Galway County Board's accounts for 2021, which will be presented at next Tuesday night's Convention, shows a surplus of €202,936 which was a big improvement on the previous year in which virtually all club and county matches were played behind closed doors due to Covid. The biggest factor in the healthy profit was a big increase of €335,000 in 'sponsorship income' which includes income from the sale of O'Neills merchandise and Sport Ireland funding of €111,373 which was essentially a Covid grant given to all counties. Gate receipts from club fixtures were also very healthy at €458,948 as crowds returned to club games during the year. In terms of expenditure, county teams administration costs went up by €182,000 to almost €1.18 million which was almost half the entire cost of running the GAA in Galway for the year at €2.4 million.
Elsewhere, Salthill Knocknacarra have brought a motion calling for "all coaching and games development funding to be allocated to individual counties on an equal basis based on registered GAA members" which they hope will then be brought to Annual Congress. The motion outlines the potential increase of €1.3 million in funding that Galway would receive over the next 5 years if passed at Congress.
Ahead of next Tuesday night’s County Board Convention, it has emerged that Galway have contacted Croke Park seeking a deferral of the 2023 introduction date for capping county championships at 16 teams. The decision to have a maximum of 16 teams in both senior and intermediate championships was made at Congress last February, but it would require Galway to relegate 8 senior hurling teams to intermediate over the next two seasons and another 8 down to junior, while in football there would be a need to reduce the senior championship down from 18 teams to 16. Galway county board secretary Seamus O’Grady, in his annual report ahead of next Tuesday’s convention says he has contacted Croke Park seeking a deferral of the 2023 introduction date. “A discussion needs to take place early in the New Year and a decision made on how we are going to progress this issue and the effects it will have on our county senior and intermediate club championships going forward. I have already sought a derogation seeking a deferral of the introduction date.”
The biggest talking point ahead of the convention is the contest for chairperson between Kevin Clancy (Oughterard) and Paul Bellew (Padraig Pearses), while Mary Judge (Caherlistrane), John Moylan (Beagh) and Peter Murphy (Loughrea) are all in the running for Vice Chairperson.
