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I was talking to a wee old man yesterday evening and we were talking about GAAGo, hurling, football, life, and so on.
On the topic of GAA Go, this man wouldn't have the infrastructure (wifi) or the technical capability to set up GAA Go. As he said himself, "I couldn't be bothered - if I can't sit down and press the remote control, I couldn't be bothered" was his attitude.
Now as he says himself he doesn't feel strongly about the "We should see every big game" mood - he grew up without seeing top matches.
His main issue with it was that the charging for top games flies totally in the face of what the GAA is about. He pointed out that when the local club was being set up, his family let them use their land for a pitch at no cost. He said he and his entire family have never ever said no to any GAA club fundraiser (and there were many), buy annual county GAA tickets, his children and grand children go to every county match from club level to minor to u20 to senior inter county at no longer insignificant cost.
He said his son said that he totted up how much he spent on GAA related activities last year and including diesel to go to matches for him and his wife and 2 children the bill was €1900 and that was doing it on the cheap.
His point was that to put top games behind a pay wall was the ultimate 2 fingers to the people who are keeping the organisation running at both club and inter county level.
Sometimes its not about the money, its about perception and giving people something back for their volunteerism.
uncle_colm (UK) - Posts: 3 - 10/05/2023 09:08:47
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Replying To uncle_colm: "I was talking to a wee old man yesterday evening and we were talking about GAAGo, hurling, football, life, and so on.
On the topic of GAA Go, this man wouldn't have the infrastructure (wifi) or the technical capability to set up GAA Go. As he said himself, "I couldn't be bothered - if I can't sit down and press the remote control, I couldn't be bothered" was his attitude.
Now as he says himself he doesn't feel strongly about the "We should see every big game" mood - he grew up without seeing top matches.
His main issue with it was that the charging for top games flies totally in the face of what the GAA is about. He pointed out that when the local club was being set up, his family let them use their land for a pitch at no cost. He said he and his entire family have never ever said no to any GAA club fundraiser (and there were many), buy annual county GAA tickets, his children and grand children go to every county match from club level to minor to u20 to senior inter county at no longer insignificant cost.
He said his son said that he totted up how much he spent on GAA related activities last year and including diesel to go to matches for him and his wife and 2 children the bill was €1900 and that was doing it on the cheap.
His point was that to put top games behind a pay wall was the ultimate 2 fingers to the people who are keeping the organisation running at both club and inter county level.
Sometimes its not about the money, its about perception and giving people something back for their volunteerism." he is already paying for loads of games with his licence fee, sure in england you only get 3 or 4 premier league games a weekend. Some people will just never be happy
DCFCGAA (Derry) - Posts: 65 - 10/05/2023 10:00:11
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Replying To uncle_colm: "I was talking to a wee old man yesterday evening and we were talking about GAAGo, hurling, football, life, and so on.
On the topic of GAA Go, this man wouldn't have the infrastructure (wifi) or the technical capability to set up GAA Go. As he said himself, "I couldn't be bothered - if I can't sit down and press the remote control, I couldn't be bothered" was his attitude.
Now as he says himself he doesn't feel strongly about the "We should see every big game" mood - he grew up without seeing top matches.
His main issue with it was that the charging for top games flies totally in the face of what the GAA is about. He pointed out that when the local club was being set up, his family let them use their land for a pitch at no cost. He said he and his entire family have never ever said no to any GAA club fundraiser (and there were many), buy annual county GAA tickets, his children and grand children go to every county match from club level to minor to u20 to senior inter county at no longer insignificant cost.
He said his son said that he totted up how much he spent on GAA related activities last year and including diesel to go to matches for him and his wife and 2 children the bill was €1900 and that was doing it on the cheap.
His point was that to put top games behind a pay wall was the ultimate 2 fingers to the people who are keeping the organisation running at both club and inter county level.
Sometimes its not about the money, its about perception and giving people something back for their volunteerism." Ok but only so many games can be shown on RTE, so should we just have less games available and all for free because that doesn't really make sense because some people are willing to pay to see more.
Whammo86 (Antrim) - Posts: 4236 - 10/05/2023 10:05:46
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It's interesting and relevant that GAA have created and just last week appointed the new role of 'head of streaming'
https://www.gaa.ie/news/noel-quinn-appointed-as-head-of-gaago/
They obviously see this as ripe for expansion and it's telling that the appointee has come from a marketing roll (rather than technical, or usability, for example)
It looks like the plan is for more of the same, likely with additional gouging, to be pejorative for a moment.
TearsIn85 (Monaghan) - Posts: 194 - 10/05/2023 10:19:28
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I haven't signed up for GAA Go as there is enough matches on TV and I prefer going to games in any case. € 75 per annum is good value the current debate is a microcosm of how the GAA is viewed by a lot of its own supporters. It is an organisation where a significant cohort don't want to pay membership or pay going into a match. The argument is nearly almost around a few hard cases. I know plenty of eighty somethings who have no problem with paying and have embraced the technology.
The impression I get is that some people would be happier if they were no matches on TV rather than allow people to pay for them.
downtheroad (Laois) - Posts: 21 - 10/05/2023 11:13:41
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I think what you are missing in the OP's point (I may be wrong) is that the GAA have deliberately put these games behind a paywall and its asking those who keep the organisation afloat to pony up more in a country where half of people don't have good broadband and a quarter of people don't have the technological capabilities to get it working? And, those people are the people who made the organisation what it is for today's GAA to cash in on.
I see the disconnect.
Also, after the Virgin Media statement last night something stinks to the high heavens about this deal with GAA Go, i.e. a GAA service ran by RTE.........
ExiledInWex (Dublin) - Posts: 1136 - 10/05/2023 11:26:53
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The GAA is all about money as shown by the way they would not increase their contribution of £15 million for Casement Park in the face of spiralling costs. So complaining about GAA Go will not work as the GAA will always take decisions based on financial rather than community interests.
REDANDBLACK30 (Down) - Posts: 1617 - 10/05/2023 11:30:37
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Replying To ExiledInWex: "I think what you are missing in the OP's point (I may be wrong) is that the GAA have deliberately put these games behind a paywall and its asking those who keep the organisation afloat to pony up more in a country where half of people don't have good broadband and a quarter of people don't have the technological capabilities to get it working? And, those people are the people who made the organisation what it is for today's GAA to cash in on.
I see the disconnect.
Also, after the Virgin Media statement last night something stinks to the high heavens about this deal with GAA Go, i.e. a GAA service ran by RTE........." 100%
I raised it in another thread that the whole situation isnt right here and the Virgin media statement adds fuel to the fire.
In my own opinion the decision thats been made in regards to how our games are being covered (chiefly pushed by our own organisation leaders btw) is one that should actually be investigated.
A nice little side deal to exclude other interested parties so as to fleece the general public colluded by 2 of the biggest organisations in the state is essentially what it is, dont forget SKY wanted to show more games than they were showing but now we face less.
Couple this with the comments from our esteemed president "It's a pay model but we learned over Covid that people are quite willing to pay and the resistance to paying and having stuff behind a paywall diminished significantly"
Frankly speaking whats happening is we have gone from a situation where another organisation was actually giving us money to one now where we are instead trying to squeeze our onw people for more. But hey at least we got rid of that British Sky crowd though!!!
tearintom (Wexford) - Posts: 1349 - 10/05/2023 11:48:59
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Replying To uncle_colm: "I was talking to a wee old man yesterday evening and we were talking about GAAGo, hurling, football, life, and so on.
On the topic of GAA Go, this man wouldn't have the infrastructure (wifi) or the technical capability to set up GAA Go. As he said himself, "I couldn't be bothered - if I can't sit down and press the remote control, I couldn't be bothered" was his attitude.
Now as he says himself he doesn't feel strongly about the "We should see every big game" mood - he grew up without seeing top matches.
His main issue with it was that the charging for top games flies totally in the face of what the GAA is about. He pointed out that when the local club was being set up, his family let them use their land for a pitch at no cost. He said he and his entire family have never ever said no to any GAA club fundraiser (and there were many), buy annual county GAA tickets, his children and grand children go to every county match from club level to minor to u20 to senior inter county at no longer insignificant cost.
He said his son said that he totted up how much he spent on GAA related activities last year and including diesel to go to matches for him and his wife and 2 children the bill was €1900 and that was doing it on the cheap.
His point was that to put top games behind a pay wall was the ultimate 2 fingers to the people who are keeping the organisation running at both club and inter county level.
Sometimes its not about the money, its about perception and giving people something back for their volunteerism." The is a lot to unpack in the post.
How wee and how old is this actual man. I would guess he's at least 5'10 and under 70?
"He pointed out that when the local club was being set up, his family let them use their land for a pitch at no cost. " - No cost but the actual thought it wasn't a gift and that the GAA in perpetuity would grant he and his heirs concessions
What is the actual percentage of people who don't have wifi, even if the GAA streamed the games for free the same people wouldn't be able to access them.
For the €1900 spend does he and his family not get a huge amount of enjoyment. Nobody is forcing them to go to matches. If it is such a chore/expense why bother.
The one thing the GAA could do is actually offer a massive discount on GAAGO to GAA members. There are plenty of free loaders who would like to see GAA matches but aren't even involved in clubs.
jimmy_c (Mayo) - Posts: 13 - 10/05/2023 12:17:08
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Replying To ExiledInWex: "I think what you are missing in the OP's point (I may be wrong) is that the GAA have deliberately put these games behind a paywall and its asking those who keep the organisation afloat to pony up more in a country where half of people don't have good broadband and a quarter of people don't have the technological capabilities to get it working? And, those people are the people who made the organisation what it is for today's GAA to cash in on.
I see the disconnect.
Also, after the Virgin Media statement last night something stinks to the high heavens about this deal with GAA Go, i.e. a GAA service ran by RTE........." Ok maybe I'm giving the GAA too much credit in terms of this being more about financing a service rather than trying to generate a profit stream. I guess it depends on how the accounting looks for something like this.
Whammo86 (Antrim) - Posts: 4236 - 10/05/2023 12:23:35
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The way I see it RTE don't give a damn about GAA, it's all rugby and soccer and any other sport ahead of the GAA games. They'll tell tell you about some rugby player that stubbed his toe in the shower and might be a doubt for some game coming up in 2 or 3 weeks...yawn.
Then Coke Park GAA is all about money, grab all they can is their motto from concerts to gaago paywalls,
and then you have volunteers at club level scraping buy on fund raisers etc.
It all sounds typical of this state and maybe that's all we can expect in reality.
Tirchonaill1 (Donegal) - Posts: 2756 - 10/05/2023 12:27:43
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Replying To Tirchonaill1: "The way I see it RTE don't give a damn about GAA, it's all rugby and soccer and any other sport ahead of the GAA games. They'll tell tell you about some rugby player that stubbed his toe in the shower and might be a doubt for some game coming up in 2 or 3 weeks...yawn.
Then Coke Park GAA is all about money, grab all they can is their motto from concerts to gaago paywalls,
and then you have volunteers at club level scraping buy on fund raisers etc.
It all sounds typical of this state and maybe that's all we can expect in reality." I suspect that a lot of the rationale behind reducing the season was to free up venues for concerts and other sports.
BarneyGrant (Dublin) - Posts: 2578 - 10/05/2023 12:48:43
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They can only show so many games on RTE and hurling whether we like it or not is far from the most popular sport in Ireland. I've been thinking about this a lot and generally you see a game better on TV - albeit there are things you cant see that you'd like to! Yet the people going to a match are probably going to spent the guts of 100 quid for the day out while those that don't go get it for free. I'm not buying this whole thing that you pay your license fee to see all games - not all Irish have an interest in Sport never mind hurling and RTE shouldn't be forced to somehow show 10 games over a weekend which seems to be the suggestion. We probably have access to more games than before. My parents don't have the luxury of GAAGO due to really poor broadband but you really cant have it all.
I'd happily pay the few euro for club games if i cant go so I cant really complain about seeing every single intercounty game on free to air.
tiobraid (Tipperary) - Posts: 4119 - 10/05/2023 12:54:01
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Replying To ExiledInWex: "I think what you are missing in the OP's point (I may be wrong) is that the GAA have deliberately put these games behind a paywall and its asking those who keep the organisation afloat to pony up more in a country where half of people don't have good broadband and a quarter of people don't have the technological capabilities to get it working? And, those people are the people who made the organisation what it is for today's GAA to cash in on.
I see the disconnect.
Also, after the Virgin Media statement last night something stinks to the high heavens about this deal with GAA Go, i.e. a GAA service ran by RTE........." Looks like they couldn't give a #### about ordinary grassroots people tbh after reading that statement. Interesting neither RTE nor the GAA have issued any kind of denial. I was thinking I'd be reading one as I ate my fried egg this morning.......
Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 12017 - 10/05/2023 13:07:17
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Replying To tiobraid: "They can only show so many games on RTE and hurling whether we like it or not is far from the most popular sport in Ireland. I've been thinking about this a lot and generally you see a game better on TV - albeit there are things you cant see that you'd like to! Yet the people going to a match are probably going to spent the guts of 100 quid for the day out while those that don't go get it for free. I'm not buying this whole thing that you pay your license fee to see all games - not all Irish have an interest in Sport never mind hurling and RTE shouldn't be forced to somehow show 10 games over a weekend which seems to be the suggestion. We probably have access to more games than before. My parents don't have the luxury of GAAGO due to really poor broadband but you really cant have it all.
I'd happily pay the few euro for club games if i cant go so I cant really complain about seeing every single intercounty game on free to air." I've brought the kids to see every Wexford game this season since Mountrath except the Dublin game on account of my youngest daughters birthday which I watched on GAAGO. The kids bought me the GAAGO package for Xmas. I go to underage training and matches 5 days a week with the kids. I'm not complaining about the money spent. That's not the issue for me. The issue is that the GAA was set up in the 1st place to promote and preserve the games. It's a cultural objective as well as everything else.
How is it promoting the games if someone has to pay extra to see them? The only people who will pay to see a game don't need the games promoted at them. It's the people who need to see what great games they are missing out on, and you can be pretty sure they aren't going to pay for the privilege.
Putting the games behind a pay wall is like charging people money for free samples of a new product.
Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 12017 - 10/05/2023 13:20:29
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The main issue is the double charging of viewers for these games. RTE is funded by the licence fee payers and also receives state funding (which increased last year). They bought the rights with this money knowing they didnt have the capacity to show them on TV and put them behind a paywall. They knew the rights wouldnt be offered to rival TV channels. The same directors in RTE are working for both RTE and GAAGO. They can not legitimately say they are working in the best interests of RTE viewers (or GAAGO) as they supposedly are in direct competition to show the best matches. It couldnt be a clearer conflict of interest. The GAA are complicit by not offering the surplus matches to tg4 or Virgin media. The GAA need to wake up.
bad.monkey (USA) - Posts: 4624 - 10/05/2023 13:38:19
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Replying To bad.monkey: "The main issue is the double charging of viewers for these games. RTE is funded by the licence fee payers and also receives state funding (which increased last year). They bought the rights with this money knowing they didnt have the capacity to show them on TV and put them behind a paywall. They knew the rights wouldnt be offered to rival TV channels. The same directors in RTE are working for both RTE and GAAGO. They can not legitimately say they are working in the best interests of RTE viewers (or GAAGO) as they supposedly are in direct competition to show the best matches. It couldnt be a clearer conflict of interest. The GAA are complicit by not offering the surplus matches to tg4 or Virgin media. The GAA need to wake up." Do people who attend matches get in free?
Seanfanbocht (Roscommon) - Posts: 1436 - 10/05/2023 13:45:16
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Replying To Seanfanbocht: "Do people who attend matches get in free?" They dont get charged twice
bad.monkey (USA) - Posts: 4624 - 10/05/2023 14:40:37
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Replying To Viking66: "I've brought the kids to see every Wexford game this season since Mountrath except the Dublin game on account of my youngest daughters birthday which I watched on GAAGO. The kids bought me the GAAGO package for Xmas. I go to underage training and matches 5 days a week with the kids. I'm not complaining about the money spent. That's not the issue for me. The issue is that the GAA was set up in the 1st place to promote and preserve the games. It's a cultural objective as well as everything else.
How is it promoting the games if someone has to pay extra to see them? The only people who will pay to see a game don't need the games promoted at them. It's the people who need to see what great games they are missing out on, and you can be pretty sure they aren't going to pay for the privilege.
Putting the games behind a pay wall is like charging people money for free samples of a new product." I'll have to disagree with you here, Viking. You seems to be suggesting that the matches should either be streamed for free or else shown on free-to-air TV for promotional purposes, to get the games out to people who normally wouldn't watch or have an interest in them.
But there are already more than 30 senior championship matches on RTE every year, and many more on TG4. The sort of people you're referring to have ample opportunity to watch hurling and football on TV for free. And even still, chances are that many of them don't, and probably never will.
Horse, water, drink.
Pikeman96 (Wexford) - Posts: 2251 - 10/05/2023 15:08:23
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Replying To Viking66: "I've brought the kids to see every Wexford game this season since Mountrath except the Dublin game on account of my youngest daughters birthday which I watched on GAAGO. The kids bought me the GAAGO package for Xmas. I go to underage training and matches 5 days a week with the kids. I'm not complaining about the money spent. That's not the issue for me. The issue is that the GAA was set up in the 1st place to promote and preserve the games. It's a cultural objective as well as everything else.
How is it promoting the games if someone has to pay extra to see them? The only people who will pay to see a game don't need the games promoted at them. It's the people who need to see what great games they are missing out on, and you can be pretty sure they aren't going to pay for the privilege.
Putting the games behind a pay wall is like charging people money for free samples of a new product." You're going to all those games and paying to see them.
Therefore the hardcore GAA people are at a huge loss regardless as they're paying a premium to go to games. Yet people want those that sit at home to have free access to all the games. You could end up having feck all at these games if they were all easily accessible on the tv for free
As I said in my own parents home in Tipp the broadband isn't good enough. What's the solution to see all Tipp hurling games? All oh free to air tv? Every counties football and hurling can't be on free to air tv as there are too many games so internet is the only other option but then your back to people's argument again about 50% having poor broadband and another 25% not capable of using the technology
There's going to be no pleasing everyone. It's a thing that has crept into Ireland over the last 20 years. People think everyone should be happy and they're quick to blame the government for every little thing when realistically you only have to go to the likes of the US or UK to see how far ahead we are of them as a country.
Sorry for the rant and not directed at you!
tiobraid (Tipperary) - Posts: 4119 - 10/05/2023 15:31:36
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