GAA-GO Where we don't belong

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Leper

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1. Hurling is dying, of that there is no doubt especially to us sports people in-the-know. The GAA decided to put another nail in the coffin of hurling by demanding "where you belong" people pay dearly for a service that was hitherto free.
2. Most of us have missed some classic games of hurling (Limerick V Clare, Cork V Tipperary) already. Free-to-Air television would have promoted the game a hundred fold. You might think the GAA shot itself in the foot and you wouldn't be wrong.
3. There are thousands of people throughout the country giving their services free to the GAA (especially through local clubs in every parish) and GAA-GO is a kick in the head to them whether they are people baking cakes for sale during underage training sessions or refereeing matches or playing or training teams or running the local raffle. All of these services are provided free by people who care about the GAA.
4. But, in some areas, if you have a "Dodgy Box" you can pick up GAA-GO free of charge. The moral of the story here is get a Dodgy Box if you haven't one already.
5. TG4 showed some live U20 and Minor hurling games this week. The games were excellent to the viewer and showed how hurling should be played with terrific end-to-end excitement. If you looked at the attendance you would have seen that the public areas were as near to empty as makes no difference.
6. Even if you want to subscribe to GAA-GO you must have top of the range internet, something the country is still short. Those who did subscribe were treated to a clock on screen while waiting for a decent telecommunications signal and therefore didn't see the game live.
7. Next Saturday is not an exception either where those who refuse to subscribe will miss an important Waterford V Clare hurling game - another nail in the hurling coffin.
8. I've listened to Dónal Óg Cusack on several Sunday Game programmes outlining how hurling could be improved, advertised and extended in Ulster by having a Team Ulster with players from the province and allowed to contest the All-Ireland Championship. This was ignored by the GAA - and Dónal Óg's comments about pay-per-view hurling likely will be ignored too.
9. I never thought I'd say this:- Is there a rugby club out there that wants my free services and dedication to underage rugby? I think I'd feel more "belong" there.
 
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Leper said:
2. Most of us have missed some classic games of hurling (Limerick V Clare, Cork V Tipperary) already.
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I didn't think they were sold out?

If those people signed up to support their own or their neighbours' kids in the expectation that their reward would be free live coverage then they're idiots. Do you think it's reasonable to expect that Premiership games should be free-to-air just because people give time to their local communities? I don't see how Limerick Vs Clare only being available on GAAGO is a kick in the head to volunteers in Louth,

Is that an argument for fewer live games or are you suggesting live coverage of empty stadia is where you want the GAA to go?


While there may be some valid questions being asked about the GAAGO deal, I don't get all the fuss. It's not that long ago that there were very few games and a couple of minutes on the Sunday Game was about it for many counties. For a long time the GAA resisted live coverage worried that it would affect gate receipts.

Sky offered similar money to the GAAGO deal, but they really only wanted the more premium games that would see 24 fewer games available overall. If the free-to-air providers aren't offering enough money, the games just won't be available anywhere.

To me, some of the most vocal complainants here are the pundits who stand to make more money from if the free-to-air providers offer more coverage or from Virgin Media who seem to have forgotten they had the opportunity to bid.

If a lack of live coverage of all championship games is a nail in the coffin for hurling, how did it survive before TV or beyond the '90s when it was generally just the All-Ireland semi-finals and finals that got live coverage?
 
There are many people who go to live games whether they are televised or not. Live coverage never affected the All Ireland finals . There are also many people who depend on RTE television to see matches because they cannot go to matches for one reason or another, many have not got SKY or dodgy boxes . Many people also live a long way from Croke Park , Semple Stadium etc so because they cannot get to see these big games they should have a right to see these games on TV free . Many of these same people are volunteers, helpers and supporters
If all the volunteers stayed home for one busy weekend in protest it would be interesting to see just how important these people are to the GAA.
 
I have some sympathy with the views of both @Leper and @Leo. Undoubtedly, the increased commercialisation of the GAA grates and the GAAGO deal is all part of that. The GAA is a fantastic organisation with a very devolved local network, and there is a great ethos of amateur voluntary input. Many clubhouses are effectively local community centres and benefitting both old and young and everyone in between. Pay per view sits uneasily in this environment and ethos. It's not the only problematic issue of course, the increasingly blatant "under the table" payments to managers being perhaps the most obvious. It is very clear that certain elements of the paid GAA administrators - and the GPA - aspire to an (at least) semi-professional tier at elite intercounty level. In fairness to the GAA at the moment, the vast bulk of revenue earned at elite level is pumped back to club and county level. That won't continue when the players who ultimately generate the ppv revenue say: hang on a minute, where's my share? It also won't be possible to support 32 semi-professional teams in both hurling and football so realistically certain counties will never aspire to that status. So will there be a transfer market? That would indeed be the final nail in the local pride aspect of the games.

Is there a way to keep the best of what we've got and build something on it that doesn't undermine it's local community based ethos? I don't know, but piecemeal drift fuelled by the self-interest of a select few is not the way to go. Figure out a development path and get buy-in from the membership at large. The debate is wider than a few games on ppv.
 
I hope that answers your points. Hurling is dying, ask anybody involved in hurling. I’m involved in hurling for the last 55 years and was even involved when I worked in the UK.
Apologies for not being able to separate paragraphs from original post.
 
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Hurling isn't dying but it's not really growing either. The club game in many parts of the country is thriving, my own club (where football is something hurlers play to keep fit) has never had so many members or teams in it's 125 year history. Same applies for the 2 next door parishes, they've never been stronger, never turned out so many teams and it is fantastic to see women at the helm of so many clubs in my area as well.

I do think some awful mistakes were made however in recent years, including moving minor to u17 and not having their matches played before senior games. I used to love watching the minor match. However if you were working in Midleton or Crosshaven or Ennistymon on Wednesday last, what chance had you of getting to Thurles for a 7.30 throw in?, almost none

Cork/Tipp was far from sold out, 37k in a stadium designed to hold 50k but having the match on a Saturday night in Pairc Ui Chaoimh with the current Dunkettle roundabout warzone, simply so it could be streamed for a fee was madness. It would cost a family upwards of €100 and more to attend, knowing they possibly wouldn't get home to midnight and perhaps having to repeat that 5 or 6 times a season? A lot of people simply can't afford to go and the restrictive ticket sale process don't help either.

To be honest as well, it's got a little boring, the players are using tennis rackets so the skills are easier, it's too easy to score and at time, some of the points from out the field are no more then challenge match scores because no one is pressing.

I'd agree on the Ulster team, also think maybe merge Carlow/Laois and Westmeath/Offaly. There are 3 or 4 lads in each of those counties who would walk onto any county panel in the country (Marty Kavenagh a case in point) but there are not enough of them in each county to make them competitive.
 
joer said:
There are also many people who depend on RTE television to see matches because they cannot go to matches for one reason or another
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All true, but many of the people who are now complaining have very short memories. RTE alone are covering more than 30 championship games this season. How many were shown in the '90s? The 00'?
 
thedaddyman said:
Hurling isn't dying but it's not really growing either. The club game in many parts of the country is thriving, my own club (where football is something hurlers play to keep fit) has never had so many members or teams in it's 125 year history.
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Same for my home club in Kilkenny, it's bigger than ever. Hurling remains the second most popular sport in Ireland in terms of attendance, I haven't seen anything to suggest those numbers are dropping significantly. For participation, football is more accessible in terms of skill and cost, kids don't have the expense of a helmet and hurls (and replacements). Accessibility is a big deal in participation, and soccer is trumping them all there.
 
All the big games need to be shown free on TV. There should be no , pay per view, hurling or football games In my opinion.
I would rather see an All Ireland hurling final to a Champions League final any time. But I won't pay to see either..
 
I don't think it is realistic to expect all games to be on free to air TV.
For one thing, there's games on at the same time. Some games aren't going to attract a wider audience from outside the counties involved.
So I think there's a role for a streaming service if they can cover games that otherwise wouldn't have any live coverage.

Is there a role for another channel in the mix - RTE News, TG4 to pick up the slack on games that would have a wider audience if RTE don't want to air them on RTE1 or RTE2?

Is RTE giving hurling enough coverage? Or does it not get ratings for them?

Those are the questions for me.
 
RTE 1, RTE 2 and TG4 should be able to show all the big games between them.
Virgin media could show some as well as they do show the Champions League games . There should be no need to have to pay to see them on TV. After all we do , well most of us , pay our TV license fee every year.
 
Not every game is big though.
 
Interesting posts and many of us will have to agree to differ. Hurling is not dying in Co Kilkenny, Co Limerick, Co Clare. Co Tipperary is less than holding its own. Co Cork has been losing hurling popularity for years. Co Waterford is more miss than hit, I’m sorry to say. Co Offaly having won a senior All Ireland or two in my lifetime has dwindled so much that occasionally it has difficulty in fielding a county team. Co Mayo and Co Meath winnersof lesser important All Ireland finals have little or nobody fighting for places on the county hurling team. Co Antrim can field a decent team once in a decade, I’m sorry to say. I reckon Leo and I would make the Co Donegal team easily. I admire efforts being made in Co Carlow, Co Down, Co Derry. Co Dublin hurling will always play 2nd fiddle to Gaelic Football, rugby and soccer. Co Kerry hurling is fighting to survive and losing.

Nearly every county is amalgamating club teams to try to stay afloat. The list goes on and on. Hurling is trying to breathe and there is no sign of cleaner air ahead and I am sorry this is the case. GAA-GO and the GAA have a lot to answer for.
 
Leper said:
Nearly every county is amalgamating club teams to try to stay afloat. The list goes on and on. Hurling is trying to breathe and there is no sign of cleaner air ahead and I am sorry this is the case. GAA-GO and the GAA have a lot to answer for.
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How exactly are GAAGO to blame for a dearth of kids playing hurling in counties will little tradition of it? There are more games free on TV now than there were 10 or 20 years ago.

Club numbers in senior grades are driven by numbers in junior grades, and kids have a lot more choice now. Most kids don't just decide to pick up a sport because there's lots of it on the TV. If that was the case soccer would be the only game in town. Most kids prefer to be out playing sports than sitting in a darkened living room all day watching counties they have no interest in.

Not so long ago where I live now football was the only option, if you didn't play that, you didn't do sports but now there's soccer, rugby, basketball, cycling and athletics clubs all pulling from the same pool of kids. Rural populations dropping is also a factor in clubs amalgamating.
 
joer said:
But to the real GAA fan and there are many of them , every game is a 'big' game .
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Sure, show me the number of people who watched every single free to air game across both codes.

Even if all the games were free to air GAA fans wouldn't be going out of their way to watch every single game.

Every game isn't a big game in the sense of interest wider than the 2 counties involved and it's absurd to suggest otherwise.

And no free to air station is going to taken on broadcasting such games unless they think it'll get an audience to justify it.
 
I'm not saying that every game should be televised , when I said big game I meant the provincial finals , the All Ireland semi finals and finals both minor and senior should be televised for the many people who simply cannot get to see them in person for one reason or another..
 
That's fair enough. I'm just saying for the other games, I think there's a role for something like GAA-Go. For Mayo fans in Dublin who can't get back for a semi-final etc. Or where there's more than 1 game going on at same time.
 

Cork hurling at club level is flying, especially with the reorganisation and the additional grades, there were bigger attendances at some club matches last year then many counties got at intercounty level. Over 15000 at the county senior final last year. As an example, Midleton are building 3 new pitches to cope with demand. Lots of success at underage intercounty and it will come good in the seniors sooner rather then later.

Offaly are also on the road back, both at underage level and senior level but still have a long way to go. They'll win the Joe Mc this year as I can't see Carlow or Laois stopping them.

The longer term dark horse to watch for is Kildare, driven by what is happening in Naas.
 
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