National Forum

The Future Of Inter-County Football

(Oldest Posts First) - Go To The Latest Post


Replying To Gleebo:  "Both of those counties have big diasporas abroad (and in Mayo's case in Ireland too!), with many county associations etc. as part of that. I don't think that the Dublin diaspora is as concentrated around their county GAA sides as Mayo or Kerry's are either.

Mayo and Kerry have to raise big sums abroad to be competitive, given the relative lack of central funding available to them. It's probably helpful to Mayo for fundraising purposes that we travel to London and New York for championship games two out of every five years.

Tbh, with the Dubs recently announcing a €4 million extension to their sponsorship deal with AIG, in addition to several other commercial partners, funding from the Irish Sports Council etc. I don't believe there's any need to give them any more central funding from GAA coffers, for a while anyway."
In the the figures i posted above mate, Mayo are receiving only 20k less then Dublin in all the different areas of independent revenue generation. Thats great credit to Mayo.

But if there is an argument there to cut Dublin's funding from central funding and i acknowledge there may be, surely the same argument exists for Mayo.

I also acknowledge the sport council funding is very questionable as well.

TheUsername (Dublin) - Posts: 4445 - 29/05/2018 16:04:19    2105337

Link

I know in the case of Mayo we hold fundraisers in London, New York, Dublin, even Galway with the various Mayo associations.

While such funding is dependent on the team going well, when the need is there to raise money the supporters and wealthy ex pats usually step up.

I know families in Mayo who have not gone on a summer holiday in years...their whole summer and cash flow is spent on following the Mayo team all over Ireland.

Whole Mayo has disadvantages in terms of lack of jobs and opportunities at home, in a weird way it's a benefit to have so many Mayo people all over the world.

yew_tree (Mayo) - Posts: 11229 - 29/05/2018 16:43:21    2105352

Link

Replying To yew_tree:  "I know in the case of Mayo we hold fundraisers in London, New York, Dublin, even Galway with the various Mayo associations.

While such funding is dependent on the team going well, when the need is there to raise money the supporters and wealthy ex pats usually step up.

I know families in Mayo who have not gone on a summer holiday in years...their whole summer and cash flow is spent on following the Mayo team all over Ireland.

Whole Mayo has disadvantages in terms of lack of jobs and opportunities at home, in a weird way it's a benefit to have so many Mayo people all over the world."
Its really impressive revenue generation the figures are startling, to be earning 19k less then Dublin on the whole commercially is staggering, as someone else said though its could be very fluxuent income though the Cairde Mayo scheme seems pretty dependable.

Seems to be the way things are going, a number of counties are looking at appointing a head of commercial and fundraising, i think i saw Kerry were close to appointing someone a few weeks back.

Its a whole different world really isnt it.

A question i suppose to ponder is how much will the GAA become like a business like other sports were revenue generation will dictate sporting outcomes, it seems so many counties are going down the that route now to optimise whatever angles they have to fund success.

TheUsername (Dublin) - Posts: 4445 - 29/05/2018 16:53:58    2105354

Link

Replying To TheUsername:  "In the the figures i posted above mate, Mayo are receiving only 20k less then Dublin in all the different areas of independent revenue generation. Thats great credit to Mayo.

But if there is an argument there to cut Dublin's funding from central funding and i acknowledge there may be, surely the same argument exists for Mayo.

I also acknowledge the sport council funding is very questionable as well."
The sports council money and the GAA central development funds are one and the same.

The ISC is a revenue stream for the GAA. They partner up to decide funding priorities and then it is actually allocated by central council.

The sports council likes to spend money on easily defined projects under Dublin and hurling development titles. It probably makes it easy to publicize their work.

Of the 9m or so spent by the GAA on development roughly 3.5m is funded by the ISC. 1m of the 1.5m going to Dublin is attributed to the sports council. They are not really additional sums.

Whammo86 (Antrim) - Posts: 4215 - 29/05/2018 17:00:09    2105355

Link

Replying To Whammo86:  "The sports council money and the GAA central development funds are one and the same.

The ISC is a revenue stream for the GAA. They partner up to decide funding priorities and then it is actually allocated by central council.

The sports council likes to spend money on easily defined projects under Dublin and hurling development titles. It probably makes it easy to publicize their work.

Of the 9m or so spent by the GAA on development roughly 3.5m is funded by the ISC. 1m of the 1.5m going to Dublin is attributed to the sports council. They are not really additional sums."
I thought that mate, but i wasn't wholly sure, essentially of the 1.2million Dublin receives in games development money, 1 mill is provided by ISC. So only 200k comes out of GAA central funds. There arent separate games development and ISC grants. Thanks for clarifying.

TheUsername (Dublin) - Posts: 4445 - 29/05/2018 17:06:16    2105356

Link

Would it be a Pandora's box to look into what players are doing? Lots of talk about development money but shouldn't we look at the players especially at the top of the games? You see a lot of them involved in advertising and in being brand ambassadors and a claim of a gaa player making over a 100 grand. With so many counties struggling to compete with the top teams especially in football with high profiles and more professional setups is the amateur status at the top of the game being lost? Granted players should get financial help for the time they give to play for their county but is making money from your profile as a top player and not needing to work not an affront to what the association stands for? I'm sure that players from the lower counties don't get anything financially like those with the high profiles. No doubt the gaa is coming close to being in a similar situation to rugby union in the years before professionalism.

Spoddgy (Mayo) - Posts: 660 - 29/05/2018 17:43:13    2105372

Link

If you want to make it fair then do like what American football does thats a sport designed so no one team can ever dominate. Introduce a limit to what each team can spend on their team, no sponsorships per team just get big big names to sponsor the championships, pool the money together and distribute equally to a pre determined limit across all teams. Receipts to show what that money was spent on, and county boards get reimbursed for what they spent up to that limit. All teams treated equally.

All counties get the same money to spend on underage development, coaching training, backroom staff, phsycologists, medical, physio, equipment etc... All transparent with nothing to hide

Enter the 32 counties into the football champ (yes include kilkenny) along with London, new York and the winner of the British champ. This gives 35 teams. Spilt these Into 7 arranged groups of 5 teams and forget the provincial champs and national league. The pre detirmined and agreed 7 groups of 5 teams never change year on year and every team plays each team in their group home and away once per year (8 games), along with one team (on a rotating basis) from each of the other 6 groups home and away once per year also (12 games) top two in each group qualify plus the 2 best third placed teams qualify for a straight knock out tournament all the way to the final.

I think this ensures all teams enter the championship on a very level playing field and each team gets to play each other at least once home and once away every 5 years. It also means each county gets a trip to new York, London and the British champions at least once every 5 years and they visit them too. By eliminating the league and levelling the playing field it also gives each team 20 games per season and a max of 24 to will the all Ireland. Although when you consider the league runs from January and the all Ireland is in September at the moment then that gives us approx. 9 months to play those 24 games max for the winner and 20 games guaranteed for each team.

Every team is equal and every team gets to go everywhere home and away. Want the dubs going to aughrim and the bronx- once every five years each of this will happren, u want kerry in longford or sligo it will happen. I eant leitrim in croke park and tralee once every 5 years it happens!!!

Then we will really see what county has the best footballers in Ireland and not who just the richest and more privaliged and better prepared ones

leitrim4sam (Leitrim) - Posts: 644 - 29/05/2018 23:33:36    2105444

Link

I think people are getting terminology in a knot, GAA development aka ISC is government funding (Tax payers money) channeled through sporting bodies. There are strict criteria attached to this funding and what you can spend it on, certainly NOT food for Inter-county players, or paid scholarships, or fuel allowences etc etc It has to be spent on developing and growing the game for instance in disadvantaged areas of Dublin. It won't be spent either on building plush clubhouses. On the other hand Games promotion is very much from GAA central finances, it goes towards GPO's or Games promotion Officers but they are not the same thing. There is a a fine nuance of terminology that gets used and abused. The bottom line is you can't get around the fact that Dublin has a huge population and Leitrim a tiny one. If your going to play with numbers be it population and money you are not comparing like with like. There is NO SUCH thing as a level playing field between Leitrim and Dublin its not possible. There are huge inequalities in the game, between codes and genders in the GAA and GAA affliated sports even in Dublin. Some Dublin ladies footballers have the use of cars for a year much as the men that's how it is going and the gap is going to get worse, So forget it if you want the future of Inter-county football you best come up with a different model - this one is an out-of-date turkey. The hurlers have it sussed.

arock (Dublin) - Posts: 4896 - 29/05/2018 23:36:41    2105446

Link

The author of the article about having round robins and a super eight in football clearly comes from somewhere in Rugby land where the club if it exists is some sort of unwanted sideshow.

jobber (Westmeath) - Posts: 1454 - 30/05/2018 08:12:47    2105473

Link

Replying To leitrim4sam:  "If you want to make it fair then do like what American football does thats a sport designed so no one team can ever dominate. Introduce a limit to what each team can spend on their team, no sponsorships per team just get big big names to sponsor the championships, pool the money together and distribute equally to a pre determined limit across all teams. Receipts to show what that money was spent on, and county boards get reimbursed for what they spent up to that limit. All teams treated equally.

All counties get the same money to spend on underage development, coaching training, backroom staff, phsycologists, medical, physio, equipment etc... All transparent with nothing to hide

Enter the 32 counties into the football champ (yes include kilkenny) along with London, new York and the winner of the British champ. This gives 35 teams. Spilt these Into 7 arranged groups of 5 teams and forget the provincial champs and national league. The pre detirmined and agreed 7 groups of 5 teams never change year on year and every team plays each team in their group home and away once per year (8 games), along with one team (on a rotating basis) from each of the other 6 groups home and away once per year also (12 games) top two in each group qualify plus the 2 best third placed teams qualify for a straight knock out tournament all the way to the final.

I think this ensures all teams enter the championship on a very level playing field and each team gets to play each other at least once home and once away every 5 years. It also means each county gets a trip to new York, London and the British champions at least once every 5 years and they visit them too. By eliminating the league and levelling the playing field it also gives each team 20 games per season and a max of 24 to will the all Ireland. Although when you consider the league runs from January and the all Ireland is in September at the moment then that gives us approx. 9 months to play those 24 games max for the winner and 20 games guaranteed for each team.

Every team is equal and every team gets to go everywhere home and away. Want the dubs going to aughrim and the bronx- once every five years each of this will happren, u want kerry in longford or sligo it will happen. I eant leitrim in croke park and tralee once every 5 years it happens!!!

Then we will really see what county has the best footballers in Ireland and not who just the richest and more privaliged and better prepared ones"
If intercounty players are to serve twin masters, incl the parish club, that 20-match guarantee seems a bit much.
I have proposed 2x 16-team conferences A & B (equal rank), each initially containing half of each of the 4 NFL divs.
Each team guaranteed 12 matches (v All in Other Conference, except no Divs 1v4, nor 2v3).
Then top 6 each conf forms their 'own non-repeat half' of the KO field of 12- before the A & B winners meet in the AI Final (possible only repeat).
Also, 7th thru 12th could form a similar KO field of 12 for a 2ndary cup (say, POSe Cup).
The 16 'even placed teams' (2nd, 4th, 6th etc) could switch confs for fixture variety in the following year.

For central funding allocation - give 48% evenly (1.5 per county) and 52% proportional (with say, club player population).

omahant (USA) - Posts: 2578 - 01/06/2018 03:02:43    2106144

Link