Rewards set for qualified counties

Gaelic Games News: The GAA yesterday released €2.1 million to the counties that participated in this year's All-Ireland championships and qualifier series. The now annual payout is in fact slightly down on last year's figure of 2.15 million, but still represents a significant source of income for the respective county boards.reports

When divided up between the participating counties in the football and hurling qualifiers, the amount represents roughly €63,000 per county. There were 27 qualifiers in football and eight in hurling, and although overall attendances were slightly down on last year, the main reason behind the lower amount generated is the fact that no replays were needed until the semi-finals of the football championship.

In addition, this was the first year since the introduction of the qualifier series, four years ago, that a replay was not required at the quarter-final stage of the All-Ireland football championship - typically one of the highest attendances of the season. The qualifiers themselves also failed to produce a truly glamorous tie.

According to Croke Park's press officer Fergal McGill, the low-key route taken by the Dublin footballers would also account for the slight drop in the overall income: "Considering Dublin were out against London, Leitrim and Longford, you have to assume those games would have drawn bigger attendances had they been more attractive opposition.

"Some people still seem to think those games were fixed but, from a Croke Park point of view, we always wanted to see Dublin drawn against high-profile counties."

Other income released yesterday arises from the All-Ireland semi-finals and final. The losing semi-finals in both football and hurling (this year being Fermanagh and Derry, and Wexford and Waterford, respectively) will each receive 20,000 towards their team holiday funds - in addition to the income stemming from the qualifiers.

Both sets of All-Ireland finalists will receive €80,000 towards their holiday fund. Kerry, who beat Mayo in the football decider, have a trip planned for Australia in the New Year, while Cork, who beat Kilkenny in the hurling final, will travel to New Zealand.

Those four finalists can also generate holiday funds through the Toyota cars awarded to them as a result of making the All-Ireland finals, which in previous years have been raffled to make a healthy contribution to the funds.

On the scale of things, however, the amounts released yesterday will only go a short way towards meeting the rising costs inflicted on county boards. It is now estimated that annual expenditure on the preparation and organisation of various county teams now exceeds €13 million in total.

As a result most county boards end up allocating in the region of 40 per cent of their total expenditure on those various team expenses.

Known to be at the higher end of that scale are the two All-Ireland senior champions, Kerry and Cork, who are estimated to have spent 500,000 on their intercounty preparations this year.

According to McGill, in many cases the money allocated will be set against any outstanding ticket accounts that the counties may have with Croke Park.

As well as yesterday's amount, however, each of the counties are also allocated funds through their provincial councils as a result of their participation in the provincial championships.

Here overall attendances are also slightly down on recent years, particularly in Leinster where the early exit of the likes of Dublin, Kildare and Meath from the football championship resulted in lower attendances than would normally be expected.

The GAA have also announced healthy ticket sales ahead of Sunday's first International Rules Series Test, with in excess of 30,000 already distributed. And at this stage an attendance of over 50,000 is anticipated.

Tickets remain on sale from Ticketmaster outlets nationwide, and can also be purchased from the Croke Park ticket office at the back of the Cusack Stand from 11.0 a.m to 7.0 p.m today and tomorrow, and on Saturday from 11.0 a.m. to 4.0 p.m.