Cost of Semple refurbishment doubles
By Shane Brophy
Munster Council CEO Kieran Leddy has warned of serious infrastructure challenges ahead for the council, not least maintenance work required for Semple Stadium in Thurles.
Commenting in his annual report to the Munster GAA Convention which was postponed last week due to the weather and has been rescheduled for next Saturday in Tralee, Leddy said that the original cost of refurbishing the Thurles venue of €4 million has now doubled.
The proposed work that needs to be done to maintain it at the level it is currently at will be barely noticeable by spectators, although new seating in the Kinnane Stand is part of the planned refurbishment as well as the laying of a new pitch.
Leddy writes that the GAA must “become part of the conversation around municipal facilities in urban areas.”
He added: “In other words multi-sport facilities built by funding from the taxpayer needs to include facilities for the playing of Gaelic games.
“In the past our desire to build our own facilities was very strong. But in the modern world this is not always practical. Land in urban areas is scarce now so facilities need to take on a multi-sport model.
“So good has the GAA been at providing its own facilities, that local authorities have built municipal facilities that have excluded Gaelic games, simply because the playing areas provided in these municipal facilities are too small to cater for Gaelic games.
“A notion is being peddled that the Government has put far too much money into Gaelic games to the detriment of other sports. This is not true. Government funding over the years has been a fraction of what the GAA itself has invested into its own facilities.
“The current county Centres of Excellence in Munster for example have been built with minimal Government support and have been mainly funded by the GAA.
“Given our past desire to own our grounds we now find ourselves with an ageing inter-county stadium infrastructure with significant finance needed to maintain these facilities and a far bigger sum to modernise them.”
Financial Report
The success of the Munster Hurling Championship is reflected in the record gate receipts returned by the province for 2024.
Between all competitions, gate income was €8,011,896, up from €6,579,957 in 2023, an increase of almost €1.5m.
The 11 games grossed €6,794,936, up from €5,391,814 while the Munster football championship revenue was also up to €526,346 for its five-game programme.
Overall, income stood at €13,048,515, buoyed by more than €1m in additional Central Council funding taking it well beyond the €10,992,764 taken in the previous year.
A Munster hurling final replay could be worth an added €1m to the province's finances but Leddy argues that even that “potential financial gain once every nine years can hardly justify decreasing the chances of our champions progressing to the All-Ireland final because of the five-week wait.”
Ger Ryan steps down
This Friday’s Munster GAA Convention sees Templederry native Ger Ryan complete his three year term as chairperson and is set to be succeeded by Tim Murphy from Kerry.
The election for the vice-chairperson’s position is between former Limerick and Waterford chairpersons John Cregan and Seán Michael O’Regan.