Matchroom's unwillingness to cover security costs keeping Katie Taylor out of Croke Park, says stadium director Peter McKenna

Croke Park commercial director Peter McKenna says it's a shame the stadium won't be hosting Katie Taylor in May but blamed the boxer's promoters Matchroom for refusing to cover security costs.

Matchroom chief Eddie Hearn said last night that the Bray world champion's anticipated rematch with Amanda Serrano would likely take place in Dublin's 3Arena on 20 May rather than Croker as "the cost of hire, the cost of everything involved with the event is three times nearly more than staging it at Wembley Stadium."

McKenna said that the GAA had quoted only slightly higher rent than Wembley but that it would require a stronger security presence than the London venue, which he believes the promoters should pay for.

"We would love to have the fight here," he said at the launch of the GAA's annual report and financial results.

"The last time we talked to them properly was before Christmas. Our rent was coming in around €400k. I think the rent for Wembley is about £250k/300k (€280-355k). We are not colossally more expensive than Wembley.

"The real issue here is about security costs, which we felt the promoter should carry.

"I think the surprise was that our focus on security and attention to detail was far more than they would have expected in a Wembley scenario or Bethnal Green scenario. You're talking about bringing 60-70,000 people into a stadium for a fight that’s late in the evening with quite a bit of alcohol taken.

"We looked at the risk analysis on the event and we felt that the amount of security that you'd need would be at the top level and that is not inexpensive.

"So I think maybe there's a worry there they wouldn't quite get the attendance and also the costs associated with hosting an event at a certain standard, that we would