The GAA is welcoming the improved revenues from this year's national leagues, but financial director Tom Ryan has cautioned that there were special circumstances behind the increase in gate receipts.

"There were a few once-off reasons behind the better news. There was a price increase and then you had Dublin-Tyrone drawing 82,000 to Croke Park and that had a huge bearing. The other thing we had going for us this year was that the football league held interest all the way through because the structure gave nearly everyone something to play for up until the end."

Ryan declined to go into detail on the figures for 2007 as the complete returns hadn't yet been received and audited, but the Central Council statement from Saturday's meeting said figures had returned to pre-2006 levels.

At the launch of the GAA's annual report in March, Ryan had expressed concern about the decline in league earnings of more than half a million euro - from €3,591,684 in 2005 to €2,874,300.

Income also benefited from the staging of this year's final at Croke Park. Even though the counties involved were Donegal and Mayo, the attendance of nearly 30,000 helped boost revenue. "The latter stages did better than last year," according to Ryan, "but the football final in Limerick last year was particularly disappointing".

There are lessons to be learned from this year's experience. The Dublin-Tyrone match in February was well promoted in advance, demonstrating that the fixture list can be worked on from an early stage in a way that the finals and semi-finals can't because the pairings aren't known until a week in advance.

The use of Croke Park for the Dublin match also indicated the potential for other fixtures and that nearly led to another promotion. "After early matches Dublin were doing well," says Ryan, "in the hurling and with the footballers still in running for the semi-finals there was talk we could have organised a double bill for Croke Park, which would have been great for the city and good for revenue".

One aspect of the league he feels would help revenues is the establishment of settled venues for the finals, which would allow them be marketed in advance even of the finalists' qualifying. "It should be a stable part of earnings. We know the teams taking part in it and we even know the fixtures well in advance.

"One thing that would help us was to fix a definite venue for the finals. There is a compelling enough argument that a national football final should be held in Croke Park although you don't know what the view would be next year if two Ulster teams reached the final and the hurling seems to be settling in Thurles."

The final figures for 2007 will be presented to next month's June meeting of the GAA's Management Committee.