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Could A Professional Hurling/Football League Survive In Ireland?

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There's been tons of debate on whether the GAA should pay its players or not with plenty of passion on both sides but is it at all possible for a professional Football and/or Hurling League to survive alongside the GAA? Players would get paid, play for a professional team probably owned by a sponsor like SuperMacs or Guinness, etc., not tied to a county or place of birth. Food for thought. Trump2020 (Galway) - Posts: 1082 - 13/05/2020 22:56:26 2278093 Link
Replying To Trump2020: "There's been tons of debate on whether the GAA should pay its players or not with plenty of passion on both sides but is it at all possible for a professional Football and/or Hurling League to survive alongside the GAA? Players would get paid, play for a professional team probably owned by a sponsor like SuperMacs or Guinness, etc., not tied to a county or place of birth. Food for thought." 0 chance economically. There is no sustantable economic basis for professional sport in Ireland. Look at soccer...a disaster and Rugby survives based on international money only. witnof (Dublin) - Posts: 1583 - 14/05/2020 09:06:00 2278102 Link
no mickcunningham (Westmeath) - Posts: 1243 - 14/05/2020 09:51:32 2278105 Link
Replying To Trump2020: "There's been tons of debate on whether the GAA should pay its players or not with plenty of passion on both sides but is it at all possible for a professional Football and/or Hurling League to survive alongside the GAA? Players would get paid, play for a professional team probably owned by a sponsor like SuperMacs or Guinness, etc., not tied to a county or place of birth. Food for thought." trump good name u have mickcunningham (Westmeath) - Posts: 1243 - 14/05/2020 09:52:14 2278107 Link
Replying To Trump2020: "There's been tons of debate on whether the GAA should pay its players or not with plenty of passion on both sides but is it at all possible for a professional Football and/or Hurling League to survive alongside the GAA? Players would get paid, play for a professional team probably owned by a sponsor like SuperMacs or Guinness, etc., not tied to a county or place of birth. Food for thought." Would widen the gap between the top and bottom counties. Might be possible if they could also create some online interest to watch games outside of Ireland, a wider audience than the Irish diaspora or people with Irish ancestry. If cricket or baseball are popular we could surely create a market for people to watch gaelic football or hurlingabroad and get some revenue from it. The League of Ireland continues to survive on mostly part-time footballers, two teams in the Europa League in the last 10 years, despite appalling treatment by the FAI. Imagine where they could be had they had a management setup like the GAA? But I wonder how many intercounty players in 2020, would give up their careers to turn their hobby, their passion, their distraction from life, into their profession? I think not many but maybe if children have an option to join an academy in secondary school, to continue their education as an underage player to have something to fall back on, then it could happen. GreenandRed (Mayo) - Posts: 5955 - 14/05/2020 10:16:31 2278109 Link
Replying To witnof: "0 chance economically. There is no sustantable economic basis for professional sport in Ireland. Look at soccer...a disaster and Rugby survives based on international money only." There possibly could be pro Gaelic and hurling just simply not at very high wages and how many would play pro and get lower wages then they would get working another job and playing intercounty KillingFields (Limerick) - Posts: 1636 - 14/05/2020 10:37:36 2278111 Link
Suppose you had 8 teams in each code with 20 professional players, getting €30,000 apiece. That's an absolute minimum. You could make up the rest of the panel with amateurs but any less than €30,000 and the number of players who'd turn pro would be vanishingly small. That's an extra €9.6m you'd need to find. It's a lot of money. Not going to be found in the immediate post-Covid future. Would it improve the games ? Apart from deterring a handful of players from tripping off to Australia to play in the AFL, probably not. lionofludesch (Down) - Posts: 369 - 14/05/2020 11:34:38 2278115 Link
If you have a great product and proper organization anything is possible. Yes at first wages would be fairly low until the League got going as it was with all the Professional Leagues. Salaries are going UP in all the Professional Leagues. If you had Sponsored Teams whether by Irish companies or non Irish companies, merchandise where players get a cut of the profits, advertising mostly online where it's cheaper, get ESPN, Skysports, Foxsports, etc involved, maybe tied in with the tourism and airlines where Aer Lingus could help push it, etc. And at first maybe start out with only about 6 teams in either code. Surely it's doable. Trump2020 (Galway) - Posts: 1082 - 14/05/2020 12:01:41 2278119 Link
Replying To lionofludesch: "Suppose you had 8 teams in each code with 20 professional players, getting €30,000 apiece. That's an absolute minimum. You could make up the rest of the panel with amateurs but any less than €30,000 and the number of players who'd turn pro would be vanishingly small. That's an extra €9.6m you'd need to find. It's a lot of money. Not going to be found in the immediate post-Covid future. Would it improve the games ? Apart from deterring a handful of players from tripping off to Australia to play in the AFL, probably not." Fair enough. It would start small but if ran right and marketed right it could flourish. Players getting paid could put more time into their training and tactics and not have conflicting things like jobs getting in the way. Ireland by itself could probably not support it alone so it would have to have a lot of International help and support. Some of the teams could have foreign sponsors such as Coke or Pepsi, etc. Billionaires that currently don't own an NFL or NBA team, etc might be encouraged to buy and sponsor a team. As I said players would not be tied to locations and could play for any team that wants them. Trump2020 (Galway) - Posts: 1082 - 14/05/2020 12:10:54 2278120 Link
Replying To Trump2020: "If you have a great product and proper organization anything is possible. Yes at first wages would be fairly low until the League got going as it was with all the Professional Leagues. Salaries are going UP in all the Professional Leagues. If you had Sponsored Teams whether by Irish companies or non Irish companies, merchandise where players get a cut of the profits, advertising mostly online where it's cheaper, get ESPN, Skysports, Foxsports, etc involved, maybe tied in with the tourism and airlines where Aer Lingus could help push it, etc. And at first maybe start out with only about 6 teams in either code. Surely it's doable." Even if all that were true - and I have my doubts - now is not the time. Nor is the next five, maybe ten, years. What's the advantage, anyway ? What are you trying to achieve ? How will it benefit me, as a spectator, whether at the ground or on TV ? Fitter players ? Will that make the game better ? lionofludesch (Down) - Posts: 369 - 14/05/2020 12:32:27 2278121 Link
At best, it'd end up like Rugby - a handful of clubs full of mercenaries and an ignored club scene. essmac (Tyrone) - Posts: 796 - 14/05/2020 13:11:48 2278124 Link
Replying To Trump2020: "There's been tons of debate on whether the GAA should pay its players or not with plenty of passion on both sides but is it at all possible for a professional Football and/or Hurling League to survive alongside the GAA? Players would get paid, play for a professional team probably owned by a sponsor like SuperMacs or Guinness, etc., not tied to a county or place of birth. Food for thought." It could only survive if it was set up like the American sports. Draft, no relegation, spending caps, etc. But even that is a stretch. I don't think there's any demand for a professional football or hurling league. It certainly couldn't survive alongside an amateur game. Football and rugby have access to players from all over the world. The GAA does not. Rolo2010 (Donegal) - Posts: 193 - 14/05/2020 13:15:20 2278125 Link
Replying To Trump2020: "There's been tons of debate on whether the GAA should pay its players or not with plenty of passion on both sides but is it at all possible for a professional Football and/or Hurling League to survive alongside the GAA? Players would get paid, play for a professional team probably owned by a sponsor like SuperMacs or Guinness, etc., not tied to a county or place of birth. Food for thought." Why would the teams need to be owned by a corporation/sponsor? I'm not arguing for or against professionalism, but if you were to pay players, why would the inter-county ownership model (for lack of a better phrase) have to change? Wouldn't the players be getting paid by the GAA? I'm not totally against some form of professionalism, or profit sharing by players, but I think one of the bedrocks of inter-county support is that the players come from the place they represent. Its literally our best 15, against your best 15. Anything that would change or undermine that, could lead to diminished interest in the games at that level. Marlon_JD (Tipperary) - Posts: 1774 - 14/05/2020 13:18:20 2278126 Link
Replying To essmac: "At best, it'd end up like Rugby - a handful of clubs full of mercenaries and an ignored club scene." Rugby is more entertaining than it was - but that's nothing to do with professionalisnm. It's to do with major rule changes in the past 25 years. lionofludesch (Down) - Posts: 369 - 14/05/2020 13:21:00 2278128 Link
"Why would the teams need to be owned by a corporation/sponsor? I'm not arguing for or against professionalism, but if you were to pay players, why would the inter-county ownership model (for lack of a better phrase) have to change? Wouldn't the players be getting paid by the GAA?" I believe Trump is proposing some soccer-style club system, so, no, they wouldn't be played by the GAA. It's a non-starter. lionofludesch (Down) - Posts: 369 - 14/05/2020 13:29:29 2278129 Link
Replying To lionofludesch: "Even if all that were true - and I have my doubts - now is not the time. Nor is the next five, maybe ten, years. What's the advantage, anyway ? What are you trying to achieve ? How will it benefit me, as a spectator, whether at the ground or on TV ? Fitter players ? Will that make the game better ?" I agree 100% that NOW is not the time. Survival is the name of the game now not expansion or creation. I'm talking about if all was well and normal. Trump2020 (Galway) - Posts: 1082 - 14/05/2020 14:02:38 2278131 Link
There is zero chance of there ever being a professional set up for Gaelic games in Ireland. First and foremost it simply isn't financially viable. You'd need massive subscription TV deals, huge corporate sponsorship etc. Would fans fill stadiums every weekend for the matches? I'd have my doubts. Even if it was broadcast internationally, what would the numbers be like? It's not a product like the English Premier League which is consumed the world over by billions. Is the appetite for a professional game even there? The elite players only make up a tiny speck of the overall GAA playing population. I'm sure there are a lot of county players who would privately admit that they'd love to play GAA professionally. But they're only a tiny %. Lockjaw (Donegal) - Posts: 7075 - 14/05/2020 14:15:00 2278133 Link
To some of the naysayers: you're making good points but stop thinking in a GAA format. This would not compete with GAA and in fact would inject some money to the GAA by renting their grounds from them on a fairly consistent basis. Renting GAA grounds would be far cheaper than buying land and developing it. Someone asked how it would benefit them as a spectator and I say CHOICE is good. You'd have a fitter and more dedicated product on the field. Recruiting could take place at schools and solve some of the unemployment woes that plague the Government which would give them incentive to help out too. Trump2020 (Galway) - Posts: 1082 - 14/05/2020 14:18:37 2278135 Link
Replying To Trump2020: "I agree 100% that NOW is not the time. Survival is the name of the game now not expansion or creation. I'm talking about if all was well and normal." The issue with the teams not representing counties, is that you'd automatically lose a massive amount of interest. This is essentially what drives the disproportionate interest there is in GAA compared to other sports in the country. It's community based and the teams represent where people are from, not only in name but most importantly in terms of players. Take this away and you end up with something far less people will have an interest in. The financial viability of a professional competition, which is questionable even with current support levels, then becomes a non-runner. WanPintWin (Galway) - Posts: 875 - 14/05/2020 14:55:58 2278138 Link
If it were to work it would be 12 teams at most in a professional league, all 32 counties wouldn't be able for it, I would see a professional league seperate, with the current format still existing in amateur status DuhallowRed (Cork) - Posts: 140 - 14/05/2020 16:38:34 2278148 Link