Hurling championship takes in more gate receipts than football for the first time

For what is likely to be the first time, the All-Ireland hurling championship has taken in more gate receipts than its football equivalent.

Yesterday's launch of the GAA Central Council accounts by association finance director Tom Ryan revealed that hurling earned €12,000,000 at the turnstiles, marginally ahead of football's €11,900,000.

This year saw the hurling final go to a replay but that also happened in 2013 and yet football receipts remained greater by €10.9 million to €10.6 million.

Yesterday’s figures constitute a financial reflection of what many believed to be the best hurling championship in living memory.

Ryan had noted the convergence between both the football and hurling championships and the games' leagues in the accounts for 2012, but after coming within €650,000 of the football league's gate receipts last year – €1.95 million as against €1.3 million – the hurling league fell back dramatically last year.

Football league receipts
Whereas the football league receipts were up €300,000 to €2.26 million, hurling declined by much the same amount to come in at a total of €921,171.

In what Ryan described as a “solid year” the GAA’s central financial performance for 2013 was up by 3 per cent to just under €55,000,000.

Gate receipts accounted for €29,350,692 of this, with €17,321,278 – a slight fall – coming in commercial revenue, and the bulk of the balance from the disbursement from the Croke Park stadium company, which was unchanged at €4,000,000.

Five years
It is the first time in five years that the GAA's revenue has increased in two successive accounting periods. That year of 2009 was the high point to date of the association's financial performance. It was both the last year before the current economic depression and the busiest for rugby and soccer usage before the reconstruction of Lansdowne Road.

One potentially awkward issue for later this year is that the international rules series did so poorly last October, with the lowest aggregate attendance for a series since its inception 30 years ago.

Home series fund the away tests, and with Ireland due to visit Australia next autumn Ryan acknowledged that in the light of the reduced revenue from last year “perhaps we won’t meet those costs”.