Clare GAA record €1m surplus for 2024
A general view of Cusack Park, the home of Clare GAA.
A year to remember for Clare GAA is not exclusively applicable to on-field activity as the Banner County Board has returned a €1m surplus for 2024.
The return of a €1,017,827 profit represents an almost quadrupling of last year’s €270k surplus, and this despite team expenses rising by 14% in a bid “to keep up with the Jones's”.
Central to Clare’s end of year profit surpassing the €1m mark was commercial income rising from €740k in 2023 to €1.03m over the past 12 months. Fundraising activities, meanwhile, including their Win a House in Ennis draw, brought in another €743k.
“A rising tide lifts all boats and in the main we have the achievements of our senior hurlers, the excellent work of our ‘Win A House’ draw, finance committees, Club Clare, and the Football Supporters Club to thank for an extremely successful year on the fundraising front,” said Clare GAA Head of Operations Deirdre Murphy.
Given the county's run to the final day of the hurling championship, and the costs associated with such, it was inevitable that there would be a spike in team spend for 2024. The figure of €1,566,462 is not a significant jump on the previous year’s €1.37m spend, and much of that 14% increase is attributable to the €147,389 that went towards the recent team holiday to Miami and Nashville.
“It seems unlikely that the [team] spend will go in the other direction, at the moment it would only be possible by creating a competitive disadvantage for our county,” Murphy wrote in her annual report.
“We want our players and those who have taken on the responsibility of leading them to have the best possible opportunity of success, therefore, if you like, we must ‘keep up with the Jones's’.
“We are lucky that all those who lead our teams are incredibly conscious of cost and not to waste resources, yet will expect to be able to prepare their teams as any of the top teams do, and we expect to be able to deliver that for them.” Contributing factors to year-on-year gate receipts falling by €878k to €807k were U16s having free entry to all games, TG4 broadcasting their 2023 county hurling final, and a drop in attendance at the earlier round club football games.
“None of these are particularly easy fixes,” said Murphy. “In principle, it is noble that all U16s go free, but the reality is that it means it is particularly difficult for gate-checkers to police. I suggest that it would be more suitable for knockout stages that U13s would be free of charge, with those aged 14-18 charged €5 and thereafter student rates.” The county’s Head of Operations said live television coverage of last year’s Clare hurling final resulted in a loss of €50,000 through attendance, streaming income, and shop sales when compared with the non-televised 2022 final. She added that agreements at national level, whereby counties receive a €15,000 payment for allowing their county final to be televised, need to be reviewed.
“We have an excellent relationship with TG4, but this is the financial reality, and it would be important that agreements at a national level be reviewed. We do not want to talk out of two sides of our mouth as our accounts clearly demonstrate that we are dependent on funds redistributed provincially and nationally and we would be fundamentally aligned with a principle of equal redistribution of the revenue generated by the GAA at provincial and national level.
“However, it is an important one to look at going forward as counties have developed significant streaming incomes of their own and €50K is not a small sum.”
