Talking down NFL and NHL is costly

Counties are facing a significant drop in income from this year's National Leagues, leading a senior GAA official to urge that more attention be paid to the competition as a generator of revenue.

Figures currently being released to the counties disclose that the NFL's gross gate receipts have fallen 23 per cent on last year, whereas the NHL shows a smaller decrease of 13 per cent.

Roughly half of the revenue from the spring competitions goes back to the counties, and weaker counties whose gate money doesn't reach a minimum level receive subsidies from a special pooling arrangement.

"The impact won't be as severe for stronger counties," according to the GAA's finance manager Kathy Slattery, "but for the weaker ones there'll be a smaller distribution." Those counties will be dealing with a 30 per cent cut in their guaranteed NFL share-out, which has dropped from €35,000 in 2005 to €24,834.

"I feel that a lot of counties don't put their best foot forward in the league and that has a serious impact on their finances. There is a tendency to talk it down rather than talk it up.

"Counties should be aware that this is a revenue source in their own hands and that by not taking the league as seriously as they can, they are impacting on their own finances."

The news comes during a summer when there has also been concern about the attendances at championship matches, although the season is only coming into its busy time.

But she also indicated that preliminary figures for the AllIreland qualifiers also indicate a fall in revenue, which will be a further blow for the counties who all receive a dividend from the qualifier series.

Commenting on the overall picture and acknowledging that attendances and gate receipts are largely dependent on the attractiveness of the fixtures and that in that area, the current competition structures aren't ideal, Slattery went on to say that she believes significant growth is unlikely for the time being.

"I think gate receipts may have peaked. Demand for concessions like family tickets is a growth area, but that means we're bringing in bigger numbers but not seeing a commensurate rise in revenue.

"Of course those initiatives have promotional value, but from my perspective I'm not expecting major increases."

Although this is the first year in a while that league gate receipts have fallen, it also has to be taken into account that there was no rise in admission charges so that this year's figures represent an actual decline in attendance, something that can be disguised in the financial returns if charges have increased.

Football took the biggest knock with receipts down by nearly a quarter, a state of affairs reflected in the record low turnout of 7,598 for last April's NFL final between Galway and Kerry in Limerick's Gaelic Grounds.

The match was fixed for 5.30pm in the evening to avoid a clash with the Leinster-Munster European Cup rugby semi-final.

Yet, because of the lower costs of staging matches at the Gaelic Grounds compared to Croke Park the shortfall isn't as pronounced as might be expected.

Two years ago when the same counties met at headquarters the attendance was 28,072, but Kerry's disbursement from this year's league is only fractionally down - €39,000 as opposed to €42,000.

Galway's comparative figures show a bigger drop - €54,000 to €38,000 - that can be explained by the draw and replay in the 2004 semi-final with Tyrone.

Meanwhile, Kerry's Kieran Donaghy is now set to miss next weekend's Munster football final replay against Cork in Páirc Uí Chaoimh. Donaghy was sent off for two yellow-card offences, which wouldn't normally entail a suspension.

The Kerry player has, however, been red carded in similar circumstances already this year - in this year's NFL match against Tyrone in Omagh. As a result he is likely to be suspended for two weeks.