Today the GAA will conduct an exposition of the Croke Park redevelopment. This is to enable media people to cast their expert architectural eyes over progress on the nearly-completed phase three. To date the project has been a great success although there have been problems along the way.

Costs have rocketed with construction inflation kicking in during the economic boom (wage inflation in the sector for instance has been about 300 per cent). Whereas the tiger economy broadened the market for the corporate facilities, pricing on sales has obviously not followed costs through the roof.

But in a way the GAA has been lucky - good fortune earned by the foresight of initiating the project 11 years ago. Phase one was completed before costs took off and without borrowing. Had it not been and had the redevelopment been delayed for a couple of years, it is likely it would have run into financial crisis.

There has also been substantial public funding, about €127 million, that wasn't factored in as part of the original budget but which is likely to account for about half the cost. Given that the overrun isn't as enormous as that, government grants will enable the development to be debt-free a lot earlier than had been initially envisaged. That's the good news but as the new ground takes shape, there are other shadows on the horizon. They relate to the GAA's commercial future and more specifically to the exploitation of its assets.

This can normally be taken to refer to the use of Croke Park for other activities but the general concern is a lot broader.

Running costs at the stadium are going to be hefty (about €3 million) and whereas the lease of the ground for major soccer or rugby internationals wouldn't cover that, any revenue they did raise would mean more resources for other GAA activities.

Of course the GAA doesn't literally need the money but without it there will still be a few hundred thousand that won't be going to games development or infrastructural improvements.

The whole Rule 42 argument isn't worth dwelling on because the restriction will be gone sooner rather than later but it's not the only area in which the GAA needs to make more of its assets.

There is the whole issue of merchandising and general commercial activity. For the past decade the GAA has been striving to bring down the proportion of income generated by gate receipts alone - or more accurately, to raise the proportion brought in by commercial means.

This has been a moderate - if not exactly a spectacular - success. In the last year of the old ground, 1993, gate receipts accounted for just over 71 per cent of the GAA's central revenue (i.e. not including the income of provincial councils, which are separate entities). Last year that figure was down to 66 per cent.

There are two sides to this reduction. On the one hand, it is actually up on the 64 per cent figure of 1999, but on the other hand, it represents a reasonable performance.

Gate receipts have increased dramatically in recent years, particularly with the introduction of the qualifiers in both football and hurling. So increasing the commercial percentage has been hard work.

That some progress has been made is largely down to the rising sales of the overseas broadcast rights. But more needs to be done in the core areas of commercial and merchandising and here we head into inevitable territory.

Most pressingly, there has to be some sense made out of the inter-county championships. When comparing the commercial potential of the GAA with professional sports, one obvious fact leaps out. Croke Park is clearly under-exploiting the games' shop window.

Professional sports base their seasons on plenty of matches for everyone so that there is a steady revenue but also more opportunity to push ancillary enterprises.

The attractiveness of additional matches in an expanded fixture list has become obvious in recent years. Firstly the hurling championship reform demonstrated as much by guaranteeing two stand-alone All-Ireland semi-finals. Then the qualifier system was introduced in football and this year in hurling.

But is it enough? Suggestions that the qualifiers' public appeal is waning may be premature. Last weekend's football first round was an unappetising fixture list with the exception of the Limerick-Cavan match. Even Wexford-Tyrone was blighted by the certainty that the latter would win - even allowing for a potential good showing by Wexford, which actually did materialise.

The system is an improvement but it only goes so far. In the space of seven days Wexford have had their championship - despite being very competitive in the company of two of last year's All-Ireland quarter-finalists. After the Dublin match, which was very poorly attended by Wexford supporters, there was some sort of awakening of interest in the county.

Close to 5,000 supporters turned up to see the Tyrone match. Imagine what it might have been if the draw had been kinder to the home side. Twelve months ago Wexford took Westmeath, another of the 2001 quarter-finalists, to a replay and there were 8,000 supporters in Wexford Park for the draw and 10,000 for the replay in Mullingar.

There is also the impact on attendances of World Cup tournaments in which Ireland are currently competing. This isn't purely a matter of direct clashes but more to do with the public mood. When everyone is agog with the competition, like over the past fortnight, it's very hard for football and hurling to absorb the attention of sports supporters.

The same thing happened eight years ago during the USA '94 tournament. Although there were no direct fixture clashes, attendances suffered. Even at blue-chip events the effect on attendances was noticeable.

Twice that year only 23,000 turned up for the Leinster championship Dublin-Kildare draw and replay. Cork and Kerry pulled in fewer than 27,000. The previous year, the same fixtures attracted 60,000 and 43,000 respectively.

Thankfully for the GAA the impact proved temporary and there is no reason to believe that it won't prove so again.

But the main problem with the qualifiers is that they don't go far enough. Think of the cumulative crowds Wexford footballers could draw if they had a few more matches this summer. The numbers still mightn't be massive but they'd be more than the zero that will watch the team for the rest of the summer.

If that's the case in football, a quick glance at the quality of this weekend's first qualifiers indicates that the system's inadequacy in hurling is beyond rebuttal.

Expanded programmes of activity at the optimum time of year are vital if the GAA is to service the interest in its games, maximise their commercial potential and provide a sustained drama worthy of its flagship theatre.