They really don't get as much help as people make out - couple of major grants in the last ten years or so but apart from that no more or no less than other organisationstones wrote:They gt decent grants or croke park and what is the expense level of an amateur organisation? Also, I have always wondered how well they would have done without the polical and religious backing?
The blazers aren't great but we have taken to professionalism very well as an organisation...with sfa help
What the GAA got right was the redevelopment of Croke Park - think the process started in early 1990's - built a huge stadium with great facilities and owe pretty much nothing on it
The local scene in GAA is the same as the club scene in rugby - costs as much to run a GAA club as it does a rugby club. And in most cases a lot more, if you look at the actual numbers that they have playing. And while rugby has a professional game to support, they also have much greater potential for sponsorship as their game will reach a much wider audience than the GAA
Where the GAA excel themselves is in getting huge local backing - some of this is down to tradition sure, but they are unbelievably well organised and from my experience have more people willing to do more - in rugby and soccer there seems to be a smaller group doing all the work.
And while the IRFU in general have adpated very well to professionalism and in general to suggest that they have got no help is just plain wrong. The taxpayers contribution to Aviva was I think €190m, the tax payers contribution to Croke Park was I think €40m - there would be lottery funding on top of this
Honestly if I was looking to an organisation to organise something and make money out of it - I'd be looking at teh GAA everytime