By John Considine
This week Jose Mourinho complained that his work was sabotaged by players that no longer seemed to listen to him. Within days he lost his job. Only days earlier, a colleague emailed me wondering if anyone was listening to us or reading the blog given what has been previously posted about GAA stadia (here). That post got to the heart of the matter. The GAA builds stadia because it does not pay the players. Much of the revenue generated by the GAA finds its way into the development of stadia.
The GAA approach to stadia got plenty of coverage in the Irish Examiner this week. Paul Rouse started the ball rolling (his recent book on Sport & Ireland is reviewed elsewhere on this blog). Rouse raised many questions about the proposed new "M50" stadia and the GAA's stadia policy in general (here). The following day, in the same newspaper, Brendan O'Brien returned to the issue (here). O'Brien noted how other stories, again in the Irish Examiner, pointed to the competing financial demands on county boards. One of these demands is the cost of preparing teams. At the top of the page where O'Brien's article appeared there was story explaining how Tipperary spent over €1m preparing their inter-county teams in 2015. Under Paul Rouse's piece the previous day, Jackie Cahill documented how Wexford spent over €800k preparing their teams. Earlier this month the Irish Examiner documented that the expenses in Limerick were also over €1m (here).
Remember the €1m per year, per county, figure is for teams composed of players that are not paid for playing. It is questionable whether or not the GAA could afford to go professional. However, there is more money being generated by the inter-county game than is being spent on expenses. Therefore, extra revenue tends to find its way into facilities (playing facilities and stadia capacity) in a similar way to the way that increases in Premier League TV broadcasting money tend to find its way into players (transfers and wages). When it comes to GAA stadia, the key feature tends to be capacity. One is unlikely to find a dining venue or a shop selling county merchandise. These activities tend to be left to the street traders.
Over a decade ago, Seamus Coffey and myself documented the demand for larger GAA stadia capacity (here). In the intervening period, this work has been regularly updated but the broad picture remains the same. There is a need for some larger stadia to accommodate All-Ireland and Provincial finals. But, the majority of games involve less than 20,000 spectators. This is illustrated in the figure below that presents 10 years of events (i.e. there could be more than one game played). Less than 50 events attracted 80,000+ over the ten years whereas there were over 250 games with 5,000 or fewer.
The GAA approach to stadia got plenty of coverage in the Irish Examiner this week. Paul Rouse started the ball rolling (his recent book on Sport & Ireland is reviewed elsewhere on this blog). Rouse raised many questions about the proposed new "M50" stadia and the GAA's stadia policy in general (here). The following day, in the same newspaper, Brendan O'Brien returned to the issue (here). O'Brien noted how other stories, again in the Irish Examiner, pointed to the competing financial demands on county boards. One of these demands is the cost of preparing teams. At the top of the page where O'Brien's article appeared there was story explaining how Tipperary spent over €1m preparing their inter-county teams in 2015. Under Paul Rouse's piece the previous day, Jackie Cahill documented how Wexford spent over €800k preparing their teams. Earlier this month the Irish Examiner documented that the expenses in Limerick were also over €1m (here).
Remember the €1m per year, per county, figure is for teams composed of players that are not paid for playing. It is questionable whether or not the GAA could afford to go professional. However, there is more money being generated by the inter-county game than is being spent on expenses. Therefore, extra revenue tends to find its way into facilities (playing facilities and stadia capacity) in a similar way to the way that increases in Premier League TV broadcasting money tend to find its way into players (transfers and wages). When it comes to GAA stadia, the key feature tends to be capacity. One is unlikely to find a dining venue or a shop selling county merchandise. These activities tend to be left to the street traders.
Over a decade ago, Seamus Coffey and myself documented the demand for larger GAA stadia capacity (here). In the intervening period, this work has been regularly updated but the broad picture remains the same. There is a need for some larger stadia to accommodate All-Ireland and Provincial finals. But, the majority of games involve less than 20,000 spectators. This is illustrated in the figure below that presents 10 years of events (i.e. there could be more than one game played). Less than 50 events attracted 80,000+ over the ten years whereas there were over 250 games with 5,000 or fewer.
Another feature of the data is that the Dublin footballers are a key driver of the larger attendances. In recent years, Dublin footballer have only played in Croke Park. Add to this, the fact that the latter stages of the All-Ireland series take place in Croke Park and it is easy to understand why that venue dominants the GAA landscape. Croke Park dominates the men's senior championships in terms of the games it holds but particularly in terms of the numbers that pass through the turnstiles. This is illustrated in the picture below where it is difficult to see some of the bars for many of the stadia because of Croke Park's dominance.
The difficulties involved in having a more "rational" distribution of stadia are many. Paul Rouse and Brendan O'Brien drew attention to the range of vested interests. Another difficult is tradition (Rouse also refers to this aspect). Wearing my economist hat, I might suggest that one 55,000 seat stadium in the largest urban centre in Munster (Cork) should hold all Munster championship games. However, wearing my former player hat, I would not swap playing in Thurles, against Tipperary in a Munster final, for anything. I know footballers who feel the same about Killarney and Kerry. And, what about Limerick? Should the GAA divert the smaller games to Limerick in the same way Munster rugby diverts smaller games to Cork? (I'm ignoring that fact that I'll be accused of a Cork bias.)
Then there are commercial difficulties. Take corporate boxes for example. At present, the GAA sells corporate box and premium level seating in Croke Park. These patrons are promised a certain number and type of games. There are only so many All-Ireland finals, semi-finals, and quarter-finals to go around. It would be doubtful if corporate boxes or premium level seating outside of Croke Park could provide a financial windfall. Brendan O'Brien drew attention to the quality of the press box facilities in Portlaoise.
It is over 12 years since Seamus Coffey and myself addressed the issue in our working paper. Our paper addressed issues raised in the GAA's Strategic Review. We proposed the (re)development of one major stadium in Connaght, Leinster, Munster, and Ulster. We were less convinced by the proposal to develop two new medium capacity stadia outside of Dublin. However, there may well be a case for one quality stadium on the "outskirts" of Dublin. The outskirts might stretch as far as Portlaoise, Newbridge, or Navan. Or it could be as close as the M50. The key is that it should be part of a wider investment strategy. But it is difficult to get away from the fact that, because of its financial model, the GAA is always likely to have too many larger stadia.
Then there are commercial difficulties. Take corporate boxes for example. At present, the GAA sells corporate box and premium level seating in Croke Park. These patrons are promised a certain number and type of games. There are only so many All-Ireland finals, semi-finals, and quarter-finals to go around. It would be doubtful if corporate boxes or premium level seating outside of Croke Park could provide a financial windfall. Brendan O'Brien drew attention to the quality of the press box facilities in Portlaoise.
It is over 12 years since Seamus Coffey and myself addressed the issue in our working paper. Our paper addressed issues raised in the GAA's Strategic Review. We proposed the (re)development of one major stadium in Connaght, Leinster, Munster, and Ulster. We were less convinced by the proposal to develop two new medium capacity stadia outside of Dublin. However, there may well be a case for one quality stadium on the "outskirts" of Dublin. The outskirts might stretch as far as Portlaoise, Newbridge, or Navan. Or it could be as close as the M50. The key is that it should be part of a wider investment strategy. But it is difficult to get away from the fact that, because of its financial model, the GAA is always likely to have too many larger stadia.
RSS Feed
