I would love if the GAA would do a very patriotic thing to curb the outflow of our young people from this country. It could at least do a feasability study on having a professional league in Hurling and football. Now before the die hards get on my back, the present form of 32 counties wouldn't work, I know. But 16 regional teams would. Dublin and Cork would be fit to have 2 teams. Amalgamations would be needed with weaker counties. Hurling possibly could have an 8 team pro league.
The age old argument is it has always been amateur but everything else has moved on, why not trash this out. Unfortunately the county boards, littered with a lot of oldies won't give this the research such a subject merits.
A good professional league would also stop the mess that now is the club scene, it would give a certain season and a better structure to the year. I have 2 young sons who love the game but face the grim possibility of emigration if we don't think radically. It is hard to keep expecting them to train hard for a sport with no real prospects when if they put as much into another sport there is a chance of making a living and staying at home.

bananapublican (Leitrim) - Posts: 878 - 07/04/2012 13:32:20    1145424

totally disagree..the gaa would never afford it.. it would ruin the game...! they tried it in the eircom league and look what happened..!! its the governments job to keep are young in the country and supply them with jobs..not the GAAs..!!if its not broken dont fix it..!!

asdfg (Cavan) - Posts: 316 - 07/04/2012 13:53:37    1145432

Dont know if I would describe professional sports as having "moved on".A Man City youth team player was recently caught tweeting his joy at Utds victory over Blackburn on Monday.What a farce.
Can the Gaa afford it?It is having enough trouble financially as it is.Imagine if you added payments to players on top of the costs already involved?Potentially a disaster.Our games cannot be compared to soccer and rugby as they are global sports.If the Gaa paid its players a grand a week,people like yourself might then say,why play the Gaa and get paid a grand a week when you can play soccer and potentially get paid 130 000 a week?
Some radical structural changes have to be made in terms of competitions and club fixture/amalgamation etc. but payments to players is surely not an option at the moment.
Remember that money is addictive,and once our players start getting paid,there is no going back,and if ever a situation arises where a county board cant afford to pay its players (and that situation probably will arise eventually) we could be looking at strikes ( not good when you look at the damage that strikes have done to Cork/Limerick hurling since 2007).

TheRoad (Galway) - Posts: 1339 - 07/04/2012 14:14:33    1145443

No

beer baron (Cavan) - Posts: 3916 - 07/04/2012 14:29:19    1145453

I wouldn't watch it anymore if it became professional.

The kind of thinking that wants gaa to go professional is the kind of thinking that thought a housing estate of houses worth 500k each in leitrim was a good idea. I'm leaving the association if it happens. Your sons should play because they love the game not for any other reason. Making our sporting heritage go professional is unfeasible and would be a new low for ireland. Keep it amateur, improve players grants over time and use what money we have to promote the games.

hurlinspuds (Cork) - Posts: 1494 - 07/04/2012 14:31:10    1145455

Gaa going pro wont stop the exodus of young people.

AthCliath (Dublin) - Posts: 4347 - 07/04/2012 14:37:50    1145461

Every few months.......................

No.

It can't work.

MesAmis (Dublin) - Posts: 13706 - 07/04/2012 14:44:42    1145466

i'd never go to another game if this happened, at it's core the gaa is about community and it's the amateur ethos that has created that, it's one of the few things in this country that we really can be proud of, every week thousands of people throughout the country give up their time to coach kids cut the grass trim the hedges mark the fields fund raise and all for NO MONEY IN RETURN, as for keeping our young people here, maybe if they got out and protested and demanded more from our governments instead of fleeing then we would have a much better country than we do now

Barrowsider (Carlow) - Posts: 1592 - 07/04/2012 14:52:32    1145475

It is hard to keep expecting them to train hard for a sport with no real prospects when if they put as much into another sport there is a chance of making a living and staying at home.

How many Irish sports professionals are there? In total, across all sports? I'm guessing you could fit them all on the one plane and half of them probably aren't even based in this country. Your chance of making a career out of any of them is miniscule.

Whatever about the merits of professionalism in the GAA it would be as useful as poking your finger in the hole of a dam as a solution for stopping emigration.

doublehop (Kildare) - Posts: 4172 - 07/04/2012 15:43:24    1145493

I will try and address the issues, without the closeminded " I will never watch another game if it became professional' nonsense being thrown up to show one's patriotism, as if suggesting it is a total sellout.
1. Money is an issue without doubt, but AFL and Rugby Union are newcomers to professionalism, so a look at how they started up might be the way to go. Rugby in Ireland has become as parochial as the GAA (whether we like to admit or not, I am not in to bashing other sports so this is a not a call to rise up and quell the progress the IRFU have made in rural Ireland). When we hear professional we seem to think Man City wages, all I would suggest is a weeks wages where players could train full time and then be employees of their teams area where they would coach youths.
2. I know the GAA are not to blame for Ireland's financial woes but it is still an influential organisation and sometimes it should lead instead of having to be dragged.
3. Rugby League hasn't as much of a following in England as the GAA has in Ireland and it survives.
4. Reason's for and against should never come down to it has always been this way. If I thought financially it would bankrupt the GAA then as any good GAA man I would not want it.
5. My reason's for even suggesting this is the scant regard county boards now have for the ordinary club player, where games are now fixed for weekends when county teams are not playing. The club player is just an inconvenience from what I see.

bananapublican (Leitrim) - Posts: 878 - 07/04/2012 16:41:17    1145546

Not a chance, where is the money going to come from!

TheGateKeeper (Tyrone) - Posts: 2843 - 07/04/2012 16:41:56    1145547

Forget it, wouldn't work and would destroy the game.

realdub (Dublin) - Posts: 8589 - 07/04/2012 17:05:35    1145566

bananapublican
County: Leitrim
Posts: 344

1145546
I will try and address the issues, without the closeminded " I will never watch another game if it became professional' nonsense being thrown up to show one's patriotism, as if suggesting it is a total sellout.
1. Money is an issue without doubt, but AFL and Rugby Union are newcomers to professionalism, so a look at how they started up might be the way to go. Rugby in Ireland has become as parochial as the GAA (whether we like to admit or not, I am not in to bashing other sports so this is a not a call to rise up and quell the progress the IRFU have made in rural Ireland). When we hear professional we seem to think Man City wages, all I would suggest is a weeks wages where players could train full time and then be employees of their teams area where they would coach youths.
2. I know the GAA are not to blame for Ireland's financial woes but it is still an influential organisation and sometimes it should lead instead of having to be dragged.
3. Rugby League hasn't as much of a following in England as the GAA has in Ireland and it survives.
4. Reason's for and against should never come down to it has always been this way. If I thought financially it would bankrupt the GAA then as any good GAA man I would not want it.
5. My reason's for even suggesting this is the scant regard county boards now have for the ordinary club player, where games are now fixed for weekends when county teams are not playing. The club player is just an inconvenience from what I see.

It's nothing to do with patriotism, it is a fact that most members feel that much of the greatness of the organisation is that it is entirely amateur. A quick look at the money coming into the gaa each year confirms that it is impossible. Paying 50 lads per county, 25 hurlers and 25 footballers the same wage of say 30k a year is absolutely untenable. How is it organised, is a monaghan hurler not as dedicated as a kerry footballer? I actually fear for ireland that people are so naive to think this could be a reality. Trying to compare it to international professional sports like rugby then or to countries like australia or britain with much bigger populations. The worst is trying to package it as a way of stopping emigration, it's almost insulting. Do camogie and ladies footballers turn professional as well, what about players who are dropped or get injured, do they lose their job? What about all the players who want to stick at the 9-5 they have, are they also dropped?

100 players in the 4 codes, per county, paid 30k a year - good man yourself and with the money we have left over we can end the bail out and all go on holidays.
rugby still isn't played by small country parishes - no parish around me has a team, they all have big gaa complexes though. only the local town has a team - i think it's the same for the whole country.
"My reason's for even suggesting this is the scant regard county boards now have for the ordinary club player, where games are now fixed for weekends when county teams are not playing. The club player is just an inconvenience from what I see." You want it to turn professional to help club players? That makes no sense whatsoever. You're delusional bananas.

hurlinspuds (Cork) - Posts: 1494 - 07/04/2012 17:33:37    1145591

Where are the finances for a professional game going to come from? In Louth this week we had a problem with players not receiving expenses so it doesnt augur well for turning pro. Ive said before that do the maths on it and you will see it is impossible.

PK57 (Louth) - Posts: 1653 - 07/04/2012 17:54:28    1145600

." Rugby League hasn't as much of a following in England as the GAA has in Ireland and it survives."

Bananas thats because england has a population of 50 odd million, Gaa would have to be competitive in other countries for it to be feasable, think your looking for something for all the wrong reasons either that or its a wum.

AthCliath (Dublin) - Posts: 4347 - 07/04/2012 18:08:52    1145607

NO...Never, Never, Never

Tyronetim (Tyrone) - Posts: 1254 - 07/04/2012 19:20:49    1145649

ok ian.

AthCliath (Dublin) - Posts: 4347 - 07/04/2012 19:32:27    1145661

NO...Never, Never, Never
Tyronetim , 07/04/2012 at 19:20


totally agree tyronetim it will never happen, too parochial .. pride and self respect for yourself and your club, parish and county would go out the window.

Thats what makes us so different to soccer and rugby ,pride of the county. Shure soccer players and rugby players have no identity they dont know where their roots are.
soccer players are man utd today, liverpool tomorrow, chelsea the day after shure God help us they dont know where they are from and then you have Irish lads in pubs wearing liverpool and chelsea jerseys and they could be from anywhere in Ireland far removed from Liverpool and Chelsea. I asked a chap once what part of chelsea he was from when I saw the chelsea jersey on him and he couldnt answer me yet he didnt know how many all ireland titles his county had won.
And if there was a gaa match clashing with the soccer match they would watch the soccer match how sad. Would you see a Liverpool man wearing a hurling jersey? thats what drives me mad about our race. imagine Limerick winning an all ireland with 8 limerick lads 3 clare lads 2 tipp lads and 2 cork lads would it be the same? Sure the country and Limerick would say it was an imported Liam McCarthy cup !

All of the above is killing hurling and football just go into the pubs and watch 4 or 5 guys watching a hurling or football match in the corner and the other end of the pub is mobbed watching a soccer game or cows ploughing up a field thats whats killing hurling man nothing else at least thats not the case in Tipp Kilkenny and Cork anyway thank God!!!

thurlesblues (Tipperary) - Posts: 4475 - 07/04/2012 20:52:15    1145718

07/04/2012 20:52:15
thurlesblues
County: Tipperary
Posts: 3315

Thats what makes us so different to soccer and rugby ,pride of the county. Shure soccer players and rugby players have no identity they dont know where their roots are.

Rubbish, look at Paul O Connell, David Wallace, Donnacha Ryan, ROG, Leamy etc for Munster. BOD, Darcy, Sexton, etc for Leinster all 1 club careers.
That is a total generalisation that simply is not true at all

ormondbannerman (Clare) - Posts: 13473 - 07/04/2012 21:04:13    1145727

Good post thulesblues, premiership and spl soccer is like fast food: its over-marketed, over-hyped,
tasteless bland rubbish with no substance which is bad for your health and your mind!
You are what you eat.

TheGateKeeper (Tyrone) - Posts: 2843 - 07/04/2012 21:06:47    1145733