GAA VS FAI thread

I have looked at your posts GF and you are a great man for asking questions which are phrased in a certain way to convey the impression that the unknown answers would lead to conclusions supporting your particular viewpoint.  If you have the answers to these questions please publish them and let us all draw our own conclusions.

As regards you specific query to me I do not have the comparative figures for 2000.  I would be surprised however if the comparative figures for both organizations do not show a huge increase in that 10/11 year period including huge increases in commercial and TV income.  Anyway, you can use figures to argue almost any position.  For instance if I wanted to argue that either the GAA or FAI was mismanaged in 2010 compared to 2009 I could cite the big drop in revenue experienced by both organizations as follows [I have added their respective explanation for the sake of clarity]

FAI

                                                          2010                                           2009 

Turnover                                       39,313,050                              50,015,254

Overall our turnover was €39.3m. As highlighted in last year’s annual report 2009 saw the Association generate a record turnover on the back of two high profile and commercially attractive home competitive fixtures with Italy and France. In particular the additional television income achieved in 2009 on the back of those games was not replicated in 2010. The tough economic times experienced in Ireland in 2010 combined with the lower number of home competitive matches also contributed greatly to this year on year decrease in turnover.

GAA

Turnover                                          58,015,244                       67,700,229

Despite the challenging economic conditions, the GAA announced revenues of €58m, down from €68m in 2009, which can, in the main, be attributed to a drop in revenue of €9m (from €13m down to €4m) from the rental of Croke Park to the FAI and the IRFU.

The reason I quoted revenue figures in my previous post was to give some objective measurement of the relative size of each organisation and how much they are spending on admin.  The point has been made that the GAA figures include gate receipts.  This is true and the figure is just over €25m.  I would assume that that the admin cost quoted also includes costs associated with all the matches for which gate receipts are included.  The FAI figures also include gate receipts although I have been unable to determine the exact amount from published material.

As another measure of relative size the GAA annual report for 2010 says it has 2,272 affiliated clubs in Ireland [32 counties I assume] plus another 343 abroad including Britain.  According to an unofficial website there are 707 soccer clubs in Ireland.