Football

Tomás Quinn doesn't rule out pooling commercial income

Electric Ireland GAA Minor Star Awards Panel member for 2019, Tomás Quinn highlights the importance of the pre-game ritual to Minor players, encouraging fans to be a part of “The Championship Haircut” which returns to Croke Park for the Electric Ireland GAA All Ireland Minor Football Final, for the second year running. Fans can avail of a free cut or style between 11.30am – 1pm on the Cusack Stand Side. #GAAThisIsMajor. Picture by INPHO/Morgan Treacy
Electric Ireland GAA Minor Star Awards Panel member for 2019, Tomás Quinn highlights the importance of the pre-game ritual to Minor players, encouraging fans to be a part of “The Championship Haircut” which returns to Croke Park for the Electric Ireland GAA Minor Star Awards Panel member for 2019, Tomás Quinn highlights the importance of the pre-game ritual to Minor players, encouraging fans to be a part of “The Championship Haircut” which returns to Croke Park for the Electric Ireland GAA All Ireland Minor Football Final, for the second year running. Fans can avail of a free cut or style between 11.30am – 1pm on the Cusack Stand Side. #GAAThisIsMajor. Picture by INPHO/Morgan Treacy

DUBLIN GAA’s commercial manager Tomás ‘Mossy’ Quinn hasn’t ruled out the idea of pooling the county’s commercial income – but says there needs to be a clear strategy behind any such move.

While the county for which he played from 2003 until 2012 is aiming for an historic fifth straight All-Ireland title against Kerry on Sunday, their domination has had an attached narrative of their financial advantages.

In sponsorship alone, Dublin brings in a reported €800,000 per year from main sponsor AIG alone, and boasts further partnerships with major businesses such as Subaru, Ballygowan, AIB and O’Neills.

The county also enjoys a slice of the GAA’s games development funding that far outstrips any other county, bringing in €1.3m last year, compared to Cork, who took in €249,000 in 2018 despite having two-and-a-half times the number of clubs of the capital county.

Several calls have been made in recent years for Dublin to use their financial muscle for the greater good and join with the rest of the counties in pooling all commercial income for equal distribution.

While arguing that Dublin drawing in more money from sponsorship goes back to the 1990s and the days of Arnotts, Quinn feels that there isn’t currently a clear plan in place that would persuade them to create a pool.

“There’s a lot of change in terms of the GAA’s landscape. I wouldn’t be of the opinion that you sit here and rule anything in or out, say ‘we’d never do this’ or ‘we’re Dublin, we look after ourselves’.

“We’ve shared knowledge with other counties and we’ve shown a willingness to do that.

“To get into a situation of pooling [sponsorship money] together? I don’t know is the honest answer, whether there’s a model you can do down the line.

“If there is a model like that, it has to be fully thought out, it has to coincide with a full plan in terms of fixtures, how club looks, how inter-county looks and I don’t know if that’s there at the moment. There has to be a clear path that everyone’s on.”

The St Vincent’s maestro believes that cutting the county’s games development grant, which is used to fund the 50-50 model in which their county board and clubs play 50 per cent each of the wages of their respective Games Development Officers, would have an “immediate impact”.

But Quinn, who was speaking as an ambassador for Electric Ireland ahead of the minor football final between Cork and Galway, says it is up to the GAA to find ways to bring other counties up to their standard rather than cutting back on Dublin’s resources.

“When you look at the GAA as a whole, I don’t think anyone should be looking at it and saying we need to stop or lower participation levels in Dublin to give it elsewhere.

“My attitude is we should be looking to grow the game equally, and aggressively in other counties. That is the challenge.

“The big challenge is to make sure if Dublin were seen as a bit of a pilot scheme in terms of making sure there are structures in place, that it continues on to other counties.

“The onus now is to learn what’s worked well, what hasn’t worked so well, and what can be implemented in other counties.

“In Meath for example, until recently they had a handful of full-time coaches, now they’re up to 22 coaches. You look at their participation numbers.

“That is what has to happen, and it has to happen aggressively around other counties, to try and get structures in place. That’s something the GAA and other counties are trying to do.”

Quinn was on the fringes of the 2009 Dublin side that went to face Kerry as confident underdogs in an All-Ireland quarter-final only to be thumped by 17 points.

That Dublin side contained a clutch of men that would go on to win Sam Maguire in 2011, starting this decade of dominance, but there are similarities between the side that day a decade ago and the current Kerry outfit.

Most notably there is the lack of exposure of so many of the current Kingdom side to an occasion like this against an opponent like this.

The counties have been great rivals down the years but Quinn believes Kerry will be sick of talk of the rivalry because it’s been so one-sided this decade.

“I’m trying to put myself in a Kerry player’s shoes this week and you keep hearing stuff about the respect and the rivalry between Dublin and Kerry.

“There is a great respect, but I remember after the 2009 game and in 2010, we were sick and tired of hearing it. For us, it wasn’t a rivalry – we hadn’t beaten them.

“They kept beating us during the noughties, everyone was harping back to the 70s but it’s all well and good them having a rivalry when they were beating each other a couple of times each.

“I’d imagine some of the Kerry players are the same now, up until this year [when Kerry won in the league] everyone was saying ‘ah it’s a great rivalry’, but Dublin had their number.

“This Kerry team are probably in a similar enough position to we were in 2011, where they’re coming in as underdogs, no more than we were, but it was a driving factor for us to make sure we get over the line.”