 Croke Park has been hosted rugby and soccer internationals since 2007 |
The GAA has said that the loss of money generated by rugby and football internationals from 2010 onwards will leave "a big hole" in its finances. The GAA's annual report released on Tuesday reveals that rugby and soccer internationals raised 11.7 million Euro for the association in 2008. In total, the opening up of Croke Park since 2007 has generated 18.7m Euro. Rugby and football internationals are scheduled to return to Lansdowne Road after April of next year. Croke Park stadium director Peter McKenna said that the association would now face "a big challenge to find new business opportunities" for the north Dublin venue. At present, the GAA is restricted to staging three non-GAA events at the stadium per year but the association has indicated that it will ask for permission to host more money-spinners, such as concerts. The GAA's director of finance Tom Ryan revealed that the GAA's overall income was up from 62m Euro in 2007 to 64m last year.  Mickey Harte is unhappy with the GAA's experimental playing rules |
However, gate receipts showed a 5% drop and the only competitions to make a profit were the All-Ireland Football and Hurling Championships. Breaking that down further, the Ulster Championship had the most successful season with a 28% jump in revenue from 2007 - although that was largely attributable to two replays. Both the Leinster and Munster Football Championships suffered losses while the revenue generated by the Munster Senior Hurling Championship was down by an eye-catching 29%. The GAA is projecting that gate receipts are likely to be reduced by the order of 10% in 2009. In terms of other issues to crop up in the report, GAA director-general Paraic Duffy warned that the association will have to act to ban pitch invasions because of the danger of "somebody being seriously injured". Duffy was also strongly critical for the Irish Government's refusal to ensure that the new stadium in Tallaght was a multi-sport venue. Instead, the stadium is the new home of League of Ireland club Shamrock Rovers, much to the GAA's annoyance. Duffy rejected claims that delegates at Congress will not have the opportunity to debate whether or not to continue the International Rules series. The recent Ulster Convention supported a Tyrone motion calling for an end to the series but there has been speculation that the proposal will not make it to the Congress floor. Duffy insisted that the issue will come up in one of the Congress proposals, although the motion may be in a more general form. The director-general also said that the controversial experimental playing rules "should be persevered with for another year". High-profile players and managers, such as Mickey Harte and Jack O'Connor, have been among those strongly critical of the new yellow card rules. "If referees are making mistakes, that's no reason to bin the experimental rules," added Duffy.
| 
E-mail this to a friend 
Printable version 
If referees are making mistakes, that's no reason to bin the experimental rules 
Bookmark with:
What are these?