Mayo GAA Commercial Director “could raise €850k a year”

Mayo GAA Commercial Director “could raise €850k a year”


Daniel Carey

THE Commercial Director proposed in the Mayo GAA Draft Strategic Action Plan could raise up to €850,000 a year. So says Liam Horan, who chaired the committee which drew up the controversial document, which is due to be debated at next Monday night’s meeting of Mayo GAA Board.
The Ballinrobe man will attend the meeting along with members of his steering committee to answer questions from delegates, having met with members of the Mayo GAA Executive just over two weeks ago.
The recommendation for a full-time Mayo GAA Commercial Director is one of seven key proposals in the report, which was the subject of a lengthy and sometimes heated debate at the last County Board meeting.
But Horan said he and his committee don’t view the role as a cost – “rather, we see it as potential revenue”, he told The Mayo News.
The Ballinrobe man envisages that the Commercial Director would be on a salary of approximately €40,000 per annum, plus commission on income raised, and be entitled to expenses of up to 15,000 to cover travel and hotel costs.
“But we would see this person potentially raising between €500,000 and €850,000 a year,” he told The Mayo News.
“And that’s what needs to be raised for the level of debt Mayo GAA has. It might sound big in the current environment, but this isn’t just a localised effort – we aim to tap into Mayo GAA supporters worldwide.”
Acknowledging that the Commercial Director may not raise €850,000 in the first year, Horan suggested that the figure was based on the committee’s belief that “€30,000 or €40,000 a year” could be collected for Mayo GAA in “15 or so big cities around the world” as well as other local fund-raising initiatives.
Among the recommendations in the Strategic Plan is the creation of a worldwide Mayo Supporters’ Club, something which will “rely on favourably disposed locally-based Mayo people” getting behind the initiative.
Raising such money would lessen the exposure of clubs to the McHale Park debt “through new revenue streams”, Horan concluded.
The Strategic Plan also calls for an audit of Mayo GAA finances, a five-year financial and fund-raising plan, a full-time Director of Football Coaching, and a Mayo Gaelic Football Academy for high-potential players aged 18-22.
Members of the Mayo GAA Executive expressed reservations about many of the key recommendations at the last County Board meeting, while opinion on the floor was divided. Mayo GAA Board Chairman Paddy McNicholas said the “good points” in the document – reckoned by Secretary SeΡn Feeney to amount to around 70 per cent – will be incorporated into the Board’s own Strategic Plan, which is due to go to Croke Park by the summer.
The Strategic Plan’s 19-strong steering committee are due to meet this week and plan to e-mail club secretaries a document which, Horan says, will explain the rationale behind the key recommendations in the report.
“My message to all involved in Mayo GAA is that this plan offers an opportunity for Mayo to move to a whole new level of performance,” he concluded. “In the current environment, we have to become leaders again – not just follow what others are doing, but actually become the best.”