GAA to announce SKY deal

Personally speaking I have no problem with this whatsoever, if Sky are the company offering the GAA the best deal the GAA are right to go for it. Sky have raised the profile of every sport they have covered since it's inception, if they can do that for the GAA particularly overseas it would be mad of the GAA not to seize the opportunity.

Not true, have raised the profile of soccer but after that, it's actually the opposite. Look at cricket viewship figures for example, rugby league and so on. It doesn't open the sport up to a new market, and it's short-term cash for long-term supporter disinterest. Below figures prove as much.

http://historyhub.ie/the-impact-of-pay-tv-on-sport

Good news in my book. Anything to stick one in the eye of RTE. It got to a point that I won't watch the shambles that is the Sunday game anymore.

I read as much of that study as I could before I realized he is highlighting viewer figures but not the actual popularity of the sport. He mentions Leinster, yet Leinster Rugby has never been more accessible or popular. 55,000 sell out for a rabo league game tomorrow night. Before Sky and the ERC you would be lucky if Donnybrook was half full. No one can argue Rugby in Ireland has not benefited due to Sky.
His argument is flawed in my opinion.

I would expect the emergence of the shorter version on cricket, T20's and one day internationals have caused the decline in County Cricket. County cricket is still over the long version Five days. No one in their right mind can afford to watch five day midweek games in the modern world. Test matches are still hugely attended. The last ten years of Ashes tests prove this.

As for Rugby league. It was in trouble the minute Union went pro. It's a regional sport in England. Most teams come from the North West. They are surrounded by huge football clubs who since the premiership has been sucking in their fan base. They can no longer pay what Union pay and so the better players opt for Union.

Sky do sport better than anyone. If you could give the GAA to one company to bring in into the 21st century, then Sky is it.

But you are just thinking soccer Rex. Look at figures for games like cricket on terrestrial television versus Sky, no comparison. And seeing your heroes and the best players leads to participation surely. RTE do GAA coverage better than anyone, just they don't do enough of it, but then again RTE budgets are being slashed, everyone gives out about the licence fee and you've to pay about 30,000 to get one-camera highlights of one GAA game thus limited non-summer GAA highlights on shows like League Sunday.

Yes, too much rugby and so on, but they do GAA better than anyone when they do it. Do you really think Sky will give real time over to GAA? It'll be full-time, five minutes of analysis and then some other sport comes on. Also, just to be correct, Leinster average less than 20,000 per game, Munster less than 15,000 a game, Ulster 10,000 and Connacht 5,000. These are entire provinces remember and tell me hurling and football games in these provinces don't add up to much more each and every round, even in the league.

So we'll get less time given to the sport, not done any better, shown to less people for a few bob and this is good? Plus, players already piping up. Ciaran McKeever is amongst several who have already said "pay or strike?" today.

What about the darts, Sky along with the help of people like Barry Hearn admittedly have done wonders for that sport, 10,000 in the O2 last night for the premier league. A large reason for the drop off in cricket is down to things such as the IPL and central contracts meaning the best players rarely if ever play in county cricket. I don't think a Heineken Cup final ever sold out before Sky started covering it. Super League's Grand Final is close to a sell out each year.

Darts is naturally a British heartland pub sport - different audience made for bars and booze and TVs. It's more a heavy night-out experience whether you play it, watch it on TV or watch it live. What's that model going to do for GAA? Plus one other question, don't you think it's a bit much for an organisation that relies completely on amateurs from players all the way down to those helping prepare grounds to washing kits to paying membership to cooking meals to ask those same people to pay a foreign pay-per-view company just to see what they've helped produce?

Of course Leinsters average attendance is less than 20,000. The capacity of the RDS 18,500. Record attendance recorded is 22,000. Pretty much shows it's sold out most weeks of the year. How many were turning up at Donnybrook ten years ago. Sky has revolutionised Rugby in Ireland to say any different is crazy.

Have a look at Sky's coverage of T20 county cricket. Huge crowds and a real family night out. Sky want people to watch. They do everything in their power to talk up what they show. Never will you hear a Sky pundit talk down or insult the sport they are commenting on. RTE are just negative all the time and I'm sick of it to be honest.

Let Sky do their stuff and that criticism of a lack of promotion will be a thing of the past.

So on a week when half of the Irish teams in rugby are at home, the total attendance is 25,000. Now how many are at intercounty GAA matches on an average week when half the teams are at home? Not difficult to get to 25,000 people a week at games when you've 5 million people in two countries. In fact there was that at club rugby and many more in the old days, it's just that the Heineken format dragged them away from the local and stuffed them all at four professional grounds.

The average attendance at the T20 games you talk of is around 6,500 so don't believe the Sky hype. Easy to tune into the biggest games and say wow, look at that, but what about all the other games.

So not sure what you expect from GAA. Easy to compare the biggest game in Irish club rugby tomorrow (between 18 counties) with a meaningless game in a secondary competition down the road. The championship is already attractive and Sky giving it less time while giving it less access to people isn't going to hype it, no matter how ,much glitz and glam. Are you expecting 25 cameras at Dr Cullen Park, or two hours of interactive highlights from around the grounds afterwards? Not happening.

Plus, players now want money and what about this being an amateur association, run by the donations and work of amateur people who are now being asked to pay for what they produce.

Not sure what you are getting at in your first paragraph. This weekend there are full teams out and it's a sell out in the Aviva 55,000. Where are you getting 25,000 from? Ulster as are playing in Cardiff.

T20 is basically a new sport. The first official game was 2003. How many other sports has grown that quickly in ten years. None. Sky's promoting would not have any effect I suppose.

You are writing Sky's coverage off before you have even seen what they will do. You have no idea what they will do. No idea of the format, no idea of production values, no idea of punditry and no idea of budget. But you've made your mind up so no point debating any further.

All I say is Sky have never bought the rights to anything and not gave it a good go.

What I'm saying is that on a given weekend in GAA, naturally only half the teams are at home. So say two of the four provinces are at home on a given weekend so we can compare. Well the average crowd the provinces get for a game is 12,500, so if two were at home, that'd be 25,000. So GAA dwarfs rugby here, even the secondary competitions in terms of people going to see them. It's only when we use ridiculous comparisons like tomorrow (the biggest derby in Irish rugby versus a meaningless GAA game in a secondary competition) that people panic. But they are panicking at a lie.

You can say Sky made the Heineken Cup, but rugby people will tell you it didn't increase fans or popularity. What it did in terms of Ireland was destroy the club game, took all the fans they used to get on a given weekend, stuff them into one of four stadiums and say look how popular we are. It's an illusion because stadia look full, whereas before there were just far more grounds with decent crowds. Say what you want about Twenty20 cricket being new but these are the facts in terms of people who watch this after all Sky's efforts and in fact it's now declining in terms of numbers going to see it. It's peaked, saturated, is sliding again and still couldn't pull in more than 6,500 a game on average with far bigger numbers to try and attract.

But aside from all this in terms of what Sky doesn't do for minor sports but claims it does, there is one key point and one key question. The key point is time and access - namely less time for analysis and interviews and what not and far less access. The key question is should an amateur organisation that is run by people's amateur efforts and charitable donations then tell those same people "we want to make more profit so you can't watch the games that only exist because of you unless you subscribe to a foreign television station in the midst of a recession"? How anyone can think that's okay is beyond me, even if this was going to change the face of GAA or open it up to the world which it's not.

With cricket its probably down to the fewer amount of people playing it which is why its funding has been decreased this week in the UK

Cricket is the second biggest sport in the UK in terms of participation I believe.

I have Sky & don't have Setanta so would be happy to see Sky take the Setanta games.

Would expect RTE to hold onto most or all of the games they presently cover.

kelf wrote:

I have Sky & don't have Setanta so would be happy to see Sky take the Setanta games.

Would expect RTE to hold onto most or all of the games they presently cover.

Let's clear this up, Sky are not replacing Setanta, but taking over TV3 games plus more. Word has it. Whether you have Sky or not is kind of irrelevant to the bigger points of the debate.

Money grabbing b***ards. Amateur organisation? Non profit?
Dont make me laugh. The GAA higherarchy are more interested in money than they are in sport. They are about to do a deal similar to the FAI. Selling rights to games which supporters are entitled to watch. What of the older generations who dont have Sky Sports?
And if these rights are being sold for the good of the game, blah blah blah. Why dont the money grabbers allow international sports companies make playing kit and footballs? Instead of keeping a closed shop with O'Neills for horrible old fashioned styles of kit which are available in all of............ 4 colours.
Sickening money grabbers. They are killing the sport

It depends I think if you have to pay to watch an amateur sport where the players aren't getting paid is shocking and the gaa are money grabbing cunts if rte are the main right holders i wouldn't be too pissed off like if its pretty much like what setanta is now!!

From what I've heard on the radio all the Sky games will be on TG4. So you might be able to put down those pitch forks now.

If this is the case I can't see how you can complain. No one misses anything they don't want to, more money in the pot, better production and promotion of matches and the games beamed into a huge new audience.

Money talks now in all sports now no matter what we all argue and say.If the Gaa are getting a better deal then so be it hopefully more clubs and counties will benefit from the deal

If this means more money filtering down to the grassroots and further improvements in facilities and coaching then kudos to whoever negotiated it.

I dont have a massive issue with this deal, however I do think this has to lead to certainly Inter County Players being paid, at least on a semi pro basis, I know Folks will tear their hair out about the ethos bla bla of the GAA.. If the GAA can make loads of dosh more luck to them, but now is the time to reward the Lads who are making it for them... If a Poll was carried out among the Players, what do Folks think the result would be ?

Can someone clear this up, are the rights they are selling to Sky not championship games? And if that's the case, how would they be on TG4 as well?

And those giving out about RTE, you won't be long in taking it back. I mean Jesus H Christ... http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/skys-rachel-hot-favourite-for-gaa-role-30137081.html

A choice between The Sunday Game panel and Rachel? That could be interesting to say the least.
Rachel is good in the Indo on Saturdays on many sports. If she was on RTE I'd definitely watch.

TommyKeegan wrote:

And those giving out about RTE, you won't be long in taking it back. I mean Jesus H Christ... http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/skys-rachel-hot-favourite-for-gaa-role-30137081.html

Wouldn't read too much into it TK - a bit of clever work by the Indo to generate a bit of publicity about someone who also happens to write for the paper.

murof wrote:

A choice between The Sunday Game panel and Rachel? That could be interesting to say the least.
Rachel is good in the Indo on Saturdays on many sports. If she was on RTE I'd definitely watch.

Bit of eye candy though