Jarlath Burns hits back at Government GAAGO criticism, Cavanagh clarifies claim
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GAA president Jarlath Burns has admitted he was "very surprised" by the Government's criticism of GAAGO.
Taoiseach Simon Harris last week called on the GAA to revise their use of the streaming service, an opinion that was echoed by Tánaiste Micheál Martin.
That criticism has intensified even further amongst the public following Cork's high scoring and dramatic late victory against Limerick on Saturday night, which was also put behind the paywall.
But speaking on Today with Claire Byrne on RTÉ Radio 1, Burns defended the use of GAAGO.
"I'm very surprised to hear the Taoiseach speaking about this, considering last year we actually sat in front of an at Committee, we were asked to do so, we did so," said Burns.
"There were no issues at the end of it, they accepted every argument that we had, all of our rationale, for the fact that we only have one broadcast partner, which is RTÉ – they have 35 matches.
"If you try to imagine a world without GAAGO, the rest of these games just would not be broadcast because we only have one broadcast partner.
"Myself and Tom Ryan, the Ard Stiúrthóir, last Wednesday actually had a meeting with the Sports Minister, Thomas Byrne, and all of his officials. We actually put that on the agenda, GAAGO.
"We asked him were there any residual issues coming up regarding it. He said, no, we accept that GAAGO is an outstanding service, particularly for our exiles abroad, people who wouldn't be able to watch any of the games, and GAA has a growing global market as well.
"Thomas Byrne actually said those words and, the previous week I had a meeting with Pascal Donohoe in my own office in Croke Park, it was an excellent meeting. He has a great passion and understanding of the GAA.
"GAAGO didn't even come up. So, I’m very, very surprised and disappointed at the Taoiseach and then the Tánaiste would actually speak about something that we have already been in front of an Oireachtas Committee for.
"They were satisfied with our answers. It came up last week at a meeting. There were no issues. You would almost think there was an election coming up."
A spokesperson for the Tánaiste rejected the criticism, saying that his views should not come as a surprise.
“The Tánaiste’s views on GAAGO shouldn’t come as any surprise. He has been consistent with his criticism and raised the same issues of games behind a paywall last year,” the spokesperson said.
The spokesperson added that Mr Martin regularly meets with the GAA and “has no issue meeting again”.
Burns also said he was not minded to take up a suggestion from Fine Gael Senator Tim Lombard to appear before the Oireachtas on the issue.
Lombard, however, told the he fears that Croke Park is now doubling down on the issue rather than listening to concerns being raised and that supporters of the bigger, more popular counties will be the ones having to fork out to watch their team.
“I’m deeply concerned about how the process will work going forward, particularly for Cork,” he said. “Of the five major [Cork] matches in the Championship so far, 80% of them have been behind a paywall. Three of the four hurling matches. It’s a bizarre scenario.”
Lombard said there was a clear difference between the view of GAA HQ and at grassroots level, and said he believed the organisation has been “tone deaf” on the issue.
Meanwhile, Burns hit back at comments made by Sean Cavanagh in which the former Tyrone footballer described the GAA as ‘one of the richest organisations in the world.’
“He is an accountant, with an accountancy practice and on live TV he said that the GAA is one of the richest organisations in the world," added the GAA president.
“We have 140 million of a turnover of which we give back 83% to our own members and to our own counties and clubs.
“I mean for somebody to actually make that comment live on The Saturday Game, considering the business he’s in, is just absolutely crazy.
“That’s superficial, emotional comment that doesn’t take into consideration the complexities of the logistics that we have to deal with, in a real world.
“We publish our accounts every year in a 167-page document. Google GAA accounts every year and you will see what they are. Every part of our accounts will tell us that we have to invest more money.
“To finish up on that point, in the next two years, we are becoming a fully integrated organisation. As a result of that, Cork, Armagh, Down, Longford, Carlow, Kerry, Monaghan and maybe four or five other counties are upgrading or building centres of excellence and making them facility correct.
“Each one of those is going to cost about €15 million to build. That’s about €200 million we have to find in the next three years.
“Kildare, Louth, Meath, Waterford, Antrim Kerry, and Thurles are upgrading their stadiums. That’s another €200 million. So I would say in the next three or four years, give or take, we have to spend half a billion on infrastructure.
“Where are we going to get that money when considering we don’t have gambling or alcohol sponsorship. The only place we can get it from is from selling of our games. And GAAGO is a very small but important part of that.
“And I’m going to make no apologies for saying this Clare. I want GAAGO to become a major revenue generator for our association, because we need that money to upgrade our facilities.”
Speaking on the RTÉ GAA podcast, Cavanagh clarified that when speaking about the GAAGO situation on The Saturday Game, he had omitted the word 'amateur' from his claim regarding the association's financial standing.
"I haven't pulled out the recent accounts but I remember seeing a couple of years ago 40,50, 60m of cash reserves and a balance sheet of €100m. I'm an accountant, I know this stuff," said Cavanagh.
"For an amateur organisation owned by the members, owned by the people that are lining pitches, by people in every club up and down the country, for me that looks like a very healthy position.
"I previously worked with a lot of soccer organisations, a lot of them go bust all the time and haven't got 2p to rub together. For me, the GAA is in a very healthy financial position, they're acquiring lots of strategic assets all over the country."