GAA must 'grapple' with spiralling inter-county costs

GAA director general Tom Ryan has said that the association must "grapple" with the increasing costs associated with inter-county preparations.

In 2023, the 33 teams that played inter-county championship, excluding New York, accumulated a combined expenditure of €83million with approximately €40m going towards county teams.

"I don't want to characterise it as the cost of any particular cohort or group of people," Ryan said.

"It’s endemic everywhere and you see it just in the size of backroom teams associated with county teams."

Expanding in his annual report to be presented to Congress, released alongside the GAA’s 2023 financial report on Thursday, Ryan said that one of the key reasons for the steady increase in recent years is the extra attention given to the perceived weaker sports in certain counties.

"Counties fielding teams in the lower tier competitions of football and hurling can be pressurised into incurring additional costs to emulate the higher division/more successful teams," he wrote.

"Voluntary officers can be put in a difficult position if they are not seen to support the county manager for every request.

"While the current GPA agreement is primarily designed to treat all players equally, there is now an increased cost from their perceived second code (hurling/football) where traditionally there was a much lesser cost to run this code within a county. (The very real challenge of equality).

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"Success starved counties will struggle to attract sponsorship, fundraising and