Páraic Duffy defends GAA’s commercial activities

The GAA'S director general, Páraic Duffy has defended the organisation's commercial ventures and also launched a broadside at Dublin City Council for its role in the cancellation of last year's Garth Brooks concerts at Croke Park, saying that the GAA and Croke Park felt "let down by the process".

In his annual report, launched in Croke Park, Duffy refuted the characterisation of the GAA as an organisation whose priority was making money.

“The GAA is a not-for-profit organisation that generates revenue uniquely in order to fund the association’s activities,” he said, before adding, “the calls on our revenue from our units are enormous and unending, and … we must compete vigorously to maintain the public’s loyalty to our games.”

Gate receipts

Pointing out that the association recycled 80 per cent of its revenue, Duffy said that gate receipts were not sufficient to meet the demands of the organisation.

"It is a simple reality that we need the income derived from concerts, sponsorship, broadcast rights and other events… (and) the GAA does not have the lucrative revenue sources of international competitions, such as World Cups, available to soccer and rugby in Ireland. "

He said that he was reluctant to make further reference to the Garth Brooks controversy, which last July saw the American singer cancel his appearance in Croke Park after Dublin City Council ruled shortly before the five advertised concerts were to be staged, that only three could go ahead.

Duffy outlined how Croke Park is allowed to hold three concerts a year as part of its planning permission and that any further events need a special licence, which the stadium had never been refused in the past.

He further said that the city council had originally expressed support for the five concerts with two provisos.

Referring to the consequent hearing before Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications on July 18 2014, Duffy recounted some of the evidence:

"The chief executive officer of DCC, Mr Owen Keegan, acknowledged that, in early February, he had indicated to our stadium and commercial director, Peter McKenna, that he would be supportive of an application for a total of five Garth Brooks concerts; he identified two issues that would have to be addressed before a licence would be granted, stating:

“’I would have made it clear to Mr McKenna there were two key considerations. The first was to ensure no issues emerged from the One Direction concerts and the second was to deal with the legitimate concerns of residents . . .

“Most people who followed the Garth Brooks affair found the decision to refuse a licence for five concerts incomprehensible. And they were right.”