inter-county players getting paid during his term as president.

"I would be very concerned about the idea of paying somebody a wage, whether it was 10 cents, 10 euros or 100 euros," said Kelly. "A wage is a wage and it gets paid and straight away you have gone from a situation that was amateur to professional, from being a player to an employee and that is different altogether.

"This is something that I don't think the association should be entertaining at this point and time, maybe in years to come things might change, but not at his point in time. I don't think a weekly wage is on and we have told the GPA that."

Kelly also maintains that the country does not have the population to sustain a professional game: "We also don't have the ethos to allow a professional game because you would be creating a two-tier system, where you would have the top brand of intercounty player being paid and who would probably not bother with their clubs.

"The clubs would probably suffer as we have seen in other codes and if the clubs suffer in the GAA, there is no international code there to sustain us and I think everything would collapse eventually."