County GAA Board runs almost €270,000 deficit this year as challenges outlined
Roscommon GAA ran a deficit in 2024 after recording a surplus in 2023.
The topic of finances, and Roscommon’s relative lack thereof, was the primary focus of last night’s 2024 Roscommon GAA Convention, held at the Percy French Hotel in Strokestown.
Five motions were listed for discussion with four held over until January for discussion as they pertain to fixtures, while the fifth, a motion from Kilglass Gaels that would allow a player to play up to one half of championship football for a club’s first team and retain eligibility for their second team, was soundly defeated.
The usual plethora of committee and officer reports were presented and accepted without any comment from club delegates in attendance, while the speeches by Brian Carroll (Kilmore, chairperson), David O’Connor (St. Dominic’s, treasurer) and Pat Compton (Strokestown, Central Council Delegate/Club Rossie) all focused strongly on the financial report, which was first presented by Freda Maguire and Mulhern Leonard & Associates, auditors for Roscommon GAA.
In contrast to counties like Galway, Clare, Kerry, Wexford and even smaller counties like Laois and Offaly, all of which have recorded significant surpluses despite marked increases in county team administration expenses, Roscommon is one of a handful of counties that has shown a loss for the year up to September 30th, 2024.
The headline figures are that overall income for the year was €2,076,468, down from €2,315,100 last year, while expenditure increased from €2,119,270 to €2,345,403, meaning that the bottom line figure was an overall deficit of €268,935, a stark contrast to the 2023 surplus of €195,830.
David O’Connor was stark in his summary of the state of affairs in the county.
“You can see it for yourselves, everything is on the up and it’s going to be very challenging for everybody going forward. Clubs won’t want to hear this but we’re going to have to look at affiliations, costs are going up to host games, pitch hire, lights, all across the board” said the St. Dominic’s club man.
“Capital spend is a big challenge and it’s only starting, the Dermot Earley Centre of Excellence is only starting” he continued.
“The deficit for the year will raise a few eyebrows, but the job is just getting bigger. When you’re operating at Division One or Division Two, there’s not a whole lot of difference, we’re still spending big. Roscommon teams are as well looked after as anyone in the country”.
O’Connor, Carroll and Compton all spoke of the importance of the ‘Win a House in Kildare’ draw, which will take place on December 30th of this year.
“Our draw is the most important thing for the next few weeks. It’s slow at the moment, there’s no point saying otherwise” O’Connor warned.
“We have to try to sell outside Roscommon, and I would encourage people to get out there and push it. We won’t have another one in the next 12 months, this needs to be blown out of the park”.
On the personnel front, 2024 could be described as the calm before the storm.
Seán Flanagan (Tulsk) stepped down as Assistant Treasurer at the end of his five year term, and Tony Christie of the Ballinameen club was elected unopposed to take his place in that role. David McDonnell (Éire Óg) also came to the end of his term as coaching officer, and that role remains vacant, with no candidates proposed at the Convention.
It will all be very different next year, when Brian Carroll will be one of eight members of the top table who will come to the end of their term, meaning that a significant reshuffle will need to take place.
