Why The GAA invest so much in Dublin

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Wrote this recently here-

https://veryintobloggingveryintonewmedia.wordpress.com/2019/07/26/why-the-gaa-invest-so-much-in-dublin-and-why-extending-games-development-funding-is-unlikely-to-bridge-gap-to-dubs/

Basically it's an original opinion on why the GAA invest so heavily in Dublin.

Over the past year the focus on Croke Park's funding of Dublin's games development project has ballooned into the biggest issue facing the association's hierarchy. It's begun to get ugly for the GAA's president John Horan who, as a Dublin native, is facing accusations that he's acting in Dublin's interests above the GAA's. Horan and other members of the hierarchy haven't helped themselves by some of their claims when they talk to the media. The claims made last year by Tom Ryan (Director General of the GAA) that funding to Dublin was being reduced and recently by Horan that Dublin didn't receive money from the Leinster provincial council were false when they said it or proved to be false almost immediately after.


The latest claim by John Horan on the funding figures is that he is going "to get someone to just have a look at it and analyse it", all the while persistently defending the dispersal of the funds. This approach is going to further antagonize the increasing numbers who believe Dublin's success is linked to the financial assistance it received.
As Dublin go for the five in the row, their dominance is being acclaimed but the dropping attendances at games suggest the reality that this Dublin team are close to unbeatable. This is leading people to see games against them as a write-off rather than a huge challenge. Dropping attendances means dropping revenue for Croke Park. So the question has to be asked; if the GAA's revenue is dropping in the Dublin dominated era why is the hierarchy so protective of the funding remaining in place for Dublin?


The reasoning the GAA provide is to grow the game in Ireland's largest urban centre by going into schools and clubs and provide them with basic coaching that gives the GAA a head-start on other rival sports in the heart's and mind's of Dublin's pre-teens. Gaels outside Dublin with an axe to grind say these coaches allow Dublin to provide professional coaching to their most promising players. I'm not sure I buy either the GAA's reasoning or those outside Dublin with complaints about the funding dichotomy.


The reason or at least my reasoning for the imbalanced funding is the level of return Dublin clubs get for the level of investment in GDO's (Games Development Officers). To explain, lets look at the economics of a Dublin superclub. John Horan's club Na Fianna to be exact. Na Fianna claim they have 4000 members and 400 of them are nursery members. This means they are aged between 5-7 years. Their parents pay 85 euro as the annual Nursery membership fee. So the maths on that is a total of 34000 euro is coming into Na Fianna's coffers annually. A GDO's salary would be a bit more than that i believe. Maybe coming in at under 40000 Euro. So Na Fianna are almost covering the entire cost of a GDO from the money coming in from 10% of their membership. That 10% of the membership only pay 85 euro in fees while the juveniles and adult playing members pay 155 euro and 265 euro respectively. And of course Na Fianna don't have to pay the entire salary of the GDO. Na Fianna only cover half. Croke Park covers the other half.


The truth of the games development question I posed about why the GAA invest so much in Dublin is that the return is so lucrative. There are so many youngsters in Dublin clubs that can generate so much in income to Dublin GAA. It's basically it's own industry where the outlay for a GDO is covered many times over by the membership fees of Nursery and Juvenile members. The parents of these kids are used as cash machines to bankroll the club's plans and expansions. That is why the GAA continued to pump money in to the Games Development funds for Dublin. Because the "resources" there in terms of children available to coach are so much greater than other parts of the country and that equals "Bank". Other factors work in their favour such as they have a small network of clubs servicing huge populations as opposed to the situation in most of the rest of the country were there are more clubs for small clusters of populations.


The GAA won't be forthcoming about this reasoning as the above paragraph isn't very idealistic in a sporting sense and if it were known it wouldn't appease the critics. However it does make sense from a purely economic viewpoint. The GAA for now have responded to calls for more equitable funding with the "East Leinster project". This will invest 500,000 euro annually in much the same structures that were put in place in Dublin for the last fifteen years. It will focus on four counties; Kildare, Meath, Wicklow and Louth. This is been talked about as a way to bridge the gap between Dublin and the rest. Really I would imagine the aim is pretty much the same as in Dublin. It will focus on the big commuter belts with large populations and get these coaches to pay for themselves by the level of income they bring in from the Parents' membership fees. It is less about developing players as about developing income sources. It is also worth mentioning that this isn't a huge investment being made. 500k a year across 4 counties will pay for an extra 12 coaches (the money from the clubs will add a further 12) for as long as the project lasts. If the money rolls in like in Dublin perhaps the GAA will consider extending it. However the project has been knocked back in Newbridge where they are happy to proceed with their own structure of coaching with volunteers instead of professional coaches. 500,000 euro is not much when I've shown the kind of money that gets brought in from just one nursery of a Dublin Super club. There are at least another ten Dublin superclubs with memberships and revenue streams similar to Na Fianna.


Moving on, there is a an upshot from the above writing that I wish to dissect.


It's now becoming almost fashionable to cite the development funds as the reason Dublin are so dominant/unbeatable. This, to me at least, is a huge misread of the development funds and their value and purpose. Of course they have a value all the way to the senior team but gradually there is a movement to say that these funds are the reason Dublin are dominating. I think this should be debunked as I don't think a transposition of the funds to other Leinster counties would be that instrumental in closing the gap.
Up to 1990, Dublin were the second most successful county in Ireland at Gaelic Football. The second most successful by far. Between 1990 and 2016 Dublin's population increased by 300,000 people according to national statistics. 300,000 is far more than, for instance, Meath's and Kildare's entire present population. A lot is made of Kildare's and Meath's population explosion in the last twenty years but when the entire populations of these counties is outstripped by just the population increase in that period in Dublin...well is it any wonder Dublin's have a far better team than Kildare and Meath?


Population is often disregarded as not a creditable reason for Dublin's current superiority but this again is a complete misread in my opinion. It is dismissed because Dublin always had the population advantage. It doesn't factor in the statistic in the paragraph above showing that despite the population explosion in Meath and Kildare that Dublin added significantly more people. Crucially even that doesn't factor in the socio-economic changes in the composition of Dublin's population of the last thirty years. Of rural people, many of them sons and daughters of farmers, attending third level education there, taking jobs there, moving into the suburbs there. Bringing their traditions of Gaelic games with them. The shift from Gaelic Football being viewed as a "bogger" sport to being seen as part of the mainstream in the capital.


So what is the bigger factor in Dublin dominance? This enormous socio-economic shift and huge increase in population in a county that was already hugely successful or Dublin having seventy professional coaches going into clubs and schools since 2005? For me it's a complete no contest.
The East Leinster project will generate revenue for clubs in the area in the large population belts just like it did in Dublin. But don't expect it to magically close the gap with Dublin. This will be a far more difficult problem to resolve given the huge differentials I've highlighted in population.


Going back to the original point the idea that the professional coaches are the factor that created Dublin as the GAA's Death Star is a far fetched one. It has been missed up to now the real purpose of these coaches is the enormous income they generate. I don't think the Dublin project was ever even about creating adult club players. If it had been it would have really focused on starting new clubs as well as just coaching within existing clubs. There are so many club juvenile and nursery players going through the Dublin system that there probably wouldn't be room for 20% of them were they to try to be senior players in the existing club network in the capital.


The Dublin project was about monetizing the incredible numbers of Dublin's youth through the county's underage club structure and using that money to make Dublin the base-rock of the GAA financially. The 18+ million euro in development funds Dublin have received since 2005 is definitely an eye bulging figure but it is largely a "McGuffin" for understanding why Dublin football is dominating. That dominance requires more subtle analysis of population shifts to Dublin's suburbs back through the 1990's and further.