So the first year of the new TV deals with Sky, GAAGO etc have finished. Is anyone involved with GAA clubs abroad and if so

have you noticed any positive effects these deals have had on your club?
Have you noticed an increase in new locally born players (Adults or Kids)?
Have current local born players (Adults or Kids) shown more interest in staying involved this year?

If you haven't noticed any difference, do you think these TV deals will have much of a positive impact for your club in the years ahead?

source (Dublin) - Posts: 35 - 01/10/2014 21:37:36    1659202

At my club in England in terms of the mens team there has been no change really, people you may talk to about the sport know what your on about now a bit more as they say 'oh i have seen that' ... but thats about it!

At underage there has been a bit of an improvement as kids have watched it and liked and want to try something new, they are suprised there is a local club so without the promotion of the club then Gaelic on 24 / 7 would make no difference... so as always promoting the club has been more important than ever now..

onlymessing (UK) - Posts: 62 - 02/10/2014 10:37:32    1659251

We had a thread here about foreign nationals hardly taking a bit of interest in our games.....and they live here!!!!!!!
TV rights and screening games abroad will/has done nothing for the games and never will!

Get with the reality folks.....the GAA is 'our thing' its an 'Irish thing' and it doesn't translate to foreigners overseas (and at home even)!

So stop with the TOTALLY CRINGEWORTHY "look at what British reaction was on twitter to a game of hurling on SKY" and thinking its something great that the world will sit up and take note of.....they aint.....and never will!

In case anyone was foolish enough to swallow the porkies they were told by the GAA, let me remind you: 'The SKY deals were about MONEY and the overseas diaspora rubbish was just the cover story they used to push it through OK'!!!!

Never ever ever think that the GAA will take off outside of this country in any meaningful way beyond a few unsustainable novelty teams in Siberia or wherever!.......Its been given 130 years and it hasn't yet!

Regards,

Snufalufagus....Laochra Gael

Snufalufagus (Dublin) - Posts: 8100 - 02/10/2014 11:02:43    1659258

Snuf, part of your post is a load of nonsense. I can't speak to the effect of GAAGO on getting people to participate. However, I do know for a fact that my friends, both American and Irish born, watched more matches this year because of having access to GAAGO. The American born even threw little parties for the finals which drew a good crowd (for a private house that is). And, paying 10USD to watch the match at home is far better than paying the 20USD that pubs are required to charge. However, non-Irish born people are taking up football and hurling at a phenomenal rate in the U.S. Having lived in the U.S. for a while and returned home a few years ago, there is a vast difference between non-Irish born in the U.S. and non-Irish born in Ireland. They are under far different circumstances and the position of our games in the U.S. and here are at two totally different places. In the U.S. you can be 35 years old and join a JrC hurling club and not be thought less of. If a 35 year old yank wandered into a jr club training, everything would think he was lost. Because the games is still relatively young in U.S. with regards to non-Irish playing, age and ability isn't that much of a factor. If you have the enthusiasm in the U.S. someone will gladly teach you what they know. And, they do have an idea about the game.

kilflynn (Kerry) - Posts: 66 - 02/10/2014 13:08:34    1659328

Anyone notice their local Irish Club in the UK suffering because people can now stay at home or go elsewhere to watch the SKY games.

33233 (Donegal) - Posts: 52 - 02/10/2014 13:42:58    1659356

Was at the ladies football finals on Sunday and have to admit I was (pleasntly) suprised at the number of New York natives on the NY team in the junior final so obviously our games are making some impact on non Irish abroad. Whether the Sky/GAAgo deals will have any effect on these numbers only the people on the ground in the clubs will really know.
As for the Sky deal being about money, of course it was, every single commercial deal done by the GAA at any level is about money, but if it has some knock on effect on the clubs and games abroad then I'm all for it.

AHP (Dublin) - Posts: 323 - 02/10/2014 13:47:41    1659359

source
County: Dublin
Posts: 34

1659202
So the first year of the new TV deals with Sky, GAAGO etc have finished. Is anyone involved with GAA clubs abroad and if so

have you noticed any positive effects these deals have had on your club?
Have you noticed an increase in new locally born players (Adults or Kids)?
Have current local born players (Adults or Kids) shown more interest in staying involved this year?

If you haven't noticed any difference, do you think these TV deals will have much of a positive impact for your club in the years ahead?

I don't think there's much joy to be had from GAA Go in terms of recruiting new members, as it's a service which is marketed almost exclusively to Irish exiles. We've managed to recruit some new, non-Irish members this year, but this has been through members of the club recruiting friends etc, rather than through GAA Go. Anyone who expresses an interest in watching live gaelic games tends to be brought down to the local Irish pub to watch them, as let's face it, it's a more attractive proposition to a non-Irish person than huddling round laptop in someone's house.

The benefits of such a deal are more likely to be felt on a personal basis, IMO. I know lads in my club subscribed (especially guys based outside the capital) and they said it was a really good service, other than the lack of half-time analysis (GAA Go can't show the studio discussion for some reason). I personally didn't, as the streaming during the trial period wasn't great, but will probably do so next year, especially if they get some games other than those of the championship.

Gleebo (Mayo) - Posts: 2208 - 02/10/2014 13:53:28    1659363

Snufalufagus
County: Dublin
Posts: 7908

1659258
We had a thread here about foreign nationals hardly taking a bit of interest in our games.....and they live here!!!!!!!
TV rights and screening games abroad will/has done nothing for the games and never will!

Get with the reality folks.....the GAA is 'our thing' its an 'Irish thing' and it doesn't translate to foreigners overseas (and at home even)!

So stop with the TOTALLY CRINGEWORTHY "look at what British reaction was on twitter to a game of hurling on SKY" and thinking its something great that the world will sit up and take note of.....they aint.....and never will!

In case anyone was foolish enough to swallow the porkies they were told by the GAA, let me remind you: 'The SKY deals were about MONEY and the overseas diaspora rubbish was just the cover story they used to push it through OK'!!!!

Never ever ever think that the GAA will take off outside of this country in any meaningful way beyond a few unsustainable novelty teams in Siberia or wherever!.......Its been given 130 years and it hasn't yet!

Regards,

Snufalufagus....Laochra Gael

Yeah, you're right Snuffy, those foreigners will never understand the draw our games. I will have to tell that to those teams of Italians, Germans and Frenchmen that I've played against. The European County Board are obviously telling fibs when they say that one new team a month is springing up, and that almost half of the players are non-Irish...

It's a little bit insulting that you would dismiss all of these clubs as "novelty teams", by the by. Sure, the standard is lower than back home, but players abroad make great sacrifices to play GAA. My club has travelled as far as nine hours away (one-way,by train) to do so in the past, all out of their own pockets. We take it seriously within the parameters that we must work within.

Ireland, unlike Britain, didn't have an empire with which to export her games. The GAA hasn't traditionally done much to promote the game outside of Ireland. However, there is a momentum there at the moment which proves that the game can be grown if the will is there. From small acorns, great oaks grow.

I agree with you on one thing, though- the Diaspora was a convenient fig-leaf for the Sky deal to be driven through. Didn't work out too badly in the end, mind you.

Gleebo (Mayo) - Posts: 2208 - 02/10/2014 14:10:51    1659373

PS: Your signature should be " Laoch Gael", "Laochra" is the plural...

Gleebo (Mayo) - Posts: 2208 - 02/10/2014 21:45:26    1659588

Nice 1 Gleebo ;-)

KingdomBoy1 (Kerry) - Posts: 14092 - 03/10/2014 10:16:50    1659628

Source

The problem you have is that the only two locations that really can benefit from showing the games are Europe and the USA - you go to Asia and Australia and they are nighttime games. In Australia it was free to air but that was more about giving it to a channel to show free so the boys wouldn't have to be in the pub at all hours on a Sunday night. Some may still will be but the choice is there to stay at home and watch it on the box. Asia it was never used as a promotional aid even when on Setanta, sure enough you had lads who may watch it on Sunday evening but as regards kids - too late. Promotion of the games overseas is not just one thing, a lot of work goes into it on the local level and each club will use whatever tools are available to them to do it. In Europe it could be a strategy to use the showing of live games (on TV not GAAGO), Asia and Australia not. At least what GAAGO has done is allow everyone who is a fan to watch it in their own home and to be honest the quality (streaming) has been good - its not sitting around a PC or laptop either as most people now have figured out how to connect the laptop to the TV!. I won't speak for Europe or the US but for me if live games are to be something that attracts in new players then it would have to be on a major TV channel (GAAGO is for the diehard) and thats the way I would say the GAA are going.
As for what the other supposed Gael said on here, its utter rubbish and its the type of attitude that has attributed to the GAA in Ireland not embracing the game outside Ireland. Irish people abroad believe in their games and believe they are fantastic sports for Adults/Kids to play, so rather than assimilate into the local population and give up playing these great sports, they are bringing the sport to new Adults and kids to play. We are not asking them to be Irish rather asking them do they want to play a sport that they can get a huge amount of enjoyment out of.

zinny (Wexford) - Posts: 1799 - 03/10/2014 10:53:37    1659644

As for what the other supposed Gael said on here, its utter rubbish and its the type of attitude that has attributed to the GAA in Ireland not embracing the game outside Ireland. Irish people abroad believe in their games and believe they are fantastic sports for Adults/Kids to play, so rather than assimilate into the local population and give up playing these great sports, they are bringing the sport to new Adults and kids to play. We are not asking them to be Irish rather asking them do they want to play a sport that they can get a huge amount of enjoyment out of.

+1

GAA people abroad are really making an effort to promote the games among non-Irish. I think we sometimes don't realise how unique our games are- anyone to whom I have shown gaelic games has always been impressed. There are some cracking non-Irish players around, too: I've seen teams composed entirely of Germans and French players win tournaments. Negative attitudes like the one expressed earlier in the thread tend to be borne of ignorance or low self-esteem.

The only issue that I would identify is the difficulty in getting underage sides going in smaller clubs. Members of our club have a few young fellas who are mad to get playing gaelic football, but there is no outlet for them until they are 16. By that stage, it is much more difficult to persuade them to take up playing at senior level, as they would usually be playing competitive sport in another code by that stage.

Gleebo (Mayo) - Posts: 2208 - 03/10/2014 13:21:35    1659728