Liam O’Neill backs new Leinster stadium on M50

In a wide-ranging media briefing in Boston, during the GAA-GPA All Stars tour, GAA president Liam O'Neill has voiced his support for a Leinster Gaelic games stadium to be built on Dublin's M50 motorway ring-road.

He was responding to questions about the Leinster Council’s continuing refusal to play Dublin’s senior football championship fixtures outside of Croke Park. O’Neill, Leinster chair the last time Dublin played an away championship match – in 2006, against Longford – said that spectators’ comfort standards have risen to the point where he believes it impractical to stage big matches in the smaller provincial venues.

Situation on their hands

“I think Leinster probably has the situation on their hands where they have to develop a stadium that holds 40,000. I think that’s the next one now.

“They’re talking about the M50. There’s huge demand now. The challenge now is . . . to build a stadium that has access from Leinster.

"And there's no county in Leinster, other than Kilkenny or Wexford, that is more than an hour-and-a-half from the M50. And we have to develop a stadium and meet that need in a different way. Rather than dragging them down to Longford and only 9,000, let's go for 40,000 – and we can say 'Right, we have a realistic alternative now.'

“I think the Leinster proposal for an M50 stadium is something that is going to have to be seriously considered by the organisation. It will service Dublin as well.”

Reacting to Dublin manager Jim Gavin’s call last week for the national football league to be abolished as part of a reform package that would include a ‘Champions League’ championship format, O’Neill fundamentally disagreed with doing away with the competition, which enters its 90th season next year.

Not for sale

“The

National League

is not for sale, it can’t be. It is an important competition, it is important for the counties because it is the sorting-out process as to where you are.

“It is status by performance, and when we started to discuss change in the national hurling leagues, when we had discussed all possibilities, people said that the league structures as they stand was the way to go because you played to get where you are on merit.”

He also reiterated that the proposed fixtures calendar reforms – including a shortened inter-county championship season and the conclusion of club All-Irelands by the end of each year – can have a knock-on effect, capable of radically addressing the current fixtures crisis for clubs.

Although there has been no decision yet on a venue for next year’s All Stars tour, O’Neill was very pleased with this year’s, the last of his presidency, which concludes in little over two months’ time.

He was particularly happy with the commitment of the players, who all (except those injured) made themselves available from early on Saturday morning to coach local children in Canton's Irish Cultural Centre.

O'Neill also focused on the importance of developing the games overseas. Two years ago he said that he could see the GAA growing internationally to the extent that there would be more members overseas than in Ireland.

Asked did he still hold to that view, he replied: “Absolutely. It’s coming.”

Asked about the fundraising activities in North America of the Gaelic Players Association, the president said that Croke Park had no difficulty with it, as the GAA didn't fully fund the players' organisation and had agreed that the GPA would be allowed raise the balance themselves.

He did, however, state that he felt that funds raised in the US by both the GPA and various county associations, would be better directed towards the local units in America.

“I would prefer a situation where developments are taking place internationally where the focus would be on building the local at international level. I would prefer that New York GAA people and the people that fund, those who have money, would spend it locally.

“If we are going to grow the game, money needs to be invested by those who live here. Since I’ve become president, I went out to the North American convention to give the message that as far as I am concerned I don’t see any future in bringing players out for the summer.

Number of sanctions

“What is happening is that we are developing the youth programme. I gave them the message that as the youth programme comes up, the number of sanctions should come down.

“I spoke to a club official in Boston here at the North American finals. They have to raise $70,000 to keep their senior and junior club going . . . They will spend $40,000 out of $70,000 hiring players from home to come out here and play for the summer. I put it to one of them, ‘is that sustainable?’ and he said, ‘no, I’m absolutely worn out doing this”.

O’Neill said that the message hasn’t gone down well everywhere but that the policy of the GAA now is to develop games amongst the resident populations in the overseas units.

He also emphasised that the GAA was keen to provide as wide an audience as possible for its games and that during the controversial rights issue earlier this year, which included championship matches going on a subscription platform for the first time in the Sky deal, that had been overlooked.

"We offered our games for free to every station in North America. They all said, 'No, we don't want them'. We offered them to every station in Britain; they all said they didn't want them. We offered them to every station in Northern Ireland. The only one that said they would take them is BBC and they said they would only cover the games that RTÉ cover.

“So we offered the games world-wide and nobody said they wanted it except Channel 7 [in Australia].

“GAAGO was set up so that people abroad could access our games for €110 and that has been an absolutely spectacular success. The Sky deal was only really for Britain and the exclusivity in Ireland was part of the give and take on that.”