League affiliation fee?

[Nesta99]

never mind.

[sullanefc]

If no club should get less than the license fee in return then why pay it at all?

Well I would have thought that in any league, the affiliation costs would go towards the running of the league (admin etc). It surely doesn't cost €380,000 (20 x €19,000) to run the LOI? Plus any sponsorship brought in (airtricity etc) should be offset against this cost. Any net profit from the league should be paid out then in prize money IMO.

As it stands, for me, the LOI looks like one big poker game and if you finish lower down the league you are losing your stake (or part thereof). Sport should not be like a game of poker. The worse off clubs should not be subsidising the better off.

It's also a con when it comes to announcing the prize fund. If an outsider saw the breakdown of the prize fund they might assume that this was all money that the FAI were paying out and it was all net profit for the clubs. When in actual fact, all it is, is a glorified poker pot. If it weren't for the affiliation fees, the prize fund would prob be close to nil (or worse) and this wouldn't look good for the association. It's optics IMO.

[JC_GUFC]

There probably are a fair few people employed by the league so 380k doesn't sound like a totally unreasonable cost to run it.
The problem is what do these people actually do. Does anyone know what Fran Gavin and Eamon Naughton (is he paid as chairman) are responsible for?
It just seems like there's no clear plan in place for the league and there needs to be more leadership from the top.
There are many things that could be developed to bring money in to the league, for example have the FAI approached companies like Perform to sell the league's streaming rights? So all this additional money that could and should be brought in could go to the prize pool.
Obviously the league could break away again but the same problem was there before with no leadership and Ollie Byrne just ran the show and used the rulebook to benefit Shels.
I've no real problem with how the prizes are distributed but obviously if it were financially rewarding to join the league there wouldn't be the issue of struggling to find an 8th team to join the First Division.

[Dodge]

I've no real problem with how the prizes are distributed but obviously if it were financially rewarding to join the league there wouldn't be the issue of struggling to find an 8th team to join the First Division.

A way around that would be to offset the affiliation fee for the first 3 years. If a club can't generate enough to cover it within 3 years, they really have no place in a professional league.

[tiktok]

That would be nice except we already know that the league generates next to no money other than what's put in by the clubs in affiliation fees and fines.

Not having a go but that simply isn't true.
While the FAI will never dispute the myth that the LoI is a financial burden, our league is a significant financial net contributor to the FAI even allowing for those working directly in it and for fees, fines and sponsorship. By the way, there are very few (if any) FAI employees who are full-time in the League office e.g. Look up Fran Gavin's actual job title.