The Dominance of Dublin GAA *Mod warning post#1*

You initially denied it happened, now you're trying to pretend you didn't mean it. You didn't like evidence of where stadium sharing works perfectly well in a real-world sporting setting so you went crazy and dismissed it. You said "Soccer, eh? Cool. Now do inter-county GAA teams… See what I mean about cherry-picking?".

So you did say that soccer isn't a relevant comparison. There's no reason this would be the case for stadiums but not other aspects of the sport. It is hypocritical but I am still happy to engage in this debate on your terms. But there can be no doubt about you going crazy and dismissing it, it's plain for all to see.

Also ties into my other points about the amount of Revenue Dublin bring into the GAA directly and indirectly, attendances, sponsorship, viewing figures etc.

It is just a fact that Dublin football has the best "brand value" of any county in the GAA. Love them them or hate them people tune in.

And the fact that without Dublin GAA there would be far less players produced from Dublin that play their football for weaker counties.

Also Dublin football provides a great service for intercounty players who live or work in Dublin. And want to maintain or improve their level by playing club football in Dublin. It again indirectly benefits other counties.

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A Dublin "spilt" would leave a massive void in the GAA even beyond the Dublin team itself. What would fill that void? It would probably be the worst decision in the GAA since the advanced mark!

I asked yer man that as well but he did not answer it - surprise surprise.

If there is ever a Dublin spilt it could take 50 years for any new Dublin counties to settle, by which point the GAA would have lost ground to Soccer, Rugby etc.

I thought about it and if Dublin was spilt for football it would mean for Hurling. Because administrators would be stretched hurling would become a complete afterthought, because of the enormous resources required to create these mythical new Dublin "counties". Brand awarmess, logistics, sponsorship, administration, stadiums, playing pitches, office space etc.

Given that Dublin hurling is the sport of hurling's last hope of any real growth of the game outside of it's traditional base. It would basically mean that hurling in Ireland stays static at best. Or an enormous potential hurling player base is lost to the game. Which of course means that if any of the other "the traditional" hurling counties drop off like Offaly again. that hurling could be in serious trouble.

It mean that hurling could quickly become an endangered sport dependant on a very small geographic area, with a small population base.

Most of what you're citing here just reflects Dublin's population and funding advantages and are grounds for a split more than anything else. It's probably true to say that without a split popular interest, and by extension revenue, for all counties, and the game as a whole, will decline massively in the short to medium term, as has happened in Leinster already. Not splitting Dublin would probably the worst decision in the GAA since allowing massive overfunding of Dublin vs every other county since the mid-2000s!

So this has also been discussed numerous times and it's been concluded that there is no need for new grounds for matches/training after a split of Dublin as existing facilities are adequate on a shared basis. Also, as Dublin are the only team unfairly advantaged, they're the only team who should be split, so no need to factor in Cork or Antrim.

Definitely voluntary amalgamations should be offered, after a mandatory split of Dublin. The reason for this is because Westmeath for instance underperforming doesn't damage the prestige, integrity and fairness of the All-Ireland, whereas Dublin competing off a platform of unfair advantages does massive harm on all those areas.

It's 100% correct. For training, decent club/University facilities will be sufficient and matches, which are relatively rare in Gaelic Football vs other sports in terms of number per year, can be easily organised in such a way that facilitates all of the Dublin divisional sides in Croke Park/ Parnell Park. It really wouldn't be that much hassle. Teams like AC and Inter Milan share their stadium and it's no issue at all. Also if the GAA is really serious about making the competition fairer, the Dublin divisional sides would be playing away from home a lot more frequently than the current Dublin team, making it easier still.

The facilities are in place for Dublin too as I've explained. They're perfectly adequate to facilitate multiple divisional sides across the different codes as I've said.

Voluntary amalgamations can of course be offered but as I said, Westmeath or whoever underperforming doesn't hurt the GAA, it's just bad for them. Whereas Dublin winning off a platform of unfair advantages (population, funding, playing at home etc) is bad for everyone, including Dublin.

Well, that one is definitely incorrect. The facilities are in place as I've explained already. What facilities for training/matches do you think are not owned by the GAA? Think of clubs, Croke Park etc. Plus even the ones that are not owned by the GAA can still be used after a split. So certainly we can say with 100% accuracy the facilities are in place and sufficient for Dublin divisional sides to use after a split, for both training and matches.

I agree with offering voluntary amalgamations as I've said, after a mandatory split of Dublin. The good news is the stadiums and facilities will exist and can be shared by new Dublin divisional sides as I've explained several times now. New structures for some administration would have to be set up, I'd grant you that, but would also be fairly straightforward. But the benefits to the GAA would be so enormous that it's a small price to pay.

You've yet to explain how the GAA doesn't own stadiums and facilities it clearly does also?

You see to be stuck on repeat my friend! I agree with voluntary amalgamations. Most people agree with amalgamations it seems actually it appears, it doesn't seem to be a bone of contention, on this thread at least.

But a split of Dublin should be mandatory, for the reasons already given and for the obvious benefits that would arise for the GAA. It really wouldn't be that much hassle, trust me.

It would be more practical to split Dublin, plus the benefits to the GAA from that would be enormous whereas there'd be fairly minor from voluntary amalgamations.

I agree that splitting Dublin or amalgamating other counties is a long way off. Given that, how do you propose dealing with the nature, scale, combination and duration of Dublin's unique and enormous advantages in population, funding, home pitch advantage etc.?

No, it wasn't. It was about getting out of Connaught, I've asked you about it multiple times, now, over a number of months. You even replied to me and spoke about Leitrim getting out of Connaught on at least one occasion (your answer to q4). You're trying to rewrite history now by claiming you were talking about helping them all along, not helping them get out of the province. That won't wash, I'm afraid.

So I haven't misrepresented you at all and my answers are both irrefutable and unchanging.

I have shown multiple times in single posts where you are claiming I said or implied certain things when I haven't. The evidence is there for everyone to see.

You said I went crazy. I asked you where. You provided a link to a post of mine, where I apparently 'dismissed' it. Dismissing something is not 'going crazy' by any stretch of the imagination. It is clear as day that you are attempting to misrepresent my words to paint yourself in a better light, you've done it again now with your final sentence in this post. Make me look like a hypocrite so that me pointing out all your hypocrisy isn't as damaging. You're even copying my words and posting style, trying to get a rise out of me. This isn't working. I'm now convinced you're a troll, on the wind-up.

I said sharing stadia isn't the done thing in GAA circles. You said it happens all the time. I asked where, and you spoke about soccer stadiums being shared. I said "Soccer?……cool, now do GAA" as that's what I was talking about. This is all a smokescreen to hide the fact that you cannot back up your argument about Dublin not having nay effect on the Connaught provincial championship.

How nice of you, to finally provide tacit admission that your words are just meaningless phrases without any foundation. Confessions of a troll.

The large percentage of population who never plays GAA also holds true for other counties- it's not unique to Dublin. Even looking at registered members, it's far, far higher in Dublin than anywhere else. But it's the playing pool that is ultimately the most important and this is where Dublin's advantages are most apparent.

The issue with the Games Development funding was that it was unique to Dublin. If all counties had been equally funded, this wouldn't have been an issue, but Dublin alone were favoured, again. And the Games Development Funding absolutely helped the senior game- both by enhancing the overall quality within the county (again, not a bad thing if nationwide, but it wasn't) and reducing the opportunity cost from spending on the inter-county teams. What's your source for your last sentence? It sounds like something you are just making up to be honest.

Yeah I agree with you; I think the issue is some of the Dublin supporters here can't seem to even accept that the population, funding, home pitch etc are advantages, never mind that we should take steps to deal with them. All the arguments saying these are not advantages have been eviscerated countless times over the course of the thread but still people come back and just say the same things again.

I do think if counties want to voluntarily amalgamate, then they should be allowed, but the benefits will be fairly minor. Whereas splitting Dublin will be enormously beneficial, for every single county.

What would the populations of a two-split or even four-split Dublin be and wouldn't they still be far superior to many counties?

And that is before we get into the issue of Dublin hurling which does not need a split so you may end up with different teams for different sports.

There is another element of a split that nobody seems to be considering. Due to its size, many very good players never get on the Dublin panel, but would probably get on many other panels. So far from splitting the current panel into 2 or 4, it might mean having 4 strong Dublins all competing. What would that do the AI competition that the semis might be and all Dublin affair? Leinster final between South Dublin and Fingal?