Money, Dublin and the GAA

[sid waddell]

I think the money should be put inot Dublin I mean based on the population it is only fair.

However if you then equate that to the county scene then its also not fair. Spliting Dublin in two is also not the solution as sure they will still be the at least X2 the size of the nearest county.

Provincial status is the only way. An experiment with Dublin entered into a revived Railway Cup as a stand alone team would be interesting experiment and I am sure would at least draw a bigger crowd that the last installment of the provincial competition did

To sort of answer my own question in my previous post and to provide a counter argument to what I said about sponsorship.

You could look at funding of counties in two different ways - grass roots and inter-county - almost like the way US politics is organised along two distinct pathways to recognise both the separate nature of each state and the massive population differences -  the senate has two representatives from each state and then the House has representatives based on population, with say, California having far more House members than Wyoming.

In this scenario, funding for games development is based on population.  Games development is by definition non-inter-county, non-elite. It's about maximising participation and ensuring proper structures are put in place appropriate to local communities. Dublin has 1.34 million people, Longford has 40k. But Dublin has a lower participation rate than anywhee else. Participation rates in Dublin are no less important than anywhere else. Therefore obviously Dublin will get a much larger share of this than Longford because it has a much bigger population. That's as it should be.

At inter-county level, each county aims to have a similar-ish size panel, we'll say 30 to 35. The main reason Dublin can put such a top level set up in place at inter-county level is commercial revenue. Dublin can attract many multiples of what most other counties can in this regard because of its natural economic advantages. Because other counties don't have the commercial revenue potential Dublin do, it's far harder to put top level set ups in place for those 30 to 35 players. This is really where the big difference is being made at inter-county level. In many cases it's professionals v pub team stuff. So if you want to try and even the playing field, you have to find some way of pooling commerical revenue.

How to do that, or to what extent there should be redistribution, is the big question, and one that I feel would be fraught with difficulty in addressing and getting agreement on. But you could, for argument's sake, say that each county gets to keep 70%, hell, let's say 50%, of their commercial and sponsorship revenue and the rest would be pooled centrally to be divided equally between each county.

Therefore you have a much more even playing field in terms of top level set ups in place for county teams, while allocating grass roots games development funds evenly throughout the country.

I agree to an extent but the money and infrastructure of clubs will filter thru and benefit the county setup also. Not to mention the already massive and already expanding pool of players.
Interpros for a full size Dublin is the only way. Dublin Divisional sides (i'd recommend about 4 at the min) could enter the inter county competition.

To continue the intercounty competition in the same way while massive population shifts are taking place is barmy

But in population terms Dublin (1.34 million) v Galway (258k) in Gaelic fooball is like Germany (82m) taking Holland (17m) in association football. Sure Germany have been more successful historically, but the Dutch have always competed against them and indeed beaten them when it mattered. People are not crying to re-split Germany because it has a bigger population.

And again, Croatia, with 4m, reached the World Cup final while Germany went out in the first round.

In practical terms, how would one go about splitting Dublin in this hypothetical scenario people are imagining? What are the practical implications of it for GAA in Dublin? Would it apply to hurling? What sort of opposition could one expect? What sort of impact on attendances could we expect?

What examples from other sports do we have of teams being forcibly broken up? What examples do we have of mergers, even? And how many of these examples involved the sport's biggest team?

[Rossfan]

4 Council areas so 4 County Boards.
Dublin has over twice the population of Connacht,  more people than "GAA Ulster" and around the same as Munster and rest of Leinster.
There is a another debate to be held about whether County units are feasible in the future for representative football.
As a compromise ye could still field All Dublin hurling teams.
Galway is half hurling by the way.

[tonto1888]

Some of you guys on both sides are letting yourselves down. Dublin do have advantages. Is that why they've won four in a row? Not at all. No amount of money would give those Dublin boys the desire to win. The desire like that shown by Mannion on Sunday past. Some people just do not want to give this Dublin team any credit whatsoever.
To the dubs burying your head in the sand regarding money. There is an unfair advantage. You guys gets a very unequal share of the money. Accept it and keep supporting your bloody brilliant team

But hasn't the inter-county system always been inherently unfair? That's the way it is, rightly or wrongly. All representative sport is unfair. Germany has 20 times the population of Ireland. That's "unfair" but its the basis of international football. It's no different to the GAA. But less than two months ago a country with 4 million people reached the World Cup final.

The GAA is based on place. People are fiercely loyal to their counties. Yet because Dublin win a six All-Irelands in eight years, some people suddenly think that Dublin people should expect to take the proposed splitting up of their county team lying down. You'd swear one team dominating in such a manner had never happened before.

Why shouldn't Dublin be allowed to generate more sponsorship and commercial revenue than other counties?

I never mentioned splitting Dublin. To me that's not an option. My post was more about how people on this thread are getting on regarding Dublin and money
I do agree with your post tho.

[tonto1888]

4 Council areas so 4 County Boards.
Dublin has over twice the population of Connacht,  more people than "GAA Ulster" and around the same as Munster and rest of Leinster.
There is a another debate to be held about whether County units are feasible in the future for representative football.
As a compromise ye could still field All Dublin hurling teams.
Galway is half hurling by the way.

Dublin has more people than "GAA Ulster" what does that mean? Does GAA Dublin have more population than GAA Ulster? It seems to me that part was trying to make your argument fit your narrative

[Rossfan]

You should know well what GAA Ulster means.
But just in case you don't it's Donegal, Cavan,  Monaghan and the Nationalist population of the 6 Counties.

[tonto1888]

You should know well what GAA Ulster means.
But just in case you don't it's Donegal, Cavan,  Monaghan and the Nationalist population of the 6 Counties.

Sure why not just say Ulster then? Or does Dublin not have a bigger population than Ulster

[Rossfan]

Are you from the 6 Cos Tonto?

[seafoid]

You should know well what GAA Ulster means.
But just in case you don't it's Donegal, Cavan,  Monaghan and the Nationalist population of the 6 Counties.

Sure why not just say Ulster then? Or does Dublin not have a bigger population than Ulster

Not everyone in Ulster is potentially a GAA head. There are a few Unionists apparently

[tonto1888]

You should know well what GAA Ulster means.
But just in case you don't it's Donegal, Cavan,  Monaghan and the Nationalist population of the 6 Counties.

Sure why not just say Ulster then? Or does Dublin not have a bigger population than Ulster

Not everyone in Ulster is potentially a GAA head. There are a few Unionists apparently

I doubt everyone in Dublin is a potential GAA head. Plenty of egg chasers and soccer types there

[The Hill is Blue]

You should know well what GAA Ulster means.
But just in case you don't it's Donegal, Cavan,  Monaghan and the Nationalist population of the 6 Counties.

Sure why not just say Ulster then? Or does Dublin not have a bigger population than Ulster

Not everyone in Ulster is potentially a GAA head. There are a few Unionists apparently

I doubt everyone in Dublin is ta potential GAA head. Plenty of egg chasers and soccer types there

Not to mention the many in Dublin from other counties who could never bring themselves to support a Dublin team (some of whom are regular contributors to this forum).

[Syferus]

You should know well what GAA Ulster means.
But just in case you don't it's Donegal, Cavan,  Monaghan and the Nationalist population of the 6 Counties.

Sure why not just say Ulster then? Or does Dublin not have a bigger population than Ulster

Not everyone in Ulster is potentially a GAA head. There are a few Unionists apparently

I doubt everyone in Dublin is ta potential GAA head. Plenty of egg chasers and soccer types there

Not to mention the many in Dublin from other counties who could never bring themselves to support a Dublin team (some of whom are regular contributors to this forum).

..and who spawn little GAA mad Dublin rugrats when the time comes.. Christ, how do you drive if you're that cross-eyed?

Oh right, you have a world class public transport system so you don't need to.

[sid waddell]

You should know well what GAA Ulster means.
But just in case you don't it's Donegal, Cavan,  Monaghan and the Nationalist population of the 6 Counties.

Sure why not just say Ulster then? Or does Dublin not have a bigger population than Ulster

Not everyone in Ulster is potentially a GAA head. There are a few Unionists apparently

I doubt everyone in Dublin is ta potential GAA head. Plenty of egg chasers and soccer types there

Not to mention the many in Dublin from other counties who could never bring themselves to support a Dublin team (some of whom are regular contributors to this forum).

..and who spawn little GAA mad Dublin rugrats when the time comes.. Christ, how do you drive if you're that cross-eyed?

Oh right, you have a world class public transport system so you don't need to.

The notion that Dublin has a world class public transport system is the funniest thing I've ever read on this forum.   

[Syferus]

You should know well what GAA Ulster means.
But just in case you don't it's Donegal, Cavan,  Monaghan and the Nationalist population of the 6 Counties.

Sure why not just say Ulster then? Or does Dublin not have a bigger population than Ulster

Not everyone in Ulster is potentially a GAA head. There are a few Unionists apparently

I doubt everyone in Dublin is ta potential GAA head. Plenty of egg chasers and soccer types there

Not to mention the many in Dublin from other counties who could never bring themselves to support a Dublin team (some of whom are regular contributors to this forum).

..and who spawn little GAA mad Dublin rugrats when the time comes.. Christ, how do you drive if you're that cross-eyed?

Oh right, you have a world class public transport system so you don't need to.

The notion that Dublin has a world class public transport system is the funniest thing I've ever read on this forum.   

Go to most other similarly-sized cities in the western world and you're going to be praising the efficiency and reliability of Dublin Bus..

[Rossfan]

Better than the public transport service between Ballinameen and Rooskey .....

[The Hill is Blue]

Ciaran Whelan and Alan Brogan give their views on the anti-Dublin begrudges.

https://www.independent.ie/sport/gaelic-games/gaelic-football/ciaran-whelan-the-truth-might-be-hard-to-take-for-some-but-theres-no-link-between-dublins-success-and-money-37293277.html

https://www.independent.ie/sport/gaelic-games/gaelic-football/alan-brogan-dublin-worked-slavishly-hard-for-their-allireland-successes-and-its-an-insult-to-attribute-it-to-money-37290634.html

Well said lads. We don't fight back enough.