Gaa takes over Mayo debt

[macdanger2]

However there can be no doubt that spending more money on team preparation confers an advantage, the only doubt is the degree to which it does. So if we take two teams that are broadly similar when it comes to general ability - Mayo and Donegal would be a fair example. Mayo have got the benefit of the spending, which is that they have a really fantastic stand. The price they paid is of course another matter, but the Mayo CB chose to spend the money, and now have an asset. That much is without doubt.

Donegal didn't spend that money, and don't have an asset. But now the debt has been "socialised" in the sense that Donegal will be paying towards an asset that Mayo possesses, all while Mayo are still spending far more on team preparation than the average county.

It's not dis-similar to the austerity argument, in that asking Germany to bail out the Irish exchequer while Irish civil servants continue to be paid far more than their German equivalents seems a bit unfair to me.

Is it not the case that Mayo have simply received a better interest rate from the GAA compared to what UB were giving? We'll still repay the debt and other counties will not be burdened with it.

It would be reasonable however to ask why Mayo have received the benefit of this and some other counties have perhaps not?

[giveballaghback]

You are wrong there rossfan, the gaa went guarantor for ros cb to borrow the money and pay back our friend, that was always going to be the way it was paid back, this happened in early 2011. No need to trash something we have long ago sorted out here, this is all now history, at the time of our financial difficulties we were not spending 750k per annum on our county senior team while going with the begging bowl to the gaa, what has happened is totally astounding, what they spent in excess of ten million on I dont know, it looks like the old nally stand in croke park but not nearly as comfortable,  where did the money go, it wasent spent on that stand.

[giveballaghback]

Some suggestions on how Mayo could raise money to clear their debt.
(1) Hold a table quiz on top of croagh patrick on st.Patricks day, 20euro a table.
(2) Set up road blocks on all roads leading out of the county, charge every man woman and child ten euro
to leave the county, this will work, ye already have a working model at knock airport.
(3)Auction off yere all-ireland runners up medals, this would have to be done in phases because if they all came on the market together it would devastate the price.
(4) Do bus tours of the county showing off Mchale park, im sure the rossies would lend ye that bus if ye were stuck.
(5) Get a sports grand for ten million from Michael Ring, he could cut the health and social welfare budget to fund it or maybe put a ten euro levy on all sheep in Roscommon.
(6) Sell ballagh to sligo, ye dont really want it anyway ye are just holding on to it to piss off the rossies and im sure ye would be glad to be rid of it, the place brought nothing but bad luck.
Has anyone else any good ideas to help out our poor neighbours. 

[Farrandeelin]

What?

[Syferus]

Some suggestions on how Mayo could raise money to clear their debt.
(1) Hold a table quiz on top of croagh patrick on st.Patricks day, 20euro a table.
(2) Set up road blocks on all roads leading out of the county, charge every man woman and child ten euro
to leave the county, this will work, ye already have a working model at knock airport.
(3)Auction off yere all-ireland runners up medals, this would have to be done in phases because if they all came on the market together it would devastate the price.
(4) Do bus tours of the county showing off Mchale park, im sure the rossies would lend ye that bus if ye were stuck.
(5) Get a sports grand for ten million from Michael Ring, he could cut the health and social welfare budget to fund it or maybe put a ten euro levy on all sheep in Roscommon.
(6) Sell ballagh to sligo, ye dont really want it anyway ye are just holding on to it to piss off the rossies and im sure ye would be glad to be rid of it, the place brought nothing but bad luck.
Has anyone else any good ideas to help out our poor neighbours.

[muppet]

Some suggestions on how Mayo could raise money to clear their debt.
(1) Hold a table quiz on top of croagh patrick on st.Patricks day, 20euro a table.
(2) Set up road blocks on all roads leading out of the county, charge every man woman and child ten euro
to leave the county, this will work, ye already have a working model at knock airport.
(3)Auction off yere all-ireland runners up medals, this would have to be done in phases because if they all came on the market together it would devastate the price.
(4) Do bus tours of the county showing off Mchale park, im sure the rossies would lend ye that bus if ye were stuck.
(5) Get a sports grand for ten million from Michael Ring, he could cut the health and social welfare budget to fund it or maybe put a ten euro levy on all sheep in Roscommon.
(6) Sell ballagh to sligo, ye dont really want it anyway ye are just holding on to it to piss off the rossies and im sure ye would be glad to be rid of it, the place brought nothing but bad luck.
Has anyone else any good ideas to help out our poor neighbours.

Well at least now we know who gbb is.

[Syferus]

Some suggestions on how Mayo could raise money to clear their debt.
(1) Hold a table quiz on top of croagh patrick on st.Patricks day, 20euro a table.
(2) Set up road blocks on all roads leading out of the county, charge every man woman and child ten euro
to leave the county, this will work, ye already have a working model at knock airport.
(3)Auction off yere all-ireland runners up medals, this would have to be done in phases because if they all came on the market together it would devastate the price.
(4) Do bus tours of the county showing off Mchale park, im sure the rossies would lend ye that bus if ye were stuck.
(5) Get a sports grand for ten million from Michael Ring, he could cut the health and social welfare budget to fund it or maybe put a ten euro levy on all sheep in Roscommon.
(6) Sell ballagh to sligo, ye dont really want it anyway ye are just holding on to it to piss off the rossies and im sure ye would be glad to be rid of it, the place brought nothing but bad luck.
Has anyone else any good ideas to help out our poor neighbours.

Well at least now we know who gbb is.

You've went into overdrive lately Mupp, you used to need some bait to make you bite but now it's like you're operating off a motion sensor, biting at everything that moves.

[screenexile]

It sounds like Mayo CB fucked up and needed a bit of help from Croker.

To be fair I think it makes sense as the GAA has plenty of cash lying around and stopping a County Board from going bankrupt is a particularly good use for it. As stated the GAA have taken over the debt but are charging less interest but will still get back the monies owed so it would appear to be a win win.

Interesting to see how other Counties behave going forward and if this is something the GAA will have to do much of going forward. Is the same option available to Clubs??

[Lone Shark]

Should the GAA as a whole adopt tighter rules as regard counties/clubs borrowing money to spend on capital projects in the future?

I don't have a huge problem with bailing out the counties/clubs that made a balls of things in the past but it does seem that that forcing everyone to be more prudent financially going forward would make more sense and be far fairer and actually mean that some lessons were learned as a result of the mistakes.

Otherwise it will be the case that down the line, the organisation as a whole will definitely be bailing out more counties/clubs who act recklessly/stupidly in the financial sense.

I think there definitely is a case to be made for someone sitting down and looking at the GAA's infrastructure requirements from on high, rather than having 32 counties all trying to have everything themselves. The perfect examples of this are the big stadium revamps in Roscommon and Cork - from the perspective of your average Roscommon or Cork fan who wants to play a Connacht/Munster final at home now and then, big stadia are needed. For the GAA as a whole, they are not, since Connacht already has two Stadia capable of holding a provincial final, and Munster has three. There's a huge amount of vanity involved in both projects, plus a fundamental sense of entitlement - why is it right and proper that Roscommon and Cork should get provincial finals, but Leitrim and Clare should continue to whistle in the wind?

Similarly with training facilities. Every county now seems to need a "centre of excellence" and it stands to reason that every county panel should be equipped broadly similarly. However we don't need 32 of them - if the GAA would come in from on high and say to counties like Offaly and Laois that there is a facility needed, we're going to put it into Killeigh/Mountmellick/Mountbolus/Clonaslee, and ye can work it out among yereselves - then that makes far more sense than two counties doing so independently.   

[twohands!!!]

Should the GAA as a whole adopt tighter rules as regard counties/clubs borrowing money to spend on capital projects in the future?

I don't have a huge problem with bailing out the counties/clubs that made a balls of things in the past but it does seem that that forcing everyone to be more prudent financially going forward would make more sense and be far fairer and actually mean that some lessons were learned as a result of the mistakes.

Otherwise it will be the case that down the line, the organisation as a whole will definitely be bailing out more counties/clubs who act recklessly/stupidly in the financial sense.

I think there definitely is a case to be made for someone sitting down and looking at the GAA's infrastructure requirements from on high, rather than having 32 counties all trying to have everything themselves. The perfect examples of this are the big stadium revamps in Roscommon and Cork - from the perspective of your average Roscommon or Cork fan who wants to play a Connacht/Munster final at home now and then, big stadia are needed. For the GAA as a whole, they are not, since Connacht already has two Stadia capable of holding a provincial final, and Munster has three. There's a huge amount of vanity involved in both projects, plus a fundamental sense of entitlement - why is it right and proper that Roscommon and Cork should get provincial finals, but Leitrim and Clare should continue to whistle in the wind?

Similarly with training facilities. Every county now seems to need a "centre of excellence" and it stands to reason that every county panel should be equipped broadly similarly. However we don't need 32 of them - if the GAA would come in from on high and say to counties like Offaly and Laois that there is a facility needed, we're going to put it into Killeigh/Mountmellick/Mountbolus/Clonaslee, and ye can work it out among yereselves - then that makes far more sense than two counties doing so independently.

The yolk in Cork obviously needed something being done with it but the price-tag of around €75m beggars belief for what is being planned looks ludicrous. Was talking to a friend of mine who is an architect and has been involved in sizable public projects and he said that it has the real look of an ego project where no-one is any way concerned with the notion of value for money. He's convinced that once the project is done there will be an absolute truckload of criticism when people actually see 1)how little of a difference it will make to the stadium and 2) how much was spent on it.

If I was running things in Croke Park, I'd have forensic accountants all over the tendering process.

[Syferus]

Because the only reason the Hyde isn't the provincial ground for Connacht is we fucked up the ownership issue and funds meant for the Hyde went to McHale.

Grouping the Hyde with Cork's project or Casement is ridiculous - our budget will be tiny by comparison.

[Hardy]

The yolk in Cork obviously needed something being done with it but the price-tag of around €75m beggars belief for what is being planned looks ludicrous. Was talking to a friend of mine who is an architect and has been involved in sizable public projects and he said that it has the real look of an ego project where no-one is any way concerned with the notion of value for money. He's convinced that once the project is done there will be an absolute truckload of criticism when people actually see 1)how little of a difference it will make to the stadium and 2) how much was spent on it.

It's a bit underwhelming, OK.
http://i57.tinypic.com/a46k9j.png

[Lone Shark]

Because the only reason the Hyde isn't the provincial ground for Connacht is we fucked up the ownership issue and funds meant for the Hyde went to McHale.

Grouping the Hyde with Cork's project or Casement is ridiculous - our budget will be tiny by comparison.

That's not the point though - regardless of how much money will or won't be spent, it's not needed. Connacht doesn't need somewhere to hold more provincial finals, so there's no logic to building it to that standard.

I'm not saying that money shouldn't be spent on things like developing the playing surface, or the access routes from the Curraghboy road, or the toilet facilities, but there is only one Connacht Final per year. Already we have two stadia that are full once every 24 months, there's no way it makes sense to have another and that they're all full once every three years.

In fairness to O'Connor Park, it was built to be suitable for qualifiers and other games with crowds up to 20k - which is the vast majority of fixtures. Yes it's an asset to the GAA people in Offaly, but it's an asset to the GAA generally, and one that gets used extremely frequently. That's not the same at all as the scenario in Roscommon.

As for the historical context in Roscommon, I don't doubt you for a second - I know the history that led to the current situation. However you can't seriously be advocating spending money to right a historical wrong?

If Roscommon, or Cork, or any other county, needs high class training facilities, or more infrastructure at club level, or basic facilities for their supporters at their county grounds, of course the GAA should support from on high. Neither of them needs a 30k+ capacity stadium though.

Ulster is a little different, since you could make the case that there isn't a ground in the province that's really suitable to hold a provincial final, given how run down Clones has become.

[seafoid]

The yolk in Cork obviously needed something being done with it but the price-tag of around €75m beggars belief for what is being planned looks ludicrous. Was talking to a friend of mine who is an architect and has been involved in sizable public projects and he said that it has the real look of an ego project where no-one is any way concerned with the notion of value for money. He's convinced that once the project is done there will be an absolute truckload of criticism when people actually see 1)how little of a difference it will make to the stadium and 2) how much was spent on it.

It's a bit underwhelming, OK.
http://i57.tinypic.com/a46k9j.png

I think they over-egged it myself

[Rossfan]

. Connacht doesn't need somewhere to hold more provincial finals, so there's no logic to building it to that standard.

, but there is only one Connacht Final per year. Already we have two stadia that are full once every 24 months, there's no way it makes sense to have another and that they're all full once every three years.

The problem is that for the vast majority of the population of Connacht those 2 ( esp the Salthill wind tunnel) require an endurance test to get there and back.
Last time I was at a CF in Salthill it was 8.30 before the traffic got moving freely from the Salthill area.