Replying To FullOfPorter: "County boards are by no means perfect and plenty of mistakes made, we ended up in big debt a while back as well. But at the end of the day they are volunteers, the organisation remains community based no matter what happens and no US investor is discarding the teams when all goes wrong. I'm not sure if it unique to Ireland but professional rugby in Ireland seems to be controlled by the governing body with only four teams to manage where producing players for the national team is the main objective. Fair play to them but I feel absolutely no affinity with Connacht rugby. Following the GAA is an antidote to aloof nature of professional sport that lacks the community feel which the GAA has. I think going pro will eliminate that."
We're not unique in that in rugby because same system operates in Scotland - SRFU owns the two professional teams there (Edinburgh and Glasgow), pays the players of those teams directly, and calls much of the shots about when they play for those teams or when they're released for national team duty.
England and France, the professional clubs are all independently owned and operated.
Wales is a messy mix of both systems, and it gets even messier every time they try to do something about it.
I've no issue with the GAA opening up Croke Park to other events as all that revenue ultimately benefits the game, the problem is that they've condensed the inter-county season so tightly that it's visibly burning out players and a lot of injuries flaring up through the season.
As it stands the calendar is currently: > National League: 7 games in 8 weeks (or 8 games in 9 weeks with a league final) > Provincial Championships: 3 games in 4 weeks or 4 games in 5 weeks (depending on province) > All Ireland Series Round 1 to Quarter Finals: can be 4 games in 4 weeks or 4 games in 5 weeks
Concerts generally don't start until late August and pre-season soccer friendlies can be played mid-week so that doesn't really matter when they are. Why can't the GAA football calendar be pushed out a couple more weeks into August and free up all this congestion through the football year?
This would mean; + Keep league calendar as is. + Have a minimum 2-3 week gap (adding 1 week to current calendar) between league & championship so teams can reset (and there can actually be some build up before championship!) + Add 1 week to provincials + Add 1-2 weeks through all Ireland series so it's not so condensed
These few adjustments would help with player burnout/injuries and I think attendances would improve due to less week on week games.