Inter county - Do we need it?

Sunny Disposition

Hear on the radio the GPA are at loggerheads with Croke Park over finance.

Do we really need Intercounty at all? Would we be better off without it?
It has damaged the club scenes in many if not all counties, certainly every one I’m aware of.
In Clare it’s be unheard of to just have the club championship all June and July. It always finishes in October. That is solely down to prioritising Intercounty.
There have been changes over the last few years to give more certainty about dates, but it has been at least one generation since the club championship just ran over the summer unhindered.
Intercounty does generate revenue but also sucks up a whole lot of it.
Think the GAA needs to start looking after the grassroots while it still can.

Frozen Veg

Club games are the corner stone of the association.

Intercounty is necessary.

But the split in terms of real resource and importance should be 70% club to 30% IC.

Unfortunately the opposite is the case at the moment.

fermanagh_man

Inter country brings in the money

Sunny Disposition

Does it bring in that much more than it costs though? Hundreds of thousands if not millions going out in every county to county teams every year. Sponsors like Supermacs, Kerry Group could potentially be used to sponsor GAA across counties rather than sponsor county teams. It’s an important distinction.

Hawkeye9212

Sunny Disposition wrote: »

Does it bring in that much more than it costs though? Hundreds of thousands if not millions going out in every county to county teams every year. Sponsors like Supermacs, Kerry Group could potentially be used to sponsor GAA across counties rather than sponsor county teams. It’s an important distinction.

Sponsors put their logo on county jerseys because they get national exposure.

Cavan_King

The club game is getting too serious now.

Something has to give somewhere.

threeball

No going back now. The big wigs have got a taste of the corporate life and they aren't going back. We'll soon have stories of John Delaneys birthday spending rife throughout the organisation. We already have several scandals about unvouched spending.

You have people like brolly complaining that the club game is being destroyed by elitism and in the next breath claiming we should all be like Dublin. There's an identity crisis in the organisation and its one that won't be easily reconciled.

Ideally the funding of IC should be capped with every team getting the same. If a team breaches it they should be relegated a division and banned from the all Ireland for 2 years. This would allow a levelling off in standards and additional money to go to the club's.

rossie1977

Gaa would become ultra niche without intercounty.

Intercounty in many ways is driving club game too

Realt Dearg Sec

rossie1977 wrote: »

Gaa would become ultra niche without intercounty.

Intercounty in many ways is driving club game too

Exactly, if you want to know what the club game's profile would be like without the inter county game, look at shinty in Scotland, a tiny niche game played in a few rural areas with no real national profile.

ProudDUB

Sunny Disposition wrote: »

Does it bring in that much more than it costs though? Hundreds of thousands if not millions going out in every county to county teams every year. Sponsors like Supermacs, Kerry Group could potentially be used to sponsor GAA across counties rather than sponsor county teams. It’s an important distinction.

They are not going to be willing to cough up lots of money to sponsor the GAA within a county, or clubs as there is limited exposure for their brand in doing so.

If Donegal Catch are sponsoring Donegal clubs and Carlow Creameries are sponsoring Carlow clubs, who (outside of the 2 counties) is going to watch the games?

Mehapoy

Do you know how inter county started? The all ireland was originally based on clubs but the more powerful clubs in each county started hovering up the talent in a county to make a push for the all ireland so the administrators decided to make it a true inter-county competition rather than a club competition masquerading as an inter county.
The exact same thing would happen only this time dublin clubs and clubs based in significant urban areas would dominate and all talent would be sucked into a few clubs.
The balance is wrong between ic and club but there is a need for it.

MfMan

Frozen Veg wrote: »

Club games are the corner stone of the association.

Intercounty is necessary.

But the split in terms of real resource and importance should be 70% club to 30% IC.

Unfortunately the opposite is the case at the moment.

Nobody goes to club (league) games now bar the same few diehards, same as the end-of-year AGM. A few more go the championship matches, increasing as the later rounds arrive. The club is a great social meeting and reference point, particularly for underage activities, but too many clubs now are usually run in debt, thus they have become money-raising concerns instead of being able to concentrate on actual on-field games.

The Lost Sheep

Sunny Disposition wrote: »

Hear on the radio the GPA are at loggerheads with Croke Park over finance.

Do we really need Intercounty at all? Would we be better off without it?
It has damaged the club scenes in many if not all counties, certainly every one I’m aware of.
In Clare it’s be unheard of to just have the club championship all June and July. It always finishes in October. That is solely down to prioritising Intercounty.
There have been changes over the last few years to give more certainty about dates, but it has been at least one generation since the club championship just ran over the summer unhindered.
Intercounty does generate revenue but also sucks up a whole lot of it.
Think the GAA needs to start looking after the grassroots while it still can.

yes we do and its up to clubs, county boards to do more to get clubs playing more often and more in summer months. Club players need to do more to get their games played in summer.

threeball wrote: »

No going back now. The big wigs have got a taste of the corporate life and they aren't going back. We'll soon have stories of John Delaneys birthday spending rife throughout the organisation. We already have several scandals about unvouched spending.

You have people like brolly complaining that the club game is being destroyed by elitism and in the next breath claiming we should all be like Dublin. There's an identity crisis in the organisation and its one that won't be easily reconciled.

Ideally the funding of IC should be capped with every team getting the same. If a team breaches it they should be relegated a division and banned from the all Ireland for 2 years. This would allow a levelling off in standards and additional money to go to the club's.

spending cap is fine but when season structure is set up like this then you would need to adapt that first before just looking at spending limits being put in place.

MfMan wrote: »

Nobody goes to club (league) games now bar the same few diehards, same as the end-of-year AGM. A few more go the championship matches, increasing as the later rounds arrive. The club is a great social meeting and reference point, particularly for underage activities, but too many clubs now are usually run in debt, thus they have become money-raising concerns instead of being able to concentrate on actual on-field games.

is that really the case though? If as many clubs were in debt to level you suggest then we would have clubs folding or up in courts or elsewhere for financial troubles.
It just takes a lot to run clubs these days as they do so much more than they did in the past and as long as clubs aren't spending too much beyond their means and members are supporting regular fundraising activities then what's the problem?