Ticket prices: association football v gaelic football

Went to 4 games last weekend:
Friday Bohs v Harps. Professional players, 2 Irish internationals on view, covered stand. Cost €15
Saturday Sligo Rovers v Monaghan United. Semi-professional players, a few Irish U-21 and underage internationals on view, covered stand. Cost €10.
Sunday Monaghan v Derry, Fermanagh v Meath. Amateur players, at least 4 Irish internationals on view, terrace quite far from the action. Cost €15. Would have been €20 for an uncovered seat on a wooden bench.

I think GAA prices are a rip-off. They should pay the players. No wonder they can build Croke Park with those prices and no player wages to pay.

BTW 4 games and none of them will live long in the memory.

The level of players wages isn't an indication of the standard of the fare. Since you got two games from the GAA for the same price as one from the FAI you can't complain too much.

Yes, but my point is that after covering expenses most of the gate receipts are pure profit for the gaa, whereas for an eircom league team the gate receipts hardly cover the weekly wage bill. Therefore the gaa could reduce prices - €20 was quite expensive for inferior facilities.

Have to agree with Mon on this one, GAA prices are expensive seeing as it is an amature sport. Particularly league games where a lot of the good county players do not even play except for some counties. That said I think soccer ticket prices are as high as they can go for the time being.

Lads it's not comparing like with like here. Do Bohs redirect all their profits (once players are paid) back into the development of football throughout every parish community in the 32 counties, build clubhouses etc for teams up and down the length ond breadth of the country... obviously not. Bohs do what's good for Bohs as do the other 21 EL clubs. The GAA have a million and one iniciatives on the go at the same time trying to keep thousands of junior and senior football and hurling clubs functioning in the best shape possible.
To make a sweeping statement like "The GAA should pay their players..." purely because you paid 15 quid into a game is rediculous. The entire cultural currency of the GAA is based around it's amateur status, take that away and there is no GAA. Anyway this is an EL forum so I'll leave it at that ;)

Surely though if the FAI were making similar profits by taking advantage of amatuer players they'd be able to invest in the same way?

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Originally Posted by Macy

Surely though if the FAI were making similar profits by taking advantage of amatuer players they'd be able to invest in the same way?

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The FAI are making similar profits by taking advantage of professional players paid and coached almost entirely within England. The senior men's team is the only FAI team turning a profit. I have no difficulty paying money to the GAA because they actually run their sports, anyone who plays GAA in this country does it in a GAA run facility with a GAA coach. Most people who play soccer in this country do it in a casual way. Playing a lot on the time in private facilities and rarely do they have an FAI provided coach.

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Originally Posted by monutdfc

No wonder they can build Croke Park with those prices and no player wages to pay.

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The GAA didn't pay for Croke Park.

19.5 million euros of Exchequer money went into the rebuiling of Croke Park, 90.5 million euros from the National Lottery funds and 119 million euros of the GAA's own money went into the rebuilding of the new Croke Park.

It's very easy to make swift and innacurrate statements about the GAA. I'd suggest obtaining some facts if you want to make a legitimate arguement.

But those very figures bear out what I was just saying.
Even by your reckoning, the GAA has got just under half of Croke Park free gratis and for nothing from the Irish people, GAA-supporting and otherwise. And was the €119m of the GAA's 'own money' generated entirely by its own activities, or are there other government grants, subsidies and tax breaks built in to that as well? If there are, they should not be allowed turn around and fleece other sports while expecting the rest of us to swoon with gratitude for the ending of the bizarre and sectarian rule 42.
I'd love to know how much of that 119m was pure Gaelic gold. Perhaps you could dig out a few facts on that.

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Originally Posted by Maynard

19.5 million euros of Exchequer money went into the rebuiling of Croke Park, 90.5 million euros from the National Lottery funds and 119 million euros of the GAA's own money went into the rebuilding of the new Croke Park.

It's very easy to make swift and innacurrate statements about the GAA. I'd suggest obtaining some facts if you want to make a legitimate arguement.

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GAA knockers won't let the facts get in the way of a good rant Maynard!

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Originally Posted by Bald Student

The senior men's team is the only FAI team turning a profit.

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Exactly, because the senior teams in this country are paying wages, rather than the GAA paying nothing.

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Originally Posted by BohDiddley

But those very figures bear out what I was just saying.
Even by your reckoning, the GAA has got just under half of Croke Park free gratis and for nothing from the Irish people, GAA-supporting and otherwise. And was the €119m of the GAA's 'own money' generated entirely by its own activities, or are there other government grants, subsidies and tax breaks built in to that as well? If there are, they should not be allowed turn around and fleece other sports while expecting the rest of us to swoon with gratitude for the ending of the bizarre and sectarian rule 42.
I'd love to know how much of that 119m was pure Gaelic gold. Perhaps you could dig out a few facts on that.

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It was 119m of the GAA's money. Its origins can be accounted for. You should elaborate on any claims to the contrary.

Simple fact is that the GAA have done nothing wrong.

The government contributed more than 50% of the cost of building the Jodi Stand and the rest of the redevelopments in Dalymount Park. The government's contribution to one of the best stadiums in Europe pales in comparison to that. I doubt there were many complaints here about that.

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Originally Posted by Maynard

Lads it's not comparing like with like here. Do Bohs redirect all their profits (once players are paid) back into the development of football throughout every parish community in the 32 counties, build clubhouses etc for teams up and down the length ond breadth of the country

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What profits after the players are paid. That's the point. :ball:

My original post was probably too emotive. I follow gaelic football, played for many years, go to several games a year. However, I do find fault in the gaa's ticket prices. There is a very, very low elasticity of demand for football games and I feel the gaa exploit this: if your county is in a championship game you will not turn around at the gate if the price is €40 instead of €20. But it is very expensive. €45 for the All Ireland q/f replay in Thurles, not a double header. A father is going to find it very hard to tell his kids that he won't take them to the game all their friends are going to because he cannot afford it. Sure, a lot of the money is ploughed back in to the games, but maybe the gaa should consider reducing prices and giving something back to the fans. (I probably should have left out the bit about paying the players, that's always been a personal opinion of mine.)
Agree with the post above that eircom League prices won't bear any increases.

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Originally Posted by ThatGuy

It was 119m of the GAA's money. Its origins can be accounted for.

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Where? I'd be interested to know. Even if it was, the fact still remains that it only amounts to half of the cost.

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Originally Posted by ThatGuy

Simple fact is that the GAA have done nothing wrong.

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I haven't stated or implied that they did. If I were the GAA, I'd do the same.

In my view, the GAA has done nothing 'wrong'. It is, however, uniquely at least in western Europe, a distortion of the sporting ethos. Where is the Scottish Athletic Association, the Spanish Athletic Association, the Basque Athletic Association's swanky world-class facility?
If we want to be real about the plight of Irish football -- and there's plenty of recognition of that on this board -- then we need to square up to the unpleasant truth of the disastrous effect of this cuckoo in the nest. The GAA may not be the only problem, but it is a large part of the reason why football in Ireland is played in dismal conditions, in front of dismal crowds, with pathetic media coverage.
If viewing the organization with scepticism, based on its debilitating effect on football in this country, and its ingrained hostility to football, is equated with being a GAA knocker, then I don't dispute the label (even though I happen to believe that hurling is a beautiful game).
You can't have it both ways.

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Originally Posted by Cop on

Inferior facilities :D :D . Then, why are you so obsessed with wanting soccer played in Croker - one of the finest stadiums in Europe ??

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1) I am comparing my experiences in 3 different venues in the same weekend and Clones was by far inferior to Dalymount or the Showgrounds (fair enough, I wasn't in the stand in Clones on Sunday, but even that stand is inferior to either the stand in Dalymount or the Showgrounds).

2) I am actually quite ambivalent as to whether soccer is played in Croke Park or not

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Originally Posted by Cop on

(The chief executive of the GAA does not get a salary !!)

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Is that true?

I find it hard to believe that Liam Mulvihill has been working full time for the GAA for over 20 years and isn't getting a salary

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Originally Posted by Cop on

That is the most ludicrous suggestion of all time. Cuckoo in your head morelike. The pathetic media coverage & dismal conditions which you perceive (come down to the beautiful Flansiro sometime) have absolutely nothing to do with the gaah.
Nor does it have an ingrained hostility to football. In fact, most of the grassroots would follow football as avidly as they would follow Gaelic football.

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Sheer hypocrisy. As if rule 42 never existed, and no GAA-crazed Christian Brother ever banned the so-called 'garrison game'. And as if that bigotry has suddenly evaporated.
You cannot escape the fact that GAA 'football', which has grown fat based on outrageous cosseting, for political and cultural reasons, competes with football for fanbase and revenue in a way that no other sport does, and skews the market in Ireland in a way that no other national league has to tolerate.

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Originally Posted by monutdfc

Went to 4 games last weekend:
Friday Bohs v Harps. Professional players, 2 Irish internationals on view, covered stand. Cost €15
Saturday Sligo Rovers v Monaghan United. Semi-professional players, a few Irish U-21 and underage internationals on view, covered stand. Cost €10.
Sunday Monaghan v Derry, Fermanagh v Meath. Amateur players, at least 4 Irish internationals on view, terrace quite far from the action. Cost €15. Would have been €20 for an uncovered seat on a wooden bench.

I think GAA prices are a rip-off. They should pay the players. No wonder they can build Croke Park with those prices and no player wages to pay.

BTW 4 games and none of them will live long in the memory.

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the gaa games were league SEMI FINALS.the soccer games were normal league games.you had 2 games as well for your money.its not bad though paying €60 for a stand ticket like i did for the all ireland hurling final last year was a pure rip off.thankfully i swapped it for a hill 16 ticket(plus €30) which were €30 which is still a rip off.it was €25 the year before.how does the gaa justify a 20% increase in ticket price???