GAA set to profit from Ireland's progress to World Cup play-offs

THE REPUBLIC of Ireland’s qualification for the Fifa World Cup play-offs is good news for the GAA. The revenue from next month’s play-off strengthens Croke Park’s chances of equalling last year’s profitability figures with even the possibility of exceeding them.

Stadium director Peter McKenna told The Irish Timesyesterday, whereas he had yet to see all of the figures, the trend for the year was more encouraging than had been anticipated in January when projections were for a decline in profitability from the record 2008 profits of nearly €20 million.

“I’ll have a better feel for that later in the week when I actually look at the numbers, but it could be more positive than we would have thought at the start of the year. We were looking at a €4 million drop but we could be back at last year’s figure or better.”

That would represent a major success for the stadium and comes just after the GAA’s announcement that attendance figures for 2009 had increased slightly despite the expected recessionary pressures.

Croke Park has benefited from unexpected revenue with the Munster-Leinster European Cup rugby semi-final taking place at the venue and Ireland’s home leg against whoever emerges from next Monday’s draw due in a few weeks. Furthermore an additional U2 concert was added to the band’s tour dates in Dublin. Not all of the caution however was unwarranted. “Some of the pessimism was well founded. Conferences and such business were down substantially on last year. That has been beginning to turn around towards the end of the year but so far it hasn’t been a quantum jump.

“On the averages it’s probably going to be there or thereabouts on what we thought. But it started off far worse – for the half-year probably about 45 per cent. Now it’s coming back, but you’re probably still probably talking 35 per cent for the year as a whole.”

The fall in conference business would be outweighed by the rise in rental income and the money received from soccer and rugby leasing is ring fenced for disbursement by the National Infrastructure and Safety Committee and likely to top €40 million by the time the new Lansdowne Road stadium is completed.

Replacing these revenues has been occupying McKenna’s mind in the past year. He says that a number of possibilities have been looked at to fill the gap in the October-March window, but not all of them proved practicable.

“Top Gear is an example, but it wasn’t suitable for the time of year. It’s in winter and they need an indoor venue rather than an outdoor venue.”

Concerts represent another option, although again the time of year is a problem, but McKenna says that the technology to enclose the pitch and maintain comfortable temperatures is available, if pricey.

“You can’t do concerts outdoors; it’s too cold,” he said. “We’re sure that we can replace a pitch quickly and that has been proven so that opens up a couple of opportunities in terms of what we can build up from the pitch surface for warming or covering. There’s no opportunity this year with matches running up to the end of November.

“If the market was there for it we could look into that option. One of the aspects of the downturn is that the potential may not be there for it. It’s not something we can jump into very quickly because that sort of acoustically suitable covering isn’t inexpensive.”

Resilient revenue streams haven’t been the whole story of the stadium’s financial performance. Expenditure has been controlled as part of the Croke Park Cúl Green initiative, which successfully aimed to turn the stadium into a carbon-neutral venue.

“There’s been a massive cost take-out in terms of our energy consumption and our waste management,” according to McKenna. “Cúl Green is much more than a slogan in the way we manage our waste – it doesn’t all go to landfill – and the way we conserve energy by control and switching off of lights. All of that has led to very substantial savings. We’ve reduced our water charges significantly as well.

“So as well as gaining from the positives – the Heineken Cup rugby was unexpected and the World Cup soccer only became clear on Saturday – our cost reduction programme has been very successful. Given the way so many people are trading at the moment it’s been quite a good year so far.”