Frightening indeed the over-run on the cost of this. To think that Eur10,000 a week is needed to pay the interest only on the debt. That sort of money isnt available around Mayo GAA at the moment. And to think that we were all asked to dig deep over the past decade as things were tight. If things were tight why in the hell was so much borrowed.
The only way out of this that I can see is to split the McHale Park project away from the day to day runnings of the county board. All the bad debt and problems to be seperated away from the county board and a proper McHale Park management committee put in place. This way the committees sole job is to make it viable and pay back its debts. Concerts, shows, fairs, weddings and festivals will have to be looked at to get money flowing in. A full time CEO or Marketing person will be needed for this. Seperate to that will be the county GAA board which deals solely with GAA teams, games, coaching and the day-to-day running of the GAA in Mayo. Mayo GAA needs professional direction over the next few years or else this problem could escalate into clubs folding due to defaulting on their Eur15,000 affiliations at the start of the year. Its a serious crisis alright.
The only way out of this that I can see is to split the McHale Park project away from the day to day runnings of the county board. All the bad debt and problems to be seperated away from the county board and a proper McHale Park management committee put in place. This way the committees sole job is to make it viable and pay back its debts. Concerts, shows, fairs, weddings and festivals will have to be looked at to get money flowing in. A full time CEO or Marketing person will be needed for this. Seperate to that will be the county GAA board which deals solely with GAA teams, games, coaching and the day-to-day running of the GAA in Mayo. Mayo GAA needs professional direction over the next few years or else this problem could escalate into clubs folding due to defaulting on their Eur15,000 affiliations at the start of the year. Its a serious crisis alright.