Galway GAA Chairman Paul Bellew last night announced at a County Board meeting that the county's Operations and Finance Manager, Mark Gottsche will be leaving his role after almost 5 years to take up a new job in Coaching and Games in Croke Park. The Oranmore Maree man was first appointed in September 2019, having returned home from spending 8 years in London, with whom he played in their 2013 Connacht Championship run to the final. Mark was London GAA’s Secretary and Treasurer from 2013 to 2019 and holds a B.Comms from NUIG and an MSc from Ulster University Jordanstown.
Shortly after Gottsche took over, Galway’s end-of-year accounts for 2019 showed a €635,000 drop from the previous year. A decline of over €700,000 in fundraising was recorded, largely precipitated by the troubling revelations of financial mishandling at the 2018 convention. Restoring trust in Galway GAA has been Gottsche’s main achievement in the past four and a half years, with the county in a far better financial position in 2024. A debt of over €2 million to Croke Park in 2019 will be completely paid off under the terms of a new agreement by early 2028.
A record spend on county teams last year of €2,449,734 exceeded the previous record set by Limerick GAA but was balanced by income jumping almost €1.3m to €5,869,684. Galway GAA had a surplus of €367,430 last year, thanks to a combination of fundraising, sponsorship, and healthy gate receipts from games within the county. Overall gate receipts amounted to €1,681,439, a marginal increase on the previous year, while Sponsorship revenue increased from €700,613 to €824,594 and Fundraising revenues doubled from €515,107 to €1,073,604, with Galway GAA raffling off an apartment in Salthill at the end of December.
