Money is Destroying the Game

[manfromdelmonte]

. I'll lump Donegal in with us, although their population is almost double ours.

2011 Census - Mayo 131,000, Donegal 160,000.

Exactly, almost double!

Sorry, my bad, for some reason I thought we were 95k

Plus Ballagh

[Dinny Breen]

Where do Monaghan and Cork as Division 1 teams fit into the money is required to be a serious team argument?

They are not serious teams though.

[Aaron Boone]

Is Ulster not worth a mention 

I was giving the Ulster boyos a pass but you still complain. There's reasons I wont be mentioning British funding.

The Queen's Shilling will be somewhat frowned upon but always accepted.

[Hardy]

Money in the game is an absolute issue and HQ needs to try to put a CAP or some form of control on this so there is some form of level playing ground. I know this is socialism but look at AMerican football and the AFL in the most capitalist countries in the world they in effect have CAPs and structures to ensure there is continuous auto leveling  Even here in little old Cavan the senior setup are having to get Third Parties to fund major elements. While the county board is spending 500K on all teams  so when it broken down the senior setup does not get anything like some other counties. A lot of other funds are coming in via business people a classic example our weekend away in New York funded by a group of people. A lot of funding in Cavan went into U21 and that made a difference, Training weekends / proper food different speacilist coaches etc. Jimbo in Donegal had to sort out funding to win an All -Ireland. Team number 4 this year also has a very good fund raising structure as do some other counties. So rather than the key factor being Players / ability etc suddenly it becomes about having the funding structure right. Ultimately there is now a Funding Arms war starting to happen in football if we want to keep our ethos. Then something has to be stopped or we just go semi- pro and get on with it. Somehow / somewhere I do not believe we want to go pro so HQ needs to step in and start levelling  the field somehow. I think proper controls on the background teams and real enforcement would be a start. Player expenses are controlled so now the Mind Managers and Mentors and Training camps etc need control. Or we just say grand Ulster is the only province that is competitive. Roscommon have funding structures in place so they will come, Cork surely will shoot the dinosaur that is stopping it in that county and then we will just see which county will spend oevr a Million and buy an All Ireland.

Note: this is not meant to be a criticism of any county, In the GAA what happens is  you play just enough outside the rules to not get caught. SO at the mooment fair play to Tyrone supporters club, Cute Kerry Hoors in New York, Dublin with AIG, Jimbo getting concerned citizens involved  etc. But, what is happening now is just not fair. Look at "Strong" football counties and see how they are now being left behind eg Meath, Galway, Cork  . I do not think any genuine GAA person who works in a club want to see Money becoming the big thing at county level. Otherwise this will come to the parish (already at Senior Level in lots of counties) ultimately this will destroy the very thing that makes us give of our free time and Volunteer.

Do we all want to see Mind Doctors, 30 Man Background teams, Speacilist GYM monkeys taking the good out of the whole thing eg Cavan trained at my club last Year counted over 20 Background  People. A lot of these lads giving freely of time so other "experts" could gain 

   

That's the post I was going to post. As I said before, the GAA at the moment is like the Klondyke. Professional sports (a) see the need for financing caps in order to maintain competitiveness and credibility and prevent the outright purchase of championships and titles and (b) make them work more or less effectively. Surely it's even more important for amateur sport to have such controls and even easier for it to implement them.

[giveballaghback]

Reading Mayo county board returns over the last few years it would be a conservative estimate that 750k per annum was spent on the preparation of their football teams, compare that to Roscommons total spent for 2014 of 197k and that is the total spend of the county board, I do not know  Galway figures  so I cannot comment.
When there is money about players get "looked after" and also have better training facilities etc, fair play to Mayo they have returned well for the spend and were unlucky not to land the big one and may well do so next year, they have spent their money well and their team have been probably the best prepared team over the last five years, but lesser counties cannot compete, now some might say you cant train an ass to win the derby but before the money came in to it smaller teams were not getting as consistently trashed as they are now, yes there were some bad beatings but the top 3 teams have just moved onto another level, not their fault and fair play to them, Im fairly sure these top teams would prefer proper challenges coming from other counties and its up to the gaa to find a solution to this, its a serious challenge and must be addressed. Great post and great thread Teo Lurley.

[StGallsGAA]

You heard it here first.  Roman Abramovic watched the hurling AI final and AI football between Mayo and Dublin and has been raving about GAA ever since. 

He has enquired as to the quickest way to get involved and sponsor a team with drug money, free prostitutes and gambling revenue.  Having found Dublin have the sport all sewn up in this regard he's turning his attention to London with plans for an AI win in 2016 having greased palms in GAA HQ and Sunday Game panellists in the same way as the Dubs have but with more late night 'entertainment' in Lillies and Coppers as well as free vodka and blood money. 

Pat Spillane is said to be ready to ride a bear in Moscow while Joe Brolly will ride a cow anywhere if Roman's roubles are right.

[Nihilist]

Mayo spending on Senior Football team was as follows in 2014:
Travel          €438k
Catering      €084k
Medical        €064K
Gear            €024k
Total           €610K (down from €646k in 2013)

Total income of County Board €2.124million    Expenditure €2.045 million  Surplus €79k

Source: Mayo GAA audited accounts 2014.   Available in detail on Official Mayo GAA Website

It's interesting that people are able to find these stats for Mayo. Are they available for the other counties as well particularly Kerry, Dublin, Donegal, Cork, Ross, Galway, Meath, Kildare, Tyrone ?

[Rossfan]

Ros ones were at last Convention so someone might have them lying about.
However official Co Board figures hardly tell the full story in many Counties.

[Nihilist]

Ros ones were at last Convention so someone might have them lying about.
However official Co Board figures hardly tell the full story in many Counties.

True - but it's somwhere to start

[Nihilist]

My last post on this subject until after we're out of championship or it's over.

I agree it should be a more level playing field but I don't see how you implement it. If counties have the money they will spend it if it has a chance of garnering success. If you try and limit these amounts it will just drive the money underground but it will still be spent regardless. And it won't effect the outcome of the championship or help lesser counties.

Kerry and Dublin will still come through as will the other stalwarts if the players are available. Other changes need to be made including re-structure of the League maybe and defo pushing Dublin out of Croker for a change. Leinster has died a death.

As to Mayo well the good times won't last forever with us. And we know it. So we enjoy this success while we can. hopefully the team can get what they deserve out of it for all the guts and determination they have shown to keep coming back through all the heartache they have suffered.

Please don't equate hard to police with impossible to police. Many sports throughout the world have spending caps. American pro sports do it very effectively.

You hit the nail on the head there . PRO SPORTS.

GAA is not a pro sport and it doesn't have the same governance at all.
Also - County Boards run each County and anyone coming in from outside to tell then how to do it can go and s**te. Similar to Provincial setup. The national setup has no holds over the provincial setup which is one of the main blockers to putting in any type of alternative framework for the "stale" championship. (But that's a different debate and thread)

Also don't forget that just because you have a spending cap in pro sports doesn't mean that there aren't ways around it. In American pro sports how much money is spent on trading players between teams prior to and during a professional season. This is currently not allowed in our sport (technically anyway).

[Bingo]

Personally speaking money won't kill the game as much as the game will kill itself.

The need to develop and train like professionals is spreading down through the ranks at all levels. It will affect it too ways - 1) players won't commit to this and will disappear from the game to play other more socialable sports with less pressure and more certainty of games/training etc; and 2) Good players will be used and abused from early age if they show potential and when/if they don't make it at high level they will walk away from the game or be forced away through injury/burnout etc.

They pulling and dragging of players for all the talk of burnout is only going one direction. Development squads seem to be starting earlier with bigger numbers and pull players into a county set up. We've had constant issues all year with players missing club training cause they have county training, injuries picked up from training hours on end, county training the day after games, etc etc And this is at U14 level!

Its shooting fish in a barrel for these development squads - start with 50 players and whittle them down over the years until they get 2/3 senior county players from it. You are left with frustrated and burn-out players who have been lead down a county path and are now left with out this. There is a benefit of these squads but at what cost. They have pulled players from clubs all summer and now its the same with school teams.

Monaghan Minor panel for 2016 are actually training these past few weeks. Crazy stuff and they has started before the minor championships and leagues where finished. These same players will now be starting off back with school teams as well.

Its madness and no sign of anything serious been done about it.

You can talk to players about it but they want to do everything and won't say no at that age.

[The Aristocrat]

Another big fundraiser for Kerry, I believe that will make it 6 million from New York, 1 million from London, ?? Millions from the Kerry Group ( One of the most profitable companies in the world).

Its and old article but I haven't seen it mentioned.

http://irishpost.co.uk/kerry-stars-head-to-london-to-help-e1million-fundraising-push-for-gaa-centre-of-excellence/

[Ranga]

Another big fundraiser for Kerry, I believe that will make it 6 million from New York, 1 million from London, ?? Millions from the Kerry Group ( One of the most profitable companies in the world).

Its and old article but I haven't seen it mentioned.

http://irishpost.co.uk/kerry-stars-head-to-london-to-help-e1million-fundraising-push-for-gaa-centre-of-excellence/

7 million  The Dubs use that as toilet roll!

[The Aristocrat]

Another big fundraiser for Kerry, I believe that will make it 6 million from New York, 1 million from London, ?? Millions from the Kerry Group ( One of the most profitable companies in the world).

Its and old article but I haven't seen it mentioned.

http://irishpost.co.uk/kerry-stars-head-to-london-to-help-e1million-fundraising-push-for-gaa-centre-of-excellence/

7 million  The Dubs use that as toilet roll!

I think your getting confused, I was talking about Kerry, Dublin's finances has been well documented a couple of dozens times on this site.

Kerry need to be under the same spotlight, as well as Donegal, Mayo etc.

[AZOffaly]

Kerry, Donegal and Mayo seem to be very adept at raising money alright, as do the Dubs. But the GAA is one of the Dubs main contributers, which I think is the issue a lot of people would have. In 2014 the GAA gave 1.4 million to Dublin for games development, and gave 40k to Donegal and Mayo, and 42k to Kerry.

I don't have an issue with Dublin's vodafone deal, more power to them, but I do think the GAA has to look at whether it's fair to provide so much games development funding to one county, especially when that county is relatively flush with those external deals.