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Mike Quirke's Examiner article on Dublin's funding

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Just saw this over on Reservoir Dubs, and it gives a really good breakdown of how Dublin uses its money. 50 full time coaches doing huge work on the ground. Fair play Mike Quirke, nice to see someone actually bother to look where the money is going rather than just give out about it. http://shr.gs/GXWj94N Sj12345 (Dublin) - Posts: 1 - 09/06/2016 12:50:50 1864193 Link
Replying To Sj12345: "Just saw this over on Reservoir Dubs, and it gives a really good breakdown of how Dublin uses its money. 50 full time coaches doing huge work on the ground. Fair play Mike Quirke, nice to see someone actually bother to look where the money is going rather than just give out about it. Good" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://shr.gs/GXWj94N" Good article. Unfortunately, posting it on here in the hope people will some how start to think logically about the whole thing is a total waste of your time. Logical thinking + Dublin funding + Culchies = Will never happen. in their heads, We have the most clubs, coaches, players etc etc, but should earn the same amount of money as say, a Leitrim. Read over the 100's of threads regarding Dubs funding and you will see how the ballsology spouted continuously. waynoI (Dublin) - Posts: 13650 - 09/06/2016 17:49:03 1864384 Link
Replying To waynoI: "Good article. Unfortunately, posting it on here in the hope people will some how start to think logically about the whole thing is a total waste of your time. Logical thinking + Dublin funding + Culchies = Will never happen. in their heads, We have the most clubs, coaches, players etc etc, but should earn the same amount of money as say, a Leitrim. Read over the 100's of threads regarding Dubs funding and you will see how the ballsology spouted continuously." You've got to give a lot of credit to Dublin in how they have got about things. I look at the likes of Antrim and the money spent on Casement Park and a Centre of Excellence that can't even be used because there isn't sufficient access to the main road for emergency services. What a shambles. To be honest I think Centres of excellence are a waste of resources. State of the art stadiums also. In my mind these are just vanity projects. "Centres of Excellences" are just pitches with changing rooms and maybe a gym and physio rooms. Every county has those sorts of facilities available to them somewhere without having to build them. Go around the clubs, reimburse the clubs, the money goes straight back into the GAA system. Casement Park is projected to cost €80m, €65m is coming from the government, the rest is being raised. €15m getting put into Casement Park. How far would that money go? It'd provide coaching and games development jobs all across the province for multiple years, but no, let's waste it on a ground that will be filled at the most 3 times every year. It just doesn't make sense to me. Very frustrating. Dublin have a lot of advantages but to be fair they make the most of them and there are some very clued in people keeping things running properly. Whammo86 (Antrim) - Posts: 4223 - 09/06/2016 21:43:31 1864486 Link
When i seen so few posts on this, I knew if must show Dublin in a half decent light. It says it all about certain posters on HS. If this article was giving out about Dublins finances we would have 100 posts by now. AthCliath (Dublin) - Posts: 4347 - 10/06/2016 00:14:45 1864536 Link
I dont see anything in the article that hasnt been discussed already. No one doubts how well Dublin spend their money, they are an example on how to invest money properly in my opinion. But i seen Roscommon get plenty of abuse this year when the Dublin game had to be moved with talks of spend money on your stadium rather than your bus etc etc! Dublin have the best stadium in the country available to them. Liekwise they have the facilities, in an earlier thread there was claims that the Dubs were training in stone age pitches with claims that DCU wasnt state of the art for example. Again this is an advantage Dublin have over others. Again the article suggests that other counties dont have good enough plans or ideas to warrant funding like Dublin do? Do people really believe good ideas, suggestions and plans for improving GAA only exists amongst the Dublin GAA fraternity? Is there that much arrogance? I know in Wexford we applied for funding to complete our own centre of excellence to have a central area for our County teams to train. The funding was denied for one simple reason "we didnt have enough money in the bank to justify the funding" Nothign to do with how good an ideal it was, how it might benefit the youth, develop the GAA, sorry you dont have enough money in the bank. We went on and raised our money ourselves but this idea that money is readily available if you have the right plans in place and ideas etc is wrong. No one doubts how well Dublin spend their money, its a model for all to follow. But you still need the money to carry it out. Thats the issue. There are plenty of counties with plenty of good ideas about how to develop the GAA in their counties just like Dublin. tearintom (Wexford) - Posts: 1337 - 10/06/2016 08:13:34 1864561 Link
Replying To tearintom: "I dont see anything in the article that hasnt been discussed already. No one doubts how well Dublin spend their money, they are an example on how to invest money properly in my opinion. But i seen Roscommon get plenty of abuse this year when the Dublin game had to be moved with talks of spend money on your stadium rather than your bus etc etc! Dublin have the best stadium in the country available to them. Liekwise they have the facilities, in an earlier thread there was claims that the Dubs were training in stone age pitches with claims that DCU wasnt state of the art for example. Again this is an advantage Dublin have over others. Again the article suggests that other counties dont have good enough plans or ideas to warrant funding like Dublin do? Do people really believe good ideas, suggestions and plans for improving GAA only exists amongst the Dublin GAA fraternity? Is there that much arrogance? I know in Wexford we applied for funding to complete our own centre of excellence to have a central area for our County teams to train. The funding was denied for one simple reason "we didnt have enough money in the bank to justify the funding" Nothign to do with how good an ideal it was, how it might benefit the youth, develop the GAA, sorry you dont have enough money in the bank. We went on and raised our money ourselves but this idea that money is readily available if you have the right plans in place and ideas etc is wrong. No one doubts how well Dublin spend their money, its a model for all to follow. But you still need the money to carry it out. Thats the issue. There are plenty of counties with plenty of good ideas about how to develop the GAA in their counties just like Dublin." Yeah simply put most other counties struggle to get the money together, ziggy32001 (Meath) - Posts: 8354 - 10/06/2016 08:42:57 1864567 Link
Replying To waynoI: "Good article. Unfortunately, posting it on here in the hope people will some how start to think logically about the whole thing is a total waste of your time. Logical thinking + Dublin funding + Culchies = Will never happen. in their heads, We have the most clubs, coaches, players etc etc, but should earn the same amount of money as say, a Leitrim. Read over the 100's of threads regarding Dubs funding and you will see how the ballsology spouted continuously." Very good and fair article by Quirke. Goes to show not everybody outside the pale isn't what you would like to portray them with your snide remarks about culchies and logical thinking. Thers a lot of good will towards Dublin and the style of football they play from genuine Gaa Supporters around the country. So maybe try a little logical thinking yourself Wayno. dubarra (Wicklow) - Posts: 541 - 10/06/2016 10:13:54 1864602 Link
It's a good piece from Mike certainly one in the eye for the 'Kerry whinger' detractors. I do disagree with him on a critical point - 'just follow their lead, because what they're doing is working' Now, nobody will dispute the success of the Blue Wave has in creating the juggernaut which was the objective when the plan was put in operation. I know people sniggered at it and thought it was arrogant. Well those people have been well and truly quietened now, thats for sure However, the above quote I think is misleading and will lead competing counties down the wrong track. If everyone else tries and imitates Dublin's strategy it will not succeed in terms not only in winning an AI but even competing with the mighty Blues as they have a far bigger playing and economic pool than you are and good luck thinking you'll be more efficient at their strategy then they are. In order to compete, counties will have to be like Billy Beane and think outside the box. Beane knew the A's couldn't compete with the Yankees and Red Sox if they used the same methods so he had to find other ways to win. Of course he and others used sabremetrics to generate offense at a cheaper price and I don't think there is any such translation to football but the thought process is the same - think outside the box, be innovative. Obviously, thats a lot easier said than done but it's the only way as copying Dublin is doomed to failure from the start KYTitletown (Kerry) - Posts: 816 - 10/06/2016 10:21:17 1864609 Link
The most important point raised in the article is that Dublin receive €1.46m in games development funding which I know has been raised on here previously. Its obvious that special attention needs to be given to Dublin given its population but its grossly unfair that they receive nearly 50% of the total funding for games development. The county has certainly done a good job in its use of the funds they've received but I'd rather see special attention given to the weaker counties in the country and not the strongest especially considering the other advantages the stronger counties have. Who knows what the future holds but having won 10 out of the last 11 Leinster championships and with seeing nothing to suggest they won't win the next 4 or 5 this is bound to have a knock on affect starting with attendances in the province. The attendance in the Leinster final last year was 48,000 and was 62,000 the year before. In fairness there was only 42,000 for the final in 2011 but with the absence of the serious competitor its hard to imagine 69,000 turning up for a Dublin v Meath final like they did in 20012. TheWestIsAwake (UK) - Posts: 529 - 10/06/2016 10:32:03 1864617 Link
A good article, well thought out. Here's the thing, how many of us can say with certainty that if our county got €1m they would use it for coaching. What's the odds it would be used to pay off debt, build a stand or terrace, or even whittled away. Roger (Meath) - Posts: 470 - 10/06/2016 11:02:19 1864645 Link
It's no issue for me that Dublin get a bigger slice due to population. The Dub's here however must acknowledge it gives them one hell of an advantage not least in terms of support and less travel expense during summer months. Having sad that you need the team with it and ye have at the minute. Talk of Dublin dominating until the end of time is rubbish. Every county has it's cycle. yew_tree (Mayo) - Posts: 11230 - 10/06/2016 11:06:36 1864649 Link
Replying To Roger: "A good article, well thought out. Here's the thing, how many of us can say with certainty that if our county got €1m they would use it for coaching. What's the odds it would be used to pay off debt, build a stand or terrace, or even whittled away." In fairness other counties don't have the luxury of playing their home games in Croke Park and have had to spend money in upgrading stands etc. I do agree that many counties have really misused funds previously though. Look at the redevelopment in Cork, its receiving 50m euro's in funding from a Government grant and the GAA for a stadium that will see very little use. TheWestIsAwake (UK) - Posts: 529 - 10/06/2016 11:11:13 1864657 Link
Replying To Roger: "A good article, well thought out. Here's the thing, how many of us can say with certainty that if our county got €1m they would use it for coaching. What's the odds it would be used to pay off debt, build a stand or terrace, or even whittled away." Spot on Roger. I shudder to think what would happen if some of the Co Boards got there paws on a Million .Weak Counties all have one thing in common useless Co Boards. dubarra (Wicklow) - Posts: 541 - 10/06/2016 11:16:28 1864663 Link
From my point on here I have always said that getting money doesn't make you good, it is what you do with that money and from that point Dublin have been very prudent with it. However, still doesn't mask the fact that the financing Dublin get is disproportionate to other Counties and that is what isn't fair. If you don't have the finance in the first place you can't put x number of coaches in place so it is a vicious circle. Offside_Rule (Antrim) - Posts: 4058 - 10/06/2016 11:24:03 1864667 Link
Dublin didn't invest in bricks and mortar, because they didn't have to. Croke Park is available when needed, DCU is used for training. Why build your own when others are building for you. It mentions that Laois got €165k in 2015, but what about 2014? Cork was second in 2014 with €69k. Is that population based? 1/5th of the population of Dublin, 1/20th of the funding. Dublin can say what they like, but without a decade of financial doping, they wouldn't be where they are now. The GAA decided to build a 'product' and now they have it. Cully (Laois) - Posts: 375 - 10/06/2016 12:45:23 1864729 Link
lads can we point out for all the talk of arrogance, and the dubs can say what they want etc etc.....Mike Quirke Kerry Footballer of recent times wrote this...not Joxer Daly! Liamwalkinstown (Dublin) - Posts: 8166 - 10/06/2016 12:58:30 1864737 Link
Would other counties funding be significantly less without a "strong" Dublin though i.e. attendances, attractivenss for TV deals, sponsorship, merchandising. Is how much Dublin receive in funding equatable to what they contribute in financial terms to the GAA or the GAA's ability to sell a product? TheUsername (Dublin) - Posts: 4445 - 10/06/2016 13:43:45 1864813 Link
For the size of population, Dublin actually has very few GAA clubs. Many of them would be regarded as 'super clubs' with huge financial muscle. Training facilities is a huge issue for rural counties as they cannot rely on clubs and their generosity nor many of them don't have a third level institution that they can piggyback on like Dublin manfromdelmonte (UK) - Posts: 541 - 10/06/2016 14:22:07 1864838 Link
Replying To TheUsername: "Would other counties funding be significantly less without a "strong" Dublin though i.e. attendances, attractivenss for TV deals, sponsorship, merchandising. Is how much Dublin receive in funding equatable to what they contribute in financial terms to the GAA or the GAA's ability to sell a product?" If the GAA was a professional organisation like the Premier League you would be totally 100% right but it's not the GAA is supposed to be an equal and democratic organisation trying to grow and develop the games in the 32 counties not just Dublin. What you don't realise is without meaningful competition the Football Championship will wither and die and lower all the factors you mentioned (attendances, attractiveness, TV, sponsorship, merchandise etc) which will hurt the GAA from a financial point of view and the game in the long run as young players will veer towards other sports in rural Ireland. This is already happening and if the GAA don't do something this process will continue at an accelerated pace. Finally, although it's hard to quantify I doubt Dublin are worth more than the rest of Ireland combined in revenue terms, but that's just my opinion KYTitletown (Kerry) - Posts: 816 - 10/06/2016 14:25:33 1864841 Link
Replying To Roger: "A good article, well thought out. Here's the thing, how many of us can say with certainty that if our county got €1m they would use it for coaching. What's the odds it would be used to pay off debt, build a stand or terrace, or even whittled away." Again, that may be true. It might be true for Laois too, but look at what happened last weekend. Kilkenny got the game ahead of Laois because of facilities. So smaller counties are losing out on revenue because their facilities are not good enough. In Dublin, that's not an issue. If Parnell Park is too miserably small to hold a game, bring it to Croke Park. Counties are under pressure to improve infrastructure, because it can generate future revenue. It's sensible line of thinking, but not a line that Dublin are bound by. Cully (Laois) - Posts: 375 - 10/06/2016 17:10:58 1864921 Link