HOW much does the GAA cost you a year?
Going to meetings, taking underage training sessions, taking car-loads of players to games, following your club, following your county, club membership, weekly lotto, county draw tickets, various club fundraisers…
Add it all up and it’s a long, long way from ‘net zero’.
But we all knew that before we started.
We know we’ll have to put our hand in our pocket from time to time. If you don’t like that, away and do something else and best of luck.
The GAA can never be about money but – according to the survey they commissioned - 41 per cent of Gaelic Players’ Association members are now unhappy with the amateur status.
That’s a significant number and the GPA claim those 41 per cent aren’t happy because they have been left out of pocket for their efforts.
Money, it’s always money.
The GAA spent €44million on inter-county teams in 2024, up €4million on the previous year but the GPA say that isn’t enough. Never mind the obvious benefits in terms of their health and in many cases their career that accrue from it, pulling on that county jersey is costing their members “an average net expense of €4,602″ according to the report the GPA publicised on Wednesday.
If you take that individual figure of €4,602 for a squad of 30 players it adds up to €138,060. To cover it for all the county football and hurling squads you’re talking somewhere in the region of €9million.
At present, the GAA gives back 82 cent of every Euro they take in back to the clubs and counties. Another €9million to the county players means there’s less for the silent majority.
But there are two sides to every story and we should take the opinions of county players seriously. They put in a lot of time and effort and see people around them making money from the GAA while – with the price of everything going up all the time – playing the game costs them almost €400 a month in terms of expenses and missed earning opportunities (how you measure that I don’t know).
According to the GPA report, in a single year from 2023 to 2024, 12 per cent of inter-county players went from being happy with the GAA’s amateur status to being unhappy.
Why? What happened? Why haven’t these disaffected individuals voted with their feet? Why didn’t we see a flood of retirements? If these players are unhappy with their lot then why, in the name of God, aren’t they doing something about it?
The root of the problem is the amount of training they do and that’s what needs to change. We are producing professional-standard players for amateur games and that is where the conflict stems from.
When are we going to hear the GPA calling out a county manager for pushing their members too hard? Or coercing them to attend unsanctioned training sessions?
Cutting back on training would solve many of the issues they highlighted on Wednesday regarding their members missing out on overtime at work, or finding time to study, or putting fuel in their cars etc, etc
But the GPA doesn’t seem prepared to look in that direction, they don’t seem to want to put the brakes on training and CEO Tom Parsons says the responsibility for taking action on cutting back the training rests with the county boards.
“It’s the counties and the provinces who have the relationship with county grounds, the centres of excellences,” he said in relation to counties starting before the official December 7 resumption date.
“They open the gates, not the GPA. So, it’s totally unfair to put all the blame on the GPA.”
So, rates of training will continue, the bills will keep coming in and somebody better pay, or else…
Or else what? Will we have a strike on our hands?
The GPA apparently believe that the money is there in Government and GAA coffers to meet the needs of the modern county player and they’re entitled to it.
Well, if you don’t ask, you don’t get.
Things have changed for the better since a Dublin-based Ulster player was driving up and down the road three times a week for training and games.
Those were the days before the motorway, so it was the long and winding road through Ardee and Drogheda and Dundalk… A serious slog.
He might have got a few quid for his fuel, he might not, but he did it anyway and he bought his own gear and his boots.
Obviously that was totally wrong.
The GAA took advantage of the players then and their commitment to their counties cost them time and money.
The GPA was formed to stand up for the players and who couldn’t support that? Inter-county players who dedicate themselves to playing and training and giving their best on the field deserve to be looked after. They should be reimbursed for their mileage, they should get their gear and have their meals and gym fees covered.
But there is a limit and the more we talk about money, the more blurred the line between amateur and professional becomes.
Last week the GAA Director General’s report disclosed that €44million was spent on inter-county teams in 2024.
“That has to change,” said Tom Ryan, but he wasn’t particularly convincing when he was asked how the GAA would go about changing it.
They have tried enforcement to cut back on spending before. They tried banning overseas training camps and, on another occasion, announced that only three training sessions per week would be covered by expenses.
Neither rule proved to be enforceable because the will just wasn’t there on both sides and now, according to Parsons, we have reached the stage where the amateur ethos that has underpinned the GAA may be in jeopardy.
“If we want to protect the amateur status in 10 years’ time, this is an important juncture where the government and the governing bodies really (need to) look at how can we create a value proposition where players are net zero.
“So it’s not costing them.”
But it costs all of us Tom.
