Just wondering if any of the people on here are involved in the day to day running of their local club. What kind of costs do you face each year? How do you meet these costs ie fundraising etc?

For my own club (average enough size) we have to come up with 50,000 each year, about half of which comes from the local club lotto.
But some of the costs are staggering for example player registration and insurance 6,000 for the adult teams alone, ESB 7,000, pitch maintainance 8,000, Physio & Injuries 5,000, Hurls & Balls 2,500 etc etc.

Just wondering how other clubs compare and do you have any novel ways of cutting costs or indeed raising funds?

cornelius (Wexford) - Posts: 135 - 27/01/2012 17:05:47    1101455

The only way you can hope to peg costs is to insist every team is financially self-sufficient, and yeah that might mean Mr Senior Goalscoring full forward packs a few bags but so be it.

But what people are not aware of is - or at least might not be aware of is, the registration and insurance costs for the various codes, camogie, football/hurling and ladies football are all different registration costs, a clubs membership fee has to cover that cost.

Does your club provide, sliotars/footballs, jerseys, hurleys and pay ref's expenses? if so they are mad. These have to be bought, and paid, a full kit is about 700 euro alone. Players especially younger ones like to buy the club jersey - let them, and stick a number on it. Suddenly things will become different. Times are hard, the good times are gone, you#ll sink if you don't manage your costs.

arock (Dublin) - Posts: 4968 - 27/01/2012 18:23:30    1101503

From my own clubs perspective, without the weekly lotto, we'd be f**ked.

ahsure. (Galway) - Posts: 1779 - 27/01/2012 18:31:36    1101510

From my own clubs perspective, without the weekly lotto, we'd be f**ked.

Us too.

doublehop (Kildare) - Posts: 4172 - 27/01/2012 18:42:05    1101513

27/01/2012 17:05:47
cornelius
County: Wexford
Posts: 127

1101455 Just wondering if any of the people on here are involved in the day to day running of their local club. What kind of costs do you face each year? How do you meet these costs ie fundraising etc?

For my own club (average enough size) we have to come up with 50,000 each year, about half of which comes from the local club lotto.
But some of the costs are staggering for example player registration and insurance 6,000 for the adult teams alone, ESB 7,000, pitch maintainance 8,000, Physio & Injuries 5,000, Hurls & Balls 2,500 etc etc.

Just wondering how other clubs compare and do you have any novel ways of cutting costs or indeed raising funds?

only 50'000???
We're an average sized rugby club and we spend around 200k a year mainly on travel, catering, entertainment and first aid, repairs etc

Fundraising, we do big draws every few years, and we are lucky have a bar which brings in good money.

ormondbannerman (Clare) - Posts: 13473 - 27/01/2012 18:58:02    1101518

The only way you can hope to peg costs is to insist every team is financially self-sufficient, and yeah that might mean Mr Senior Goalscoring full forward packs a few bags but so be it.

Are you saying the costs of the club should be divided by the number of players and this figure is the membership fee? Surely this would mean memberships in excess of €1000. I dont think the high scoring full forward would be the only one to protest about this! In our club the membership is €80 for adult members and its VERY difficult to get everyone to pay. Like other people have mentioned without our club lotto I really dont know how we'd function!

@ ormondbannerman - €200,000?? Thats a ridiculous amount! I would love to see those accounts! Its funny that you say travel, catering and entertainment are your biggest costs because our club spends practically nothing on those 3. Sounds more like a social club or something than a rugby club!

cornelius (Wexford) - Posts: 135 - 28/01/2012 16:31:17    1101792

28/01/2012 16:31:17
cornelius
County: Wexford
Posts: 128

1101792 The only way you can hope to peg costs is to insist every team is financially self-sufficient, and yeah that might mean Mr Senior Goalscoring full forward packs a few bags but so be it.

Are you saying the costs of the club should be divided by the number of players and this figure is the membership fee? Surely this would mean memberships in excess of €1000. I dont think the high scoring full forward would be the only one to protest about this! In our club the membership is €80 for adult members and its VERY difficult to get everyone to pay. Like other people have mentioned without our club lotto I really dont know how we'd function!

@ ormondbannerman - €200,000?? Thats a ridiculous amount! I would love to see those accounts! Its funny that you say travel, catering and entertainment are your biggest costs because our club spends practically nothing on those 3. Sounds more like a social club or something than a rugby club!

We have to pay for hotel rooms for 35+ people for 5-6 games a season and buses to all league and cup games at senior level and for another 10-12 games between u13,15,17,19, 21, senior 2nds and womens games
Ye dont have to pay for buses to games i imagine.
Does your club have a bar to run, that has high enough costs to run.
And we're not the biggest of clubs there would be other clubs spending well more than that

ormondbannerman (Clare) - Posts: 13473 - 28/01/2012 18:41:33    1101841

No I am not even suggesting that a clubs membership covers the entire cost of running a club. The clubs membership fee must cover the cost at the very least of putting a player on the pitch. But it shouldn't cost the club anything to field a team either.
The rest of the expenses, ref's fee's, jersey's etc should come from each teams own fundraising.
The club's expenses are a different thing altogether. The club lotto, bar, function rooms, shop, vending machines, advertising, nursery, major fund-raising events etc these are a separate thing and are vital to all clubs big and small in paying for running expenses.
I agree collecting membership fee's is a real pain. Membership costs too are wildly different between clubs, with the bigger clubs tending to be more expensive.

I think people will find GAA clubs are run on a shoe-string - both big and small ones, maintaining numbers is another big issue, the recession is biting real hard, I pity the rual clubs plight with players forced to go abroad. In the city areas seems to be just people do not have the spare cash.

arock (Dublin) - Posts: 4968 - 30/01/2012 09:50:00    1102393

@arock

I agree with the sustainability approach in many regards. I used to play for a city club, the fees of which became quite expensive. I think they were in the region of €225 for an adult member, which gave you about 8 games a season. However, the main team in the club was senior football who had a budget of around €20,000 per year between gear, outside coaches and meals after games. If you were on the hurling team you got no gear, had a rubbish coach from inside the club and got literally nothing in terms of finance for any project. There weren't many dual players, so the system was quite unbalanced and unfair in my opinion.

ringo (Wexford) - Posts: 384 - 30/01/2012 10:43:24    1102418

Its interesting reading how different clubs approach things in totally different ways. And also what seems perfectly normal for one club seems quiet bizarre for someone from a different club.

@ ringo - Why did the hurlers allow this to happen? Why did they not just refuse to pay the same membership fee if they werent going to get the same services? And one thing I would say is a coach from your own club isnt necessarily inferior to an outsider. We've had plenty of outside coaches who were absolutely useless!

@ arock - I see what youre saying now and I totally agree. Every section of the club should pull its own weight as regards covering costs! Still though I think GAA clubs are going to be hit less hard by the recession than other more expensive forms of clubs such as gyms, golf courses etc. The one good thing about the recession is it builds community spirit.

@ ormondbannerman - I see. Youre rugby club is totally different kettle of fish than what we have. We have no bar and certainly no overnight hotel stays. But €200,000?? thats just an incredible amount! Could I ask what are your top 5 forms of income?

I was talking to someone from Dublin lately and just got talking about the membership fee for his GAA club which he said was €200. I remarked that this seemed very high. He said it was nothing compared to what some clubs were charging. According to him some clubs charge high membership fee's in order to reduce the amount of playing members they already have. Now he could be telling me a load of porkies because if thats true then for someone from a club who are constantly on the lookout for new members its extraordinary!

cornelius (Wexford) - Posts: 135 - 30/01/2012 12:50:05    1102485

@cornelius

Often wondered myself. I heard one lad who refused to pay and asked for a transfer! At the end of the day it was seen as a football club and that was where the priority lay. The hurlers would never consider asking for any funding, they'd be told to raise it themselves. Officially the footballers had to do the same, but we all knew where the money in the club was being spent.

Agreed about outside coaches, but in both codes there wasn't enough expertise in the club coaching wise at the time, I think that has since changed. However, the footballers brought in about 5 coaches over a 10 year period and it paid dividends.

ringo (Wexford) - Posts: 384 - 30/01/2012 13:06:02    1102491

30/01/2012 12:50:05
cornelius
County: Wexford
Posts: 130

1102485 Its interesting reading how different clubs approach things in totally different ways. And also what seems perfectly normal for one club seems quiet bizarre for someone from a different club.

@ ringo - Why did the hurlers allow this to happen? Why did they not just refuse to pay the same membership fee if they werent going to get the same services? And one thing I would say is a coach from your own club isnt necessarily inferior to an outsider. We've had plenty of outside coaches who were absolutely useless!

@ arock - I see what youre saying now and I totally agree. Every section of the club should pull its own weight as regards covering costs! Still though I think GAA clubs are going to be hit less hard by the recession than other more expensive forms of clubs such as gyms, golf courses etc. The one good thing about the recession is it builds community spirit.

@ ormondbannerman - I see. Youre rugby club is totally different kettle of fish than what we have. We have no bar and certainly no overnight hotel stays. But €200,000?? thats just an incredible amount! Could I ask what are your top 5 forms of income?

I was talking to someone from Dublin lately and just got talking about the membership fee for his GAA club which he said was €200. I remarked that this seemed very high. He said it was nothing compared to what some clubs were charging. According to him some clubs charge high membership fee's in order to reduce the amount of playing members they already have. Now he could be telling me a load of porkies because if thats true then for someone from a club who are constantly on the lookout for new members its

Our 5 main sources of income are the bar in the clubhouse, member subscriptions, income from draws, advertising and grants from the Munster branch and IRFU

ormondbannerman (Clare) - Posts: 13473 - 30/01/2012 13:15:05    1102498

We are a junior club here in the north of Ireland and we need over £100,000 each year to just to keep the show on the road.

Sparrowhawk (Tyrone) - Posts: 107 - 30/01/2012 14:21:25    1102544