Messages

When life gives you lemons you make lemonade.

This is a golden opportunity for the GAA to grow internationally and not repeat the mistakes of the past when the games were just seen as a bit of entertainment for emigrants and were kept to the Irish community. The influx of players into clubs outside of Ireland needs to be translated into a new effort to get the games out there beyond the Irish community where they can truly grow.

Well the carry on in San Francisco this year with the young lad in a coma for a few weeks won't encourage too many locals to join the GAA. Added to that the response of the local GAA authority where they showed no spin in trying to protect their own players and lay down a marker that it's unacceptable for that sort of carry on. Why would anyone want to let their son/daughter out to play a game that is run by a bunch of amadan's???

Of course we could do this. When people talk about NZ not making money they are not looking at it correctly. The main reason NZ didn't make money is the physical fact that its located in a place that make it expensive to travel to. If it was held in Ireland all the 6 nations teams would have big following, NZ and Aus bring a large crowd no matter where the WC is held (back to the Rugby nuts comment) and I would say the same about SA. The other nations won't set the world alight with the support they have even if it was held in their back yard.

How much would it cost? We'll if we got together as a country IRFU and GAA then it can be done easily. Last WC there were 4 groups (same as Euro champ.) so all you need is 8 grounds really but to spread things around

Leinster - Aviva (50K), Croke Park (83K), with Portlaoise (27K) and even Tullamore 20K
Munster - Thomond (27K), Thurles (50K), PiC (50K)
Ulster - Clones (36K), Raven (revamped)
Connacht - Castlebar (42K), Tuam (25K), Roscommon(30K)

The grounds would need a bit of work but this wouldn't take a lot of money to do and with a bit of a get up and go attitude could be done. This sort of thing is needed in the country right now, get things moving again, positive attitude and all that. Never mind sharing it with another country, just go do the thing alone.

The GAA would get a number of grounds upgraded, paying for some themselves, some through IRFU and some through the goverment. Course money is tight now but all parties need to look at the benifits long term in getting people/players for the two associations back to work and turning an economy.

Who'll pay the bill? The tax payer, with RTE being State run

Will anyone get the chop? No, because of all the public service protection

If anything happened like this in a privite owned company heads would roll. But instead every house in Ireland needs to have a TV lisense to pay to support these clowns.

Just seen this, In as well - cheers Shifty