GAA boss acknowledges fall in championship attendances

The GAA have acknowledged a drop in championship attendances so far this summer, although the brunt of any decreased income from gate receipts will be felt by the county boards, not the new player welfare benefits and expenses agreed with the Gaelic Players Association (GPA).

According to GAA director general Páraic Duffy, there is still some hope the final attendance figure for the 2016 championship will be similar to last year.

“Our attendances are somewhat down this year, but we’d hope that would recover as the summer goes on,” he said.

“It was always going to be a difficult summer with the Euros (2016) and we haven’t had the best weather, but overall, if you take Connacht and Ulster, they’ve been absolutely fine.

“It’s only around Munster, and Leinster, and part of that honestly is Dublin being so strong. And a big factor too is what teams come through.

“If Cork don’t make a Munster football final for example you lose 20,000 people straight off. And Leinster has taken a drop because Dublin is so strong. So we accept that.”

The Munster championship suffered the biggest decrease this summer, the football and hurling finals down around 40 per cent on 2015 (not including last year’s replayed Munster football final between Cork and Kerry).

The combined turnout at this year’s Kerry-Tipperary football final and Tipperary-Waterford hurling final was just 48,020, down from 78,747 for the combined total of the drawn Kerry-Cork football final and Tipperary-Waterford hurling final of 2015

The decrease for the Kerry-Tipperary football final was perhaps to be expected.

What wasn’t expected was that the 26,508 that turned up for the Tipperary-Waterford hurling final, played at the Gaelic Grounds in Limerick, was down from the 43,096 final attendance of 2015, played at Semple Stadium.

GAA president Aogán Ó Fearghail also explained why the new agreement with the GPA was based largely on income from commercial revenue: “Gate receipts have always been the main source of income for the GAA.

“The growth of commercial revenue is a more recent thing, and players play an important role in that landscape. So it’s an acknowledgment of the role that players play, that’s all.

“It shouldn’t affect our ongoing plans and budgets that are currently in place.

“This is an investment and acknowledgement in the key role our players make, and there are some payments we will make directly to the county boards, by way of the nutrition expense, the increased mileage allowance, and that’s linked to our commercial revenue.

“It’s not linked to our game receipts, and as the commercial revenue will grow, which hopefully it will, then we will be in a position to grow for all other events. ur units “But most of the investment we make, within our units and within our counties, is from gate receipts, and that will continue. It’s not that we were keen to hold onto to that.

“This is what was agreed by everyone who come around the table. We approached it with an openness, and this is where we arrived at.

Dessie Farrell, GPA chief executive, added that “from a player perspective, looking perhaps more selfishly at it, there was more growth in the commercial aspect, compared to gate receipts”.