National Forum

Exceptional Circumstances

(Oldest Posts First)

While most of the congress talk has been about Dublin in Croke Park an issue that would of been even more contentious previously passed without much comment.
Thats giving Central Council the power to open up county grounds to other sports in 'exceptional circumstances'.
To me thats a bit ambiguous. How does the CC decide what is exception? Is there a particular criteria or will it be completely ad hoc?
From experience we can guess charity events will get the go ahead but what else? Are Heineken Cup or Europa League group stages exception? A Rugby province fancying playing somewhere new? Tournament bid? Moving international teams around the country?

Although I'm happy a less rigid structure is in place its still hard to see what events will now be able to take place in GAA grounds.

RoyalBadger (Meath) - Posts: 571 - 25/02/2019 15:44:49    2168046

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Replying To RoyalBadger:  "While most of the congress talk has been about Dublin in Croke Park an issue that would of been even more contentious previously passed without much comment.
Thats giving Central Council the power to open up county grounds to other sports in 'exceptional circumstances'.
To me thats a bit ambiguous. How does the CC decide what is exception? Is there a particular criteria or will it be completely ad hoc?
From experience we can guess charity events will get the go ahead but what else? Are Heineken Cup or Europa League group stages exception? A Rugby province fancying playing somewhere new? Tournament bid? Moving international teams around the country?

Although I'm happy a less rigid structure is in place its still hard to see what events will now be able to take place in GAA grounds."
Well Croker has held concerts and american football for years, PUC will host Rod Steward in July.

The interesting circumstance would probably be a 6 nations game. England, Wales and France games would all sell out 80'000 in Croker. I couldn't see the IRFU looking to move from the Aviva, but the GAA would most likely snap their hands off if they ever felt the need to. . . . Again €€€€€€€

cavanman47 (Cavan) - Posts: 5251 - 25/02/2019 16:03:36    2168057

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Replying To RoyalBadger:  "While most of the congress talk has been about Dublin in Croke Park an issue that would of been even more contentious previously passed without much comment.
Thats giving Central Council the power to open up county grounds to other sports in 'exceptional circumstances'.
To me thats a bit ambiguous. How does the CC decide what is exception? Is there a particular criteria or will it be completely ad hoc?
From experience we can guess charity events will get the go ahead but what else? Are Heineken Cup or Europa League group stages exception? A Rugby province fancying playing somewhere new? Tournament bid? Moving international teams around the country?

Although I'm happy a less rigid structure is in place its still hard to see what events will now be able to take place in GAA grounds."
I would suggest that, by it's very nature, an exceptional circumstance would be one that's difficult to foresee.

TearsIn85 (Monaghan) - Posts: 208 - 25/02/2019 21:32:36    2168177

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I assume that was put in to prevent any Liam Miller charity game PR disasters etc.
But in the future the 'exceptional circumstances' rule could be extended to all sorts depending on argument / pull a GAA president has etc.

gormdubhgorm (Dublin) - Posts: 990 - 04/03/2019 23:28:09    2170292

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In GAA terms Exceptional Circumstances mean any circumstance which will bring in money to the coffers. If your local amateur Soccer club has had pitch problems and want to use the local GAA clubs ground for a match then No, this is not allowed. If a professionally ran Soccer match is requested to be played in one of the stadium which will guarantee money going to HQ then absolutely no problem.

Offside_Rule (Antrim) - Posts: 4058 - 05/03/2019 11:45:12    2170358

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Typical ambiguity from those who worded and voted for this. The way the GAA official guide is worded is just awful from a rules perspective.

For example a concert pre-arranged months in advance is not an exceptional circumstance. It would have been enough to leave out the phrase exceptional circumstances and have a phrase 'where the event does not conflict with the aims of the association,

In any event this motion was unnecessary as the rules already allowed central council discretion

890202 (Wexford) - Posts: 1278 - 05/03/2019 12:11:48    2170364

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Replying To Offside_Rule:  "In GAA terms Exceptional Circumstances mean any circumstance which will bring in money to the coffers. If your local amateur Soccer club has had pitch problems and want to use the local GAA clubs ground for a match then No, this is not allowed. If a professionally ran Soccer match is requested to be played in one of the stadium which will guarantee money going to HQ then absolutely no problem."
Is t not the responsibility of said local soccer club to fund raise and source its own playing pitches the way the GAA do or should we just turn over our facilities to other sports when we haven't enough roof or our own in many clubs as it is......

PaudieSull1 (Down) - Posts: 738 - 05/03/2019 12:41:34    2170372

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Replying To Offside_Rule:  "In GAA terms Exceptional Circumstances mean any circumstance which will bring in money to the coffers. If your local amateur Soccer club has had pitch problems and want to use the local GAA clubs ground for a match then No, this is not allowed. If a professionally ran Soccer match is requested to be played in one of the stadium which will guarantee money going to HQ then absolutely no problem."
Nail on the head there Offside. Even if many of that local soccer team are in the Gaelic football or hurling team the following weekend and a mix of both might be playing for the rugby team on a Saturday and soccer or football the next day as often happens. Local soccer and rugby club officials can be equally as petty too.

GreenandRed (Mayo) - Posts: 8005 - 05/03/2019 13:39:47    2170388

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Replying To PaudieSull1:  "Is t not the responsibility of said local soccer club to fund raise and source its own playing pitches the way the GAA do or should we just turn over our facilities to other sports when we haven't enough roof or our own in many clubs as it is......"
Yeah it possibly is but, in the spirit of good will, and when in a lot of cases said local soccer club has a crossover of players with said local GAA club then to not allow the GAA pitch to be used for a once off match for example can be very damaging to a community and cause unnecessary ill feeling among neighbours. Especially when if the decision was left totally in the hands of the club in the circumstance you could probably be guaranteed they would try to accommodate where they can.

But what would HQ care about what goes on at the grass roots level or in local communities?

Offside_Rule (Antrim) - Posts: 4058 - 05/03/2019 15:00:29    2170407

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