The GAA and Founding Principle

[westbound]

15 euro. 20 this year. 25 percent increase.

€15 again this year in advance. You can literally take yourself and a clatter of wains to Croke Pk / Healey / Clones / Fitzgerald / Castlebar to watch the best players in the country do battle for €15 feckin euros... I honestly don't understand the knicker twisting going on atm

If you compare like with like, it was €12 in advance last year, €15 this year.  That is a 25% increase.
Or at the gate it was €15 last year, €20 this year.  That's a 33% increase.

[five points]

The GAA does not need to generate more income at a central level. We are not a capitalist business which has to show improved profits each year, or else sack the board.

Nonsense. The number of ordinary GAA club officers all over the country, who ultimately control county boards as club delegates, who can tell you by how much the GAA's profits went up or down in a given year could fit into a minibus.

But I'm going to guess there is a bonus system in place for our (unnecessary) layer of administration staff should revenues increase,

You're guessing wrong. County & provincial council treasurers are volunteers.

Croke Park is very impressive but it needs to be kept going with serious money. That meant changing the way the GAA does things.
I am not sure that Croke Park is good for the games.

Something similar happened in Galway with Pairc na Gaoithe in Salthill. It was built at enormous expense as a vanity project, is not really suitable for high level sport and has bad parking. Tuam and Ballinasloe are better venues but PnG has to be financed .

Nail on head.

Croke Park is the biggest asset the GAA has, but it's also its greatest liability. In the mid 1990s, Liam Mulvihill said that the expected useful life of the new Croke Park was around 35 years and after that it would be facing huge repair & maintenance bills that might well warrant its demolition and reconstruction. That was around 24 years ago.  Clones was built around the same time and now looks like a dump.

Unless the GAA saves like a miser now, it could well be bankrupt by the end of the next decade.

[seafoid]

The GAA does not need to generate more income at a central level. We are not a capitalist business which has to show improved profits each year, or else sack the board.

Nonsense. The number of ordinary GAA club officers all over the country, who ultimately control county boards as club delegates, who can tell you by how much the GAA's profits went up or down in a given year could fit into a minibus.

But I'm going to guess there is a bonus system in place for our (unnecessary) layer of administration staff should revenues increase,

You're guessing wrong. County & provincial council treasurers are volunteers.

Croke Park is very impressive but it needs to be kept going with serious money. That meant changing the way the GAA does things.
I am not sure that Croke Park is good for the games.

Something similar happened in Galway with Pairc na Gaoithe in Salthill. It was built at enormous expense as a vanity project, is not really suitable for high level sport and has bad parking. Tuam and Ballinasloe are better venues but PnG has to be financed .

Nail on head.

Croke Park is the biggest asset the GAA has, but it's also its greatest liability. In the mid 1990s, Liam Mulvihill said that the expected useful life of the new Croke Park was around 35 years and that it have huge repair & maintenance bills after that that might well warrant its demolition and reconstruction. That was around 24 years ago.  Clones was built around the same time and now looks like a dump.

Unless the GAA saves like a miser now, it could well be bankrupt by the end of the next decade.

Croke Park's size is only required ultimately for 2 guaranteed matches per year
Even the semi finals may not fill it.