Railway Cup Final to be played in Dallas

[Lar Naparka]

The only reason to keep the Railway cup would be as a promotional exhibition game abroad. Treat the players to a weekend/week away in a nice city which has a GAA scene, part of the deal is some players visit schools, do interviews with local media, attend the local clubs training sessions etc. That would be a win win. Playing it at home seems like a waste to me when it is an irrelevance at this stage.

I agree 100% with you.
But I'd go a step further and select the venues of the finals on a structured basis. Overseas clubs/centres would tender for the staging of the games and would be required to submit proposals in the same way as cities around the world bid to host the Olympic Games and other major sports' events.
As the selected hosts would pick up the tab for all expenses involved, the GAA would profit from the venture as it would be spared the hassle and cost of having the finals played at home and the players from all the provinces would have something worthwhile to compete for.
Everyone concerned would be happy with the outcome.

I was with you until here - why should the GAA here pay the guts of $250K to host a game like this?

The reality is that there is no other way to fund the trip.
I can't see the GAA picking up the tab as it would be far cheaper to have the game played at home.
I'd imagine that there would be change out of €10,000 if the game was played in, say, Portlaoise or Navan. Since the general public here has little or no interest in proceedings, HQ would be spending a huge amount for no practical return if it paid all or most of the expenses.
I accept that it could cost up to $250K to stage the final in Canada or somewhere on the east coast of the US but what if a club or amalgamation of units or whatever knew maybe two years in advance or more that their bid to stage the final had been accepted?
They would then have loads of time to fundraise and seek sponsorship and promote the event to the ex-pat and second generation Irish in the area. I'd see the games as the main attraction at an Irish jamboree weekend rather than a game of meaningful (to us at home) football/hurling.
I couldn't see an individual club in England being able to raise the money required by a county board would.  Besides, a trip to anywhere England or Europe won't cost anywhere near as much as one to Ontario or San Francisco or similar..

[Gabriel_Hurl]

We should get whoever picked up the tab for the Super 11's hurling game at Notre Dame last month.

[Zulu]

I accept that it could cost up to $250K to stage the final in Canada or somewhere on the east coast of the US but what if a club or amalgamation of units or whatever knew maybe two years in advance or more that their bid to stage the final had been accepted?

Most clubs can barely raise the funds they need to compete in their own competitions let alone raising the necessary money for this. Remember many international clubs have to travel 5 or 6 hour round trips for games.

I couldn't see an individual club in England being able to raise the money required by a county board would.

Many county boards in Britain would have less money than your average acid taking hippy. There's not a hope most could fund this trip.

Remember this can be used as a promotional tool for the GAA abroad and as a reward for players. The sponsor for the Railway cup and the GAA should be more than capable of funding this to any location in Europe anyway. Certain places like the US and Asia may be able to contribute if it was to go there but nobody in Europe could and they wouldn't want it if they had to.

[Eamonnca1]

The Skydome games are the best example I've ever seen of international GAA promotion. That business model is the one to emulate.