GAA defends TV deal after decision not to televise Connacht final replay

The GAA have defended their broadcast deal with RTÉ and Sky Sports following confirmation that the Connacht football final replay between Roscommon and Galway will not be televised live.

With Dr Hyde Park unavailable, and Roscommon unwilling give Galway home advantage, the match has been switched to MacHale Park in Castlebar.

As Mayo play Kildare at home in the qualifiers at 7pm on Saturday night, a game that will be live on Sky Sports, the replay could only be accommodated in MacHale Park at 3.30pm on Sunday. However, this overlaps with the Leinster football final between Dublin and Westmeath.

RTÉ are contractually obliged to show the Leinster decider from Croke Park (throw-in 4pm) after the Ulster final between Donegal and Tyrone at 2pm.

Despite both Ulster football semi-final replays not being televised live this summer, the GAA adopted a positive slant to a provincial final being unavailable to the general public.

“Replays are not included as part of our TV contract, per se, with the exception of All-Ireland semi-finals and finals,” explained Feargal McGill, the GAA’s head of games administration.

“We do try to accommodate replays within certain parameters. Number one: is it going to negatively affect attendance at the game? And secondly, and more importantly in the case of all three replays this year, that they don’t clash with already scheduled TV games.

“Not televising games tends to impact on attendances. Positively. Now, on any given weekend, if there is a free television slot we do work with TV companies to show a replay.”

Neither Donegal’s victory over Monaghan or Tyrone seeing off Cavan at the second attempt were televised live. Another chink in the current broadcast deal means BBC cannot show games live unless they are also on RTÉ.

Opposite

“The GAA was not founded to encourage people to stay indoors – quite the opposite,” McGill continued. “It is to get people up and out, be that at club level or having to get up and go to games.

“It’s not necessarily in our best interest to show every game, to show every replay. Our primary consideration are the players, the fans and, thirdly, people who sit at home and watch games.

“We could play the Connacht final replay at 1pm on Saturday and have it on television but that wouldn’t be the right thing to do. We do accept some people can’t get to games but there is radio coverage at local and national level. We are also looking at web transmission [of Galway versus Roscommon].”

The current broadcast deal, with RTÉ as the primary rights holders and Sky Sports showing 14 games exclusively live, ends after this season.

Formal discussions to agree a new broadcast deal are imminent but RTÉ and Sky Sports are keen to at least continue the current arrangement.

Eir Sport, under new managing director Glen Killane, who left a similar role at RTÉ this month, have renewed their interest in broadcasting Gaelic games.

TV3, acquired by Virgin Media last December, will also seek to regain the coverage they had before Sky Sports entered the market.

Earlier this year Central Council attempted to abolish replays below provincial finals and the All-Ireland series but that motion was defeated at Congress after failing to reach the necessary two-thirds majority.

Another problem is that the provincial councils, and not Central Council, make their own decisions about the rescheduling of replays.

Adequate

Roscommon, as the home team, were given the option of facing Galway in MacHale Park or Pearse Stadium. Roscommon don’t have an adequate stadium as the Dr Hyde pitch was in such poor condition that the Dublin league encounter in April was postponed, and moved to Carrick-On-Shannon, at 9am on the morning of the game.

“Dr Hyde is dug up,” explained John Prenty, the Connacht Council secretary. “The plan is to have a completely new pitch laid for the first round of the Allianz league for Roscommon. Mayo almost had 13,000 in MacHale Park for Fermanagh last weekend and 24,000 in Pearse Stadium for the Connacht final, despite the terrible conditions, so you couldn’t put them together in one stadium on a Saturday night. We couldn’t cater for that.

“If Mayo had got an away match in Newbridge then the Connacht final would have been on Saturday night and could be televised.

“That’s the way it is, nobody’s fault, just the way the cards fell.”