Since the modern era of advertising it has enhanced the chances of the better funded teams for having success. We dont need 2 teir or 3 teir competition. We need better equality among counties
ARE WE STILL AMATEURS? You look at the better funded counties and the answer is clearly not
Sponsors dont care whats done with their money once the team splashes their name all over
Fermanagh get to the quarter finals from div 3 and there asre still calls for 2 teir nonsense
Roscommon were div 4 a few years back
Monaghan are competing at the highest level
Are we amateurs? do we want a premier league of elite teams in the country. I dont and I wont be attending any teir 2 or 3 championship games EVER

AnBuachaillGlas (Fermanagh) - Posts: 287 - 04/08/2015 13:17:18    1763682

Agreed. I don't think there's any question over whether or not the better funded teams have a bigger advantage. How else would you explain Kildare getting as far as they did this year? It's a pity that the smaller counties are at such a disadvantage.

aheadofthecurve (Cavan) - Posts: 95 - 04/08/2015 17:30:17    1763905

Yeah all money should be pooled and spread out equally. Obviously people from the 2 or 3 counties dominating won't want this but for equality sake it needs to be done. Or else the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.

Jack_Goff (Meath) - Posts: 2920 - 04/08/2015 17:40:03    1763915

what incentive would that be for a county board to put in the hardwork to get a sponsor
if the time and effort and negotiations to get a good deal
is then shared out with the other counties who done nothing to earn it?
thats punishing county boards who put the work in and rewarding the ones who dont.
dublin hadnt won or got to an all ireland final in over 14 years
so credit must be given to the county board for putting in the hard work and getting vodafone on board
after all we were hammered by kerry by 17 points in our last game before they came on board.

hill16no1man (Dublin) - Posts: 12665 - 04/08/2015 17:51:55    1763924

You have counties like Kerry, Mayo, Donegal etc that get alot of funding from the US from expats. I dont see anything wrong with that. I pay 200 euro for my Cairdre Maigh Eo season ticket of which some goes directly to the team fubding and also an online lotto which can be played anywhere in the world. Kerry had a swankey fundraiser in the Plaza hotel earlier this year...its about thinking outside the box.

yew_tree (Mayo) - Posts: 11230 - 04/08/2015 17:58:32    1763926

Yewtree, how exactly is that thinking outside the box, are you suggesting that the likes of fermanagh, Carlow and Wicklow should all but the little money they have into hosting fundraisers in Bostoon, Chicago etc, there would be outroar in Wicklow anyway and I'm sure in any other county with very small amounts of money to budget each year.

And please stop, a swazy event in the plaza hotel? Haha as someone that grew up in tallaght I can tell you that never a swazy man has stepped foot in the place haha

Victorious87 (Wicklow) - Posts: 597 - 04/08/2015 18:07:10    1763931

Yes great idea. Let the hard working county boards who get the best deals for their counties to give it away to boards who constantly feel sorry for themselves. Every county has a unique selling point. Use it. The same teams that have dominated over the last 20 years by hard work and good management of resources available. It's tough on smaller counties yes but what are similar sized counties that are better than your own doing different??? Ambition and putting club politics to a side can do wonders.

Bain (Donegal) - Posts: 470 - 04/08/2015 18:11:30    1763935

Pooling resources would mean your incentive to get better sponsorship would disappear.

Say renewal time has come on your county's sponsorship contract. Why would your county board bother pushing your sponsor for an extra €10'000 when in the end you'd only see €300 of that go to your own county, the other 97% being sent to the other 32 counties?.

CastleBravo (Meath) - Posts: 1643 - 04/08/2015 18:17:56    1763939

Bad county boards will only squander more money. Every county is capable of getting their own house in order. The Kerry hurlers had a fine year.

legendzxix (Kerry) - Posts: 7842 - 04/08/2015 18:30:50    1763948

I think there should be additional Central Council coaching subsidies for weaker & small population counties. This distribution of funds could be weighted so that less successful counties get a larger slice of the National League and Championships gate receipts. The stronger counties will have their sponsors still available to themselves but the weaker counties would have more of a cash flow to supplement whatever sponsorship the might also be able to secure.

dingle2 (Kerry) - Posts: 278 - 04/08/2015 19:09:01    1763966

How are the likes of Fermanagh or Leitrim ever going to get a sponsorship deal like the 2 million euro AIG deal? Our county boards could be ran by the finest minds in the world yet they wouldn't have a hope in hell of getting a deal like that. Dublin are always sure of media exposure. Even in the early noughties when they were struggling Arnotts could always be sure that their logo would be appearing on the TV and in the papers more than anyone else.

gotmilk (Fermanagh) - Posts: 4971 - 04/08/2015 19:24:52    1763975

I don't think it is the sponsorship money that needs to be looked at but the money coming from Croke Park for games development. In 2013 Dublin got 1.5m from Croke Park while the likes of Donegal got 45k, Mayo got a similar figure to Donegal. In 2014 Dublin County board were delivering meals to players on both their Senior and Minor panels, if they can afford to do this with their money their funding from Croke Park should be reduced and given to the smaller counties so long as it is put into coaching.

donegalhills (Donegal) - Posts: 17 - 04/08/2015 19:32:33    1763978

Excellent thread Buachaillnua. Bang on the money . Apologies all I couldn't resist the pun . The idea that financial resources should be equitably distributed is fair . The amount of money counties get would be proportionate to the number of clubs in the county and the number of county teams being fielded . We cannot allow a situation to develop whereby financial resources make a difference to the outcome of the championship . That is developing now and must be dealt with . Hill16 your post is self serving . You talk about the great job the Dublin County Board did in getting blue chip sponsors on board . You blithely ignore two massive advantages Dublin have. The first one is the population base and the market potential of that population base. The second one is the fact that Dublin play all of their championship games in Croke Park as well as league semi finals and finals . That is the best exposure any county could bring to a potential sponsor and automatically makes Dublin a very attractive sponsorship proposition .

Greengrass (Louth) - Posts: 6031 - 04/08/2015 19:32:42    1763979

If you give Carlow the same money as Dublin will they win sam?

If you give Armagh hurlers millions will they take liam?

DoireCityFC (Derry) - Posts: 1580 - 05/08/2015 09:25:45    1764105

Each county looks after their own sponsor ship and 10 / 15% goes in to a pool to be distributed and top up counties who have struggled to pull in sponsors. Pooling everything and it takes away the incentive to be creative and push for good deals with sponsors.

I don't think the Dubs would have bothered pushing AIG for such a good deal if all the cash was going to going to a pool. Similarly Cork held out a long time before they got Chill Insurance, I'm sure they'd have taken the first sponsor that came along if they didn't stand to gain the majority of the spoils themselves.

dahayeser (Cork) - Posts: 337 - 05/08/2015 09:48:36    1764116

Victorious87 - Your own county Wicklow has a population of 136,640 more than my own county. Wicklow with the right structures should be able to fund raise. I am not saying you need to go to the US but it can be done at home.

yew_tree (Mayo) - Posts: 11230 - 05/08/2015 09:52:06    1764119

DoireCity you hit the nail on the head.

It is a lot more to do than money, it has a lot to do with the ethos of the county in question. KK lads are born with a hurl and sliotar, Kerry lads with a football.

Secondly, Dublin have finally achieved success after 16 years due to the efforts put in at under age - granted it costs money but that is where the county board ploughed the money into. A certain Connaught side, who granted invested at underage as well, but then spent 250k on a bus? You need to ask yourselves, where are your county boards spending their money?

And how can you question the funding for the likes of Tyrone - a large amount comes from the fans for example.Mayo, Donegal, Kerry are similar. Some of the counties in question have never had any success or strong GAA roots since the inception of the GAA, money is not going to change that.

AthCliath87 (Dublin) - Posts: 345 - 05/08/2015 10:03:47    1764127

Sponsorship is only part of the funding issue. Is it a coincidence that Mayo, Kerry and Dublin have 3 of the bigger stadia which also get their fair share of ticket revenue during the season. Now I wouldn't have the first clue as to how the ticket sales are distributed but even if they are getting a proportion of this it all goes into the coffers. People say Monaghan have done well with a small population base but Clones is a large stadium which hosts 3-6 big games every year so if that doesn't show that funding can help even with small club base/ population base then nothing does.

Now I wouldn't be in favour of everyone building white elephant stadia but the distribution of revenues from this could be spread evenly and then at least you have a fairer system. In US sport the winners the previous year have last pick in drafts and the worst team have first pick, this wouldn't work here because of geography but maybe the top teams could be handicapped by capping squad sizes and then you have a leveling of the field.

As has been reported on HS this morning people are more concerned by mismatches than any defensive tactics and seeing someone take a trimming is more of a turn off than a dour defensive game believe me, so the question has to be how can things be structured so more than 3-4 teams can win SAM and better still would be if only 3-4 can win it then it isn't the same 3-4.

duckula20 (Antrim) - Posts: 175 - 05/08/2015 10:21:42    1764144

look at the likes of Roscommon and Tipp at underage football, both have much smaller player bases that say Cork/Kerry/Galway/Mayo have been punching well above their weight at underage level (as yet to be turned into senior success). Also look at Monaghan at senior one of the smallest counties in the country, yet competed with the biggest. Most important think in a county is to get the right people in place in place at county board level, have development plans have coaching structures etc in place.
At the other end of the spectrum you have Cork after Dublin probably the second most attractive county sponsorship wise and look at the current state of their hurlers and footballers.

Rosineri1 (UK) - Posts: 2099 - 05/08/2015 10:29:52    1764149

No way I would pool sponsorship. Donegal are sponsored by Donegal Creameries. Would Donegal Creameries want to give as much sponsorship if they knew it was just being divided up between the counties. Pooling sponsorship would just lead to a black economy with sponsors giving money to county boards under the table and others paying for things and donating them to the team rather than giving the county boards the money to purchase things themselves.

In every county there is a major business / funder and also a person out there that is good at getting these people to part with money. If the County Boards are doing things right then they will have this person on their side and offering attractive packages to the money people!

Tir Conaill Abu (Donegal) - Posts: 1671 - 05/08/2015 11:03:15    1764179