GAA to screen their own games under new streaming service GAA+

THE FUTURE OF GAA broadcasting is set to change, perhaps forever, with the launch of the GAA’s own streaming service, GAA+.

As an alternative to the perennially controversial GAAGO, which was a partnership with RTÉ, the GAA now plan to take on more responsibility for screening the games in a move that is bound to make current broadcast partners nervous.

GAA President Jarlath Burns was keen to place on record their gratitude to RTÉ and how they are still the main broadcast partners. But it will be different.

“Now we are ready to do this ourselves, and our units and society have been telling us that that’s the way we should have gone, but we could not have done that without RTÉ,” said Burns.

What they have learned in the meantime is how to stage live sporting events and familiarised themselves with all the technical support, such as sound engineers, camera operators and others.

However, given how the GAA were mutually profiting alongside the national broadcaster, there was a certain amount of controversy that many were uncomfortable with this arrangement.

There may also need to be a finer balance struck between broadcasting games and encouraging people to watch them in the flesh.

“Last year TG4 showed 222 live games,” said Burns, who estimated RTÉ screened 45.

“You could watch, I think six days out of seven you could watch GAA matches, which is almost saturation as well when you consider that… we still want people to get into their car and drive to a GAA match.”

Nonetheless, they are excited about the possibilities of GAA+ and have already plans to use the unit in the Hogan Stand that once housed the Elverys Sports shop as a studio, with a midweek show planned to compliment the outside broadcasts.

As for Congress motions, one that caught the eye was brought from Danesfort in Kilkenny. It sought to make ancillary facilities belonging to GAA clubs available to other sporting and community groups in the area.

Some of this is already going on at a discreet level, but to make it official would have been a significant change for the Association. It gained 52.8% of the vote, not far from the 60% required.

It may feel, judging from Burns’ comments afterwards, that it was a margin a little too close for comfort.

“Fianna Fáil said as we approach integration the biggest challenge that we have is ensuring that we have facilities for all of the three sports whenever integration comes,” Burns pointed out.

“Ancillary facilities are built at a GAA club to facilitate the needs of the GAA teams. So we have a big hall in our club, and we do let it out from time to time to groups who want to use it, but it’s primarily for use by our own teams.

“We have a handball one wall and during the winter we use it as well. Clubs build ancillary facilities for use by their GAA teams, and as we approach integration we’re going to need more of those ancillary facilities. So the fear was that some clubs might just maybe do a contract with a particular other club and start relying on that income, and then it becomes, ‘what’s more important, the good income we’re getting here, or the fact that we now have a new camogie team in the club, or a new hurling team in the club, or a new any team in the club?’

“So it’s just the delegates made that decision themselves, but I would understand where they were coming from.

Cathal Noonan / INPHO Cathal Noonan / INPHO / INPHO

“I do think there is a future, and the future is going to be facilities shared with other sports and other organisations, but that should be additional facilities, if it leads to less time for Gaelic games usage, that’s kind of counterproductive to where we need to be.”

Among all the various working committees, the work of the demographic committee, headed up by Tyrone’s Benny Hurl proved most alarming. The migration shift eastwards has long been a topic that has set alarm bells ringing, but the findings of the committee were a stark warning that rural Ireland is emptying out.

“The GAA can do what we can, in order to say control the controllables. This is a non-controllable that is visiting us, and it’s presenting us with two problems. The first problem is that we have one of his facilities in places, and a lot of people play in them,” said Burns.

“And then we have other places, if you look at who won the hurling and football club titles this year (Cuala and Na Fianna, two Dublin clubs), two incredible clubs, and they haven’t enough facilities because of the numbers that’s there.

“I have always said that the National Spatial Strategy of the early 2000s was an outstanding document, with hub towns and hub villages, which really valued rural Ireland and the position that that had.

“That’s why we got towns like Portlaoise and Letterkenny, and big towns like that, expanding in a controlled way. But that mentality seems to have passed on, and I don’t think we’re doing enough now to try and preserve modern Ireland.

“And the first thing we need to work out is, is rural Ireland worth preserving? Well, the GAA says yes, and we are the biggest organisation in it, and I think we need to use that to work out how we can do that, working in a partnership with government.”

GAA Director-General Tom Ryan developed the theme, saying, “So more and more you’re seeing applications for amalgamated teams and things like that, and that’s a difficult process for people to go, maybe we have to be more flexible about playing eligibility.

“Maybe we, even the idea of counties, I don’t for a second imagine that they’re going to be changed to any of that. But if you think about it, we are quite regimented in terms of how we’re set up, and that is the strength of the thing.

“Maybe there are things around that that we need to think a little bit differently about, and we just have to be careful to keep the balance right in terms of who we are, and what we’re supposed to be, and not lose any of that. But I think Benny and that group, you’ve already seen some of that, some really good ideas, but they’re still in the fleshing them out stage, but I think they’ll come up with something good.”

Burns also ruled out any possibility of standing for the role of Irish President, a notion that had been gaining momentum since he took over as GAA President.

“I’m not going anywhere. Yes, let me say that very clearly, that that is not on my radar,” he said, adding that he intends to return to his job as Principal of St Paul’s in Bessbrook once his stint as GAA President is completed.