The Sunday Game

[macdanger2]

I see, there's a statute of limitations on complaining about something, wasn't aware of that!!

[AZOffaly]

Disgraceful decision on the part of the GAA, really really bad.  The message going out is that the American football friendly takes priority over staging one of the biggest games on the GAA calendar.  The GAA might have made more bucks out of this decision but its lost a lot of goodwill.

Point if order, it's not a friendly. It's a regular season game and a big deal for both schools.

The message, if there is one, is that the GAA decided it was worth risking that a replayed semi final would have to be played outside Croke park.

I'd prefer it in the aviva like the notre dame game. It would be a sell out, and I could have gone up to croker for the replay as well. Who do I complain to?

[macdanger2]

Too late AZ, you should have complained in January.

[Mac2]

Business my hole it's a scandalous decision to have an AIF semi played outside Croke Park. No amount of positing this a Mayo whinge cuts it, it's plain wrong regardless of the counties involved.

[muppet]

Could a Dublin v Donegal replay not be played outside Croke Park??

Croke Park should have been left empty to allow for a replay. Plenty of weekends earlier in the summer to have non-gaa events

No for the obvious reason it would attract 82,000 people for a replay whereas a Kerry-Mayo replay at Croke Park would have attracted 40-45k, which can be accommodated elsewhere at a venue more convenient to both counties.

There wasn't another weekend to have this college football match by the way. It was either have it this Saturday or not have it at all. The same with concerts. You either have them in the summer or don't have them at all. The GAA would be stupid to refuse all that money and let the IRFU have it instead. To promote Gaelic Games as effectively as possible, Croke Park has to be run as a business.

Limerick is not 'more convenient' to Mayo. There is no direct train from Mayo to Limerick and the road is pretty poor until you reach Gort.

Your argument about the attendance is absurd. Using your logic any match that doesn't have 50,000 in attendance should be 'accommodated elsewhere at a venue more convenient to both counties'. This is hilarious coming from a Dublin supporter.

This is an All-Ireland semi-final. It is one of the two most important fixtures of the year, after the final. Anyone who ever kicked a ball wants to play in Croke Park on the big day and that is where the supporters want to watch such games. Add to that, the way our infrastructure is organised in this country almost all main roads and all main train routes lead to, and from, Dublin.

Unfortunately vanity projects, and keeping a slot open for Dublin, are now more important to Croke Park than their bread and butter. But we have to get on with it and not allow it to distract us from the mission. Time to move on.

[Tubberman]

You're right, sure you couldn't be taking the dubs out of Croker 

A business?? Surely the prime aim of the GAA should be the hosting of its own games??

The GAA has an obligation to run Croke Park as a business. Where do you think all the money comes from?

Where were all the people complaining now when the American football fixture was announced a year ago? Ii didn't hear anybody complaining about it before yesterday. That's a bit late.

Dublin aren't taken out of Croke Park because they bring in far more revenue for the GAA than anybody else.

As has been said numerous times, the vast majority of Dublin fans would like nothing better than for some of the Leinster championship matches to be played at provincial venues.

Croke Park does not need to be run as a business to the detriment of Gaelic games!
Ffs, it's our stadium and one of the biggest games in the GAA calendar cannot be held in our premier stadium because of these "business" decisions.
The Croke Park debt has been paid off, so there is no need for scheduling other events during the height of our championships!

[Sidney]

Limerick is not 'more convenient' to Mayo. There is no direct train from Mayo to Limerick and the road is pretty poor until you reach Gort.

Your argument about the attendance is absurd. Using your logic any match that doesn't have 50,000 in attendance should be 'accommodated elsewhere at a venue more convenient to both counties'. This is hilarious coming from a Dublin supporter.

This is an All-Ireland semi-final. It is one of the two most important fixtures of the year, after the final. Anyone who ever kicked a ball wants to play in Croke Park on the big day and that is where the supporters want to watch such games. Add to that, the way our infrastructure is organised in this country almost all main roads and all main train routes lead to, and from, Dublin.

Unfortunately vanity projects, and keeping a slot open for Dublin, are now more important to Croke Park than their bread and butter. But we have to get on with it and not allow it to distract us from the mission. Time to move on.

The map would disagree with you - Limerick is comfortably nearer to every part of Mayo than Dublin is.

The N17/N18 from Claremorris to Gort is a national primary route - I'm well familiar with that road and it's certainly no worse and mostly better than the N5 or N60 would be going to Dublin, and as you say yourself, the last 63km are motorway.

Of course Croke Park should be run as a business. Running the GAA costs money and requires professional administraton. It's in competition with other sporting organisations which are run as businesses and if the GAA doesn't do the same it will get left behind.

You call concerts and an American football match "vanity projects". I call them prudent decisions on the part of the GAA to bring in much needed extra revenue that goes back into the promotion and development of Gaelic Games. If you want to talk about vanity projects, look no further than the stand at McHale Park, with €6.5m of funding coming from Central Council, which gets a majority of its revenue from gate receipts, a huge part of which is provided by Dublin supporters. We're directly funding you.

One match has been moved out of Croke Park and there will be no loss in terms of gate receipts. My response to that is: so what? If Dublin were made play an All-Ireland semi-final replay in Limerick, Thurles, Cork or Killarney, my response from a football point of view would be: "great, bring it on!" The GAA's view would likely be, and wisely so from a financial point of view would be: "we'd be losing out on the significant extra revenue provided by Dublin supporters packing out Croke Park", and that's a view that's hard to argue with.

If you dislike Dublin so much why do want to come up here so much anyway? 

[muppet]

Limerick is not 'more convenient' to Mayo. There is no direct train from Mayo to Limerick and the road is pretty poor until you reach Gort.

Your argument about the attendance is absurd. Using your logic any match that doesn't have 50,000 in attendance should be 'accommodated elsewhere at a venue more convenient to both counties'. This is hilarious coming from a Dublin supporter.

This is an All-Ireland semi-final. It is one of the two most important fixtures of the year, after the final. Anyone who ever kicked a ball wants to play in Croke Park on the big day and that is where the supporters want to watch such games. Add to that, the way our infrastructure is organised in this country almost all main roads and all main train routes lead to, and from, Dublin.

Unfortunately vanity projects, and keeping a slot open for Dublin, are now more important to Croke Park than their bread and butter. But we have to get on with it and not allow it to distract us from the mission. Time to move on.

The map would disagree with you - Limerick is comfortably nearer to every part of Mayo than Dublin is.

The N17/N18 from Claremorris to Gort is a national primary route - I'm well familiar with that road and it's certainly no worse and mostly better than the N5 or N60 would be going to Dublin, and as you say yourself, the last 63km are motorway.

Of course Croke Park should be run as a business. Running the GAA costs money and requires professional administraton. It's in competition with other sporting organisations which are run as businesses and if the GAA doesn't do the same it will get left behind.

You call concerts and an American football match "vanity projects". I call them prudent decisions on the part of the GAA to bring in much needed extra revenue that goes back into the promotion and development of Gaelic Games. If you want to talk about vanity projects, look no further than the stand at McHale Park, with €6.5m of funding coming from Central Council, which gets a majority of its revenue from gate receipts, a huge part of which is provided by Dublin supporters. We're directly funding you.

One match has been moved out of Croke Park and there will be no loss in terms of gate receipts. My response to that is: so what? If Dublin were made play an All-Ireland semi-final replay in Limerick, Thurles, Cork or Killarney, my response from a football point of view would be: "great, bring it on!" The GAA's view would likely be, and wisely so from a financial point of view would be: "we'd be losing out on the significant extra revenue provided by Dublin supporters packing out Croke Park", and that's a view that's hard to argue with.

If you dislike Dublin so much why do want to come up here so much anyway? 

I don't dislike Dublin at all.

You business argument is crazy. Croke Park should not prioritise anything over big Gaelic Games fixtures. If they shoved Dublin out of Croker because a Garth Brooks event would yield more, that would be a good business argument, but would miss the point completely.

And as for this:

The N17/N18 from Claremorris to Gort is a national primary route - I'm well familiar with that road and it's certainly no worse and mostly better than the N5 or N60 would be going to Dublin

Complete nonsense. Other than the Roscommon part, which is slowly being upgraded, it is vastly superior and there are no real bottlenecks left on the N5.

[Sidney]

You business argument is crazy. Croke Park should not prioritise anything over big Gaelic Games fixtures. If they shoved Dublin out of Croker because a Garth Brooks event would yield more, that would be a good business argument, but would miss the point completely.

If Grath Brooks had gone ahead and Dublin and Meath had drawn, the replay would have been in Thurles. That seems like a perfectly sound business decision to me and I would have had no problem with it.

The GAA is getting extra revenue it wouldn't have otherwise got by staging this American football match. That seems like a sound business decision to me.

Complete nonsense. Other than the Roscommon part, which is slowly being upgraded, it is vastly superior and there are no real bottlenecks left on the N5.

How can one national primary road which consists mostly of single carriageway with a hard shoulder, some of which is single carriageway with no hard shoulder, be vastly superior to another national primary road with a hard shoulder all the way? How is it superior at all?

[Tubberman]

You business argument is crazy. Croke Park should not prioritise anything over big Gaelic Games fixtures. If they shoved Dublin out of Croker because a Garth Brooks event would yield more, that would be a good business argument, but would miss the point completely.

If Grath Brooks had gone ahead and Dublin and Meath had drawn, the replay would have been in Thurles. That seems like a perfectly sound business decision to me and I would have had no problem with it.

The GAA is getting extra revenue it wouldn't have otherwise got by staging this American football match. That seems like a sound business decision to me.

Complete nonsense. Other than the Roscommon part, which is slowly being upgraded, it is vastly superior and there are no real bottlenecks left on the N5.

How can one national primary road which consists mostly of single carriageway with a hard shoulder, some of which is single carriageway with no hard shoulder, be vastly superior to another national primary road with a hard shoulder all the way? How is it superior at all?

Do you understand what the GAA as an organisation is? Do you understand what the primary purpose of Croke Park is!?
How can it be perfectly reasonable to move the biggest GAA matches out of the GAA's main stadium so a country 'n western concert or an American college football game can take precedence!?
You must be on the wind up. 

[Jinxy]

I see, there's a statute of limitations on complaining about something, wasn't aware of that!!

Now that you are, you might tell the Tyrone lads as well.

[Sidney]

You business argument is crazy. Croke Park should not prioritise anything over big Gaelic Games fixtures. If they shoved Dublin out of Croker because a Garth Brooks event would yield more, that would be a good business argument, but would miss the point completely.

If Grath Brooks had gone ahead and Dublin and Meath had drawn, the replay would have been in Thurles. That seems like a perfectly sound business decision to me and I would have had no problem with it.

The GAA is getting extra revenue it wouldn't have otherwise got by staging this American football match. That seems like a sound business decision to me.

Complete nonsense. Other than the Roscommon part, which is slowly being upgraded, it is vastly superior and there are no real bottlenecks left on the N5.

How can one national primary road which consists mostly of single carriageway with a hard shoulder, some of which is single carriageway with no hard shoulder, be vastly superior to another national primary road with a hard shoulder all the way? How is it superior at all?

Do you understand what the GAA as an organisation is? Do you understand what the primary purpose of Croke Park is!?
How can it be perfectly reasonable to move the biggest GAA matches out of the GAA's main stadium so a country 'n western concert or an American college football game can take precedence!?
You must be on the wind up.

The biggest GAA matches? The way you've phrased it, you'd think this was a regular occurrence.

One match, the first All-ireland semi-final in 31 years, is moved and all hell breaks loose from a shower of whingers.

Do you understand that Croke Park has a revenue generating function and it would be seriously remiss of the GAA not to exploit that?

Or do you live in a la-la land where there's a money fairy handing out goodies paid for by nobody?

[Tubberman]

You business argument is crazy. Croke Park should not prioritise anything over big Gaelic Games fixtures. If they shoved Dublin out of Croker because a Garth Brooks event would yield more, that would be a good business argument, but would miss the point completely.

If Grath Brooks had gone ahead and Dublin and Meath had drawn, the replay would have been in Thurles. That seems like a perfectly sound business decision to me and I would have had no problem with it.

The GAA is getting extra revenue it wouldn't have otherwise got by staging this American football match. That seems like a sound business decision to me.

Complete nonsense. Other than the Roscommon part, which is slowly being upgraded, it is vastly superior and there are no real bottlenecks left on the N5.

How can one national primary road which consists mostly of single carriageway with a hard shoulder, some of which is single carriageway with no hard shoulder, be vastly superior to another national primary road with a hard shoulder all the way? How is it superior at all?

Do you understand what the GAA as an organisation is? Do you understand what the primary purpose of Croke Park is!?
How can it be perfectly reasonable to move the biggest GAA matches out of the GAA's main stadium so a country 'n western concert or an American college football game can take precedence!?
You must be on the wind up.

The biggest GAA matches? The way you've phrased it, you'd think this was a regular occurrence.

One match, the first All-ireland semi-final in 31 years, is moved and all hell breaks loose from a shower of whingers.

Do you understand that Croke Park has a revenue generating function and it would be seriously remiss of the GAA not to exploit that?

Or do you live in a la-la land where there's a money fairy handing out goodies paid for by nobody?

I do understand Croke Park has a revenue generating function.
Do you understand that the GAA is primarily a sporting organisation? Do you not agree that gaelic games should take precedence over other "revenue generating" events?
The All-Ireland quarter-finals are held from the August bank holiday onwards. The least Croke Park could do is agree that none of these "revenue generating" events are scheduled for the months of August and September. Do you really not think that's reasonable?

[Sidney]

The GAA is primarily a sporting organisation. How has that changed in any way?

The latter stages of the All--Ireland championships have a revenue generating function. How has that changed in any way? What revenue has been lost by this decision?

[Armamike]

You business argument is crazy. Croke Park should not prioritise anything over big Gaelic Games fixtures. If they shoved Dublin out of Croker because a Garth Brooks event would yield more, that would be a good business argument, but would miss the point completely.

If Grath Brooks had gone ahead and Dublin and Meath had drawn, the replay would have been in Thurles. That seems like a perfectly sound business decision to me and I would have had no problem with it.

The GAA is getting extra revenue it wouldn't have otherwise got by staging this American football match. That seems like a sound business decision to me.

Complete nonsense. Other than the Roscommon part, which is slowly being upgraded, it is vastly superior and there are no real bottlenecks left on the N5.

How can one national primary road which consists mostly of single carriageway with a hard shoulder, some of which is single carriageway with no hard shoulder, be vastly superior to another national primary road with a hard shoulder all the way? How is it superior at all?

You can twist it all you like, the bottom line is that the GAA has decided to relegate its premier product to b status, to accommodate another sport for money reasons. Poor stuff, and hard to think of any other self respecting sporting organisation that would do that to its own games.