Croke Park protest begins

[Hound]

Zulu.  In my opinion Croke Park is not giving the clubs any money or assistance.  In the whole sceme of things the clubs are operating with grants from lottery funds, sportscouncils local councils and local businesses.  I find it hard to credit Croke Park etc with any progressive club schemes. 

Each county received €250,000 last year from Croke Park as part of the money from renting out Croke park. This money was intended for distribution by each County Board to the clubs for capital projects as they seen fit.

In Monaghan, the CB invited applicants for this money which had to spent within the year and at the time they said they'd give it to one club or split it between 10 clubs depending on the applicants.

They then turned round and said they'd decided instead to plough the money into the County trainingf grounds (which had received club funding over 5 yrs, Lotto grants and GAA money). No clubs seen a penny.

I think this happened in 6 out of 9 ulster counties and Louth as well. Evidence of County Boards overspending and then bailing themselves out.

I think Croke park should have stepped in if they really wanted this money to go to grass roots.

That's horrendous. This is the type of real issue we should be shouting about loudly, rather than the huff and puff about U2, soccer, GPA.

[Hound]

It will be very interesting to see if they get the surface right

Heard on the radio this morning that they are still confident of getting it sorted

Hope so

They are getting far less rain this week than was predicted before the weekend. They were hoping for a deluge, so the sprinkler system will be on over-drive.

[cornafean]

Zulu.  In my opinion Croke Park is not giving the clubs any money or assistance.  In the whole sceme of things the clubs are operating with grants from lottery funds, sportscouncils local councils and local businesses.  I find it hard to credit Croke Park etc with any progressive club schemes. 

Each county received €250,000 last year from Croke Park as part of the money from renting out Croke park. This money was intended for distribution by each County Board to the clubs for capital projects as they seen fit.

In Monaghan, the CB invited applicants for this money which had to spent within the year and at the time they said they'd give it to one club or split it between 10 clubs depending on the applicants.

They then turned round and said they'd decided instead to plough the money into the County trainingf grounds (which had received club funding over 5 yrs, Lotto grants and GAA money). No clubs seen a penny.

I think this happened in 6 out of 9 ulster counties and Louth as well. Evidence of County Boards overspending and then bailing themselves out.

I think Croke park should have stepped in if they really wanted this money to go to grass roots.

I can only speak in relation to what happened in my own county, but in Cavan it was the clubs, not the County Board, who made the decision to allocate this money to the new training facility in Breffni Park rather than divide it among a maximum of ten clubs. Club delegates decided this after several extensive discussions at county board meetings over a lengthy enough period. The general consensus was that it was unfair to single out ten clubs for this funding, leaving the other clubs with nothing, especially when practically every club in the county had invested in their own facilities in recent years.

[bingobus]

Zulu.  In my opinion Croke Park is not giving the clubs any money or assistance.  In the whole sceme of things the clubs are operating with grants from lottery funds, sportscouncils local councils and local businesses.  I find it hard to credit Croke Park etc with any progressive club schemes. 

Each county received €250,000 last year from Croke Park as part of the money from renting out Croke park. This money was intended for distribution by each County Board to the clubs for capital projects as they seen fit.

In Monaghan, the CB invited applicants for this money which had to spent within the year and at the time they said they'd give it to one club or split it between 10 clubs depending on the applicants.

They then turned round and said they'd decided instead to plough the money into the County trainingf grounds (which had received club funding over 5 yrs, Lotto grants and GAA money). No clubs seen a penny.

I think this happened in 6 out of 9 ulster counties and Louth as well. Evidence of County Boards overspending and then bailing themselves out.

I think Croke park should have stepped in if they really wanted this money to go to grass roots.

I can only speak in relation to what happened in my own county, but in Cavan it was the clubs, not the County Board, who made the decision to allocate this money to the new training facility in Breffni Park rather than divide it among a maximum of ten clubs. Club delegates decided this after several extensive discussions at county board meetings over a lengthy enough period. The general consensus was that it was unfair to single out ten clubs for this funding, leaving the other clubs with nothing, especially when practically every club in the county had invested in their own facilities in recent years.

It was passed at a county board meeting but it was done at the early august one that would be poorly attended due to holidays etc. It was only announced at the previous board meeting and it was stated that details had to be lodged by end of month and clubs had to be in a position to commence and complete work by end of year to draw down the funds.
By the August 2008 meeting they announced their plans and didn't detail any applicantions to the delegates present and a number of clubs spoke up and said that it was wrong and more time should be given to clubs to get plans in place, get someone in to judge applicants etc. But it all fell on deaf ears and the top table plus their respective clubs voted on it and pushed it through. No further discussion or chance for clubs to discuss further.

Our county grounds where already in place and clubs had struggled to meet the monthly levy to pay for it over 5 years. This 250K was to fund floodlighting on a 3rd pitch (this was already planned and expected) plus put in spectator facilities on one of the pitches. Only floodlights are in place to date.

To me, it was disgraceful at the time and still is. It was rumoured that the money just went into the CB pot, at time when they also put an addition levy onto championship tickets.

[orangeman]

Was half expecting a wee protest today.


When I first saw the pitch and all the lines, I feared the worst but the pitch actually held up well.


It would not have been suitable for hurling today that's for sure.


It will be interesting to see what it is like next Sunday for the semi final.