Will the paying of grants affect your attendance at Inter-County games

[DMarsden]

I'm trying to be kind is there a nicer way to say that the scenario you envisage is total bollocks and noone could believe it?

you now claim it'll be more difficult to get club players to commit? are you having a laugh?

listen, you can't really believe this nonsense. At our club agm a short while back, at the height of the grants storm, it wasn't even mentioned. most clubmen don't care. why would they?

you are presenting exact scenarios in other sports which are not the GAA, never had and never will have the same volunteers, support and heritage. they are debunct and not comparable scenarios.

by the way, IC managers already have their own union. i'd have thought a cutting edge grass roots member like yourself would have known that!

[RadioGAAGAA]

I'm trying to be kind is there a nicer way to say that the scenario you envisage is total bollocks and noone could believe it?

Yet what circumstantial evidence do you have to back that up?

you are presenting exact scenarios in other sports which are not the GAA, never had and never will have the same volunteers, support and heritage. they are debunct and not comparable scenarios.

No, they are not the GAA, but the decline of local rugby in particular worries me - considering the strength of the national side in the past 15 years you would have expected popularity to go up, not down. Yet the club scene (at least here) is in serious decline.


You dismissing the comparisons with nothing to back up your position is the height of either arrogance or stupidity.

by the way, IC managers already have their own union. i'd have thought a cutting edge grass roots member like yourself would have known that!

Perhaps that is why they are getting paid.

[Gnevin]

Sure the lads who won't be going are prob the same lads would moaned about paying an extra 10'er

[bingobus]

I don't think it will affect the hardcore support or local level volunteers on the current scale of payments. But it may affect the current fairweather supports who turn up when things are going well and then put the boot in when things are on the slide.

I dont think the fairweather fan will give two hoots about the grants, they go to a handful of high profile matches a year for the craic. Some people feel let down by this and that's their right i suppose, dont really have a problem with the government giving grants to however they want but people have the right to feel otherwise. 

Fairweather supporters are often discounted but they bring the extra revenue into any club/county. I know from raising funds/recruiting players at club level that our number one target is always people outside the club. The club members will always come forward with assistance, funds or their children but the hard sell is to those outside the club i.e Fairweather spectators who may have a passing interest in the game (ie attend the big games) but could possibly be attracted more into the club/county fold.

It is their attitudes that can be easily swayed by media or others anti-GAA. They could be lost at grassroots level

[DMarsden]

I'm trying to be kind is there a nicer way to say that the scenario you envisage is total bollocks and noone could believe it?

Yet what circumstantial evidence do you have to back that up?

eh, you are aware that i'm not envisaging any scenario? i'm saying things will not change. what evidence would you like?

you are the only one dreaming up developments

[rrhf]

Taken by our poll a 30 % drop in attendances next year should start alarm bells ringing. 

[RadioGAAGAA]

eh, you are aware that i'm not envisaging any scenario? i'm saying things will not change. what evidence would you like?

Your envisaging a fundamental change to the relationship between county player and clubman/club player/county board/etc/etc not making a change.


There is at least one change already made to the scenario - its in my first sentence. The question is how many more will their be in tandem with that change.

[RadioGAAGAA]

eh, you are aware that i'm not envisaging any scenario? i'm saying things will not change. what evidence would you like?

you are the only one dreaming up developments

In addition to the previous response, I work with a guy plays junior rugby, played for junior ulster etc, and we had a chin wag over this.


There are a load of little things he said I would never have considered.

For instance, he had to pay £110 last year for insurance, and even then that insurance only covers the most serious of injuries (i.e. a broken leg is NOT covered), most of the other members of his club had to take out separate personal insurance. It used to be that revenues from the 'big' games, i.e. ulster or international matches would filter down through to the grass roots, offsetting somewhat things like insurance. At the start, a proportion of it still did, but now its almost entirely gone on players wages.


I am virtually 100% certain that the GAA will pay for these grants one way or another - the government will give in one hand, and take with the other. Anyone that thinks otherwise is ignorant/blindly bias or stupid (delete as applicable). I also firmly believe these grants will start to snowball in value.  Eventually it will reach a point where the revenue from our big games is not filtering down to help build pitches or changing rooms (through GAA grants), or part fund insurance schemes, or offset coaching lessons etc etc.


All evidence of previous organisations going from amateur to semi-professional (and eventually it becomes professional) supports this. Grant supporters are simply burying their heads in the sand when this issue is raised.

[theskull1]

listen, you can't really believe this nonsense. At our club agm a short while back, at the height of the grants storm, it wasn't even mentioned. most clubmen don't care. why would they?

you are presenting exact scenarios in other sports which are not the GAA, never had and never will have the same volunteers, support and heritage. they are debunct and not comparable scenarios.

There was real anger at our AGM about the way this has been handled by the top brass and our ececutive were motioned to make representations at county level to make these views heard. I only hope many other clubs will do the same

[lynchbhoy]

will go when possible
but I'll have great craic shouting at various players if they make mistakes - more so the high profile ones

'ya useless hoor *** - is that what we pay ya for'
'ya think you could score an easy point like that for the money yer earning'
etc etc etc

[Bensars]

Taken by our poll a 30 % drop in attendances next year should start alarm bells ringing. 

Its never going to happen.

I was against it. But at the end of the day i was going to watch county football not  individuals.

At the end of the day if they need the money that badly, let them have it. However dont come crying when the crowd goes against players when playing badly, the claim that they are amatuer players no longer washes

[lynchbhoy]

sack him,
fine him a weeks wages

...it will be some laugh at the start at least....

[RadioGAAGAA]

listen, you can't really believe this nonsense. At our club agm a short while back, at the height of the grants storm, it wasn't even mentioned. most clubmen don't care. why would they?

I can't really believe the nonsense you post... at least your consistent though.

How on earth can you say most clubmen don't care?


I can say most do care, and point to the sample poll on this board as evidence.


You, as usual, make a statement with the square root of f__k all to back it up.

[rrhf]

Imagine the exposes in the Irish Star next year.   They will take the gloves off now.  "Spit roast in Carlow"

[his holiness nb]

I voted no, as I will still go to the games, but am strongly anti grant, no doubt someone will point out that its someway hypocritical 

Paying at the gate to see your county puts money into the GAA which filters to the clubs, not the players pockets.

Although dissapointed in whats going on, I dont think staying away will do any good.

I do however understand why some people will be a bit more apathetic towards the intercounty teams.