Kathleen O'Neill proposes the pooling of sponsorship to stop Dubs becoming a superpower

Don't know how many of you saw this in the Clár for Saturday...


http://www.daraghoconchuir.ie/blog.php?id=2689

If it means that there will be more snot bubbles coming out the noses of some of the window lickers on reservoir duds then I'm behind Kathleen all the way.

Their obsession with Geezer/ Kildare shows no sign of abating. Should someone tell them he's not the manager anymore?

Parts make sense however i would say if i owned a Soccer Club in the UK and wanted to appoint a board to run it i don't think i would be looking at our Chairman / Secretary / Treasurer et al to run some kind of a slick operation and i do realise they put a massive effort in before i am shot down.
In just saying that i wonder has anyone ever approached Niall Quinn to act as some kind of ambassador or something for Kildare GAA.
Also hate to be a wet towel but just can't see this monster auction taking off, the county board need to realise the clubs are suffering big time to keep in business financially and already have the Hawkfield levy to pay!

Just on the * at the end, it's definitely worth noting as the Geezer did help to bring in revenue and that includes getting the players out to cover costs for training camps and the gym at the K Club.

Moan all you want but the Dubs run Hill16.ie like a business. Their website is class, they have apps, they give themselves the maximum amount of exposure before they won any All Ireland's. Then when the big prize came they were ready to jump on it.

It seems ridiculous that a county board is giving out asking for a share of this money when they don't deserve it...a bucket collection FFS!!! How many minutes did that take to come up with.

Other counties are far more imaginative and pro-active. Tyrone have began the model with Club Tyrone which is run very very well and this laid the foundations to underage and senior success.

I see the other thread that the Kildare shop os closing too...and then this stuff appears. Get our own house in order before we go pointing fingers.

Even if our own sponsorship deal is pitiful in comparison to Dublin's, we still probably bring in way more in sponsorship than most other counties so we would be likely to lose out if such a system was introduced.

We seem to be hearing the same thing every year from the county board regarding fundraising. I think it was agreed to set up a county lotto online (like some other counties have done successfully) but there doesn't appear to have been any movement on that. I agree that the auction is unlikely to be a roaring success. Clubs are really struggling at the moment.

Totally agree flamingo. There are lads running businesses in the shanty towns of South Africa better than us. I just don't get it. It should be the number one Priority at the moment but in fact no one seems to care. Or in reality they are not up to the task in hand.
Also in our time of financial pressure is there a need for a full time secretary. I remember when that job was advertised it had a wage of €50,000. There is no way a County secretary should be paid near that.

We really need to get our house in order but we have been saying that for years.

Quote :

O’Neill reveals that the board was unable to secure the €100,000 additional funding they had sanctioned last March – raising just €20,000 from a bucket collection - meaning they were only able to pay half of the scheduled loan repayment for this year to Croke Park.

Could they not have come up with something more innovative than a bucket collection?

This just looks a bit em pathetic coming from our secretary!! Whinging about the money the Dubs can generate through sponsorship while at the same time doing little or nothing by way of fundraising ourselves. We must be nearly running out of begging bowls at this stage!!

Financial fairplay is a relevant point to an extent. A county well bank rolled does have an advantage over those counties less well off in terms of training, player rehab, facilities, expert consultants/nutritionists etc etc. No doubt about it.

However I dont agree it should all go into one pot to spread the wealth. Thats communism and wont encourage county boards to run themselves properly financially when the good counties do all the work and bring home the bacon.

Having said that I there may be merit in the idea of "capping" sponsorship deals at certain levels based on club numbers/members, travel requirements, cost of living e.g. rural/urban etc etc. At that stage maybe surplus sponsor packages could then go into central coffers but only for approved spending back into the relevant county it came from and not spending on inter county teams but maybe player welfare, club development etc.

That would still encourage counties to seek the best possible sponsor deals knowing the money will go to their county while the sponsor still gets maximum exposure but it doesnt all go on spending for the senior county teams and might then level the playing field a little better than it is at the moment.

Eventhough the people involved in Kildare GAA have the best of interests at heart and put a massive effort in we are miles away from running the GAA like proper business which seems to be the way others are trying to go.
Bucket collections / Auctions / Monster Raffles went out years ago and you hit the same people every time. To be fair the fight night held a few years ago generated big revenue.
Kildare must be one of the richest counties in Ireland and we just don't seem to be able to tap the large business market at all - don't know why this is the case, Michael Osborne was brilliant for Kildare GAA, one of the wealthiest men in the word has a stud farm in Kildare and backed us for years. Looks like the people we send are the wrong people if we send any at all.
Hewlett Packard / Intel / Kerry Group / Goodfella's / Wyeth / Oral B / more large Stud Farms than i can name / Goffs etc. etc. etc. surely we could get some kind of Ambassador to help out financially.
We are currently like a club commitee in the early 80's with our Fundraising Options and like the government just keep going after the ordinary man/woman on the street.....

It's been like that for as long as any one remembers. Whatever you think about the former manager he had an ability to pull in funds when required. Now he is gone we are rudderless in this area.

The appointment of a proper commercial manager should be the number one priority of the chairman. If they do their job right they would cover their wages with ease. No more half arsed attempts to raise money that would not look out of place on Fr Ted.  C'mon a bucket collection was what they came up with. No more short term thinking, surviving from one week to the next. We need to start looking 10 years into the future.
It's quite frankly embarrassing to be looking for pooled money when you are doing nothing tangible to look after your own affairs.

Time for Kildare to step into 2013/14 and run the county as a proper business not an amateur outfit. If this is done it will help all aspects of Kildare GAA, club and County.

Hewlett Packard / Intel / Kerry Group / Goodfella's / Wyeth / Oral B / more large Stud Farms than i can name / Goffs etc. etc. etc. surely we could get some kind of Ambassador to help out financially.

[u] can forget those, not interested in GAA. See Kerry tied up with Naas soccer & most of those sponsor Horse Racing/Rugby/Tennis.

Why is it that almost any fund-raising idea for County is met by "clubs are struggling" moans.

The clubs are the County and these ideas are to take the weight off and save the clubs having to stump up. It goy too easy in the goodtimes ( Michael O + Celtic tiger) its now the real fans stand up, like in Tyrone where loads of ordinary fans stump 500 per year most by signing a monthy direct debit.

All in favour email Pat Mangan.......................................

Not sure if pat will be staying on this year in his role, from what i heard he was very annoyed with the McGeeney debacle

I really don't like this. It smacks far too much of envy and "the grass is always greener". Instead of sorting our own garden out ourselves, we're too busy looking at our neighbours lovely manicured lawns and landscaped flower beds.

Baba O' Reily wrote:

Also in our time of financial pressure is there a need for a full time secretary. I remember when that job was advertised it had a wage of €50,000. There is no way a County secretary should be paid near that.

Half is paid by Croke Park and half is paid by Kildare and I don't know what her current rate is. Also, there's a full time administrator employed paid solely by Kildare.

I agree that there should be a cap on the sponsorship but dont agree with the sharing aspect.
The problem is Kildare Gaa is been run by people that are not shrewd enough,imaginitive,innovative.There's no leadership to drive 'Kildare Gaa' on.
I agree it would be a good move if there was an ambassador, a commercial manager and marketing interns god knows we need them there was good ideas on this forum that could of been good fundraising earners the concert idea etc

I agree that there should be a cap on the sponsorship but dont agree with the sharing aspect.
The problem is Kildare Gaa is been run by people that are not shrewd enough,imaginitive,innovative.There's no leadership to drive 'Kildare Gaa' on.
I agree it would be a good move if there was an ambassador, a commercial manager and marketing interns brought in. God knows we need them. There was good ideas on this forum that could of been good fundraising earners the concert idea etc

Agree with you whiteknight on the concert idea would take a Lot of work but reward could be massive

I am sure Christy Moore would make an appearance for us

KFM News -Kildare GAA in Financial Crisis -
Kathleen O'Neill spotted buying €100 worth of Euromillions tickets!!!
Kildare GAA raffle for car and John McMahon wins!!!
Lets get the idea's team together to come up with a great innovative Fundraising Idea - After weeks of meetings - lets do a Bucket Collection / Monster Auction probably Race Night next.....
Remind anyone of an episode of Fr. Ted!!!!!!!

Is Hurley back full time or just for the game? Was he offered a contract by Freemantle?

Lads there are people coming out with first class honours from all the colleges who are offering to work for free! They should be given a chance and a role where they can work freely.
There thing about the Dubs is that whole Hill16.ie crew are let work away fairly freely. This craic of a committee deciding things is crap as it slows down and knocks back any new ideas.
Like many on here I am a volunteer so I'd never ever dismiss work being done but some of the older crew simply don't get things like Twitter, or how to harness new things to our advantage.

Like instead of having certain players going around selling tickets there are lads who work in finance, etc who could be used better.

Reading the statement again this is actually one of the most stupid statements i have ever heard coming from a Senior County Board official in any county -to be fair to KO'N she actually does a lot of great work for Kildare GAA on the ground.

Fairly stupid alright Mickey. But isn't it your own club who were looking for €5 per week from members so you can develop the clubhouse?

Around this time every year the papers pick up on something mentioned in one of these annual reports and run with it for a few days. It's the silly season with little or no GAA to report on nationally apart from the provincial club action. I think it was the Tyrone secretary a few years ago who was moaning about the refereeing during their championship exit and the papers got a week's worth of coverage out of it. It's still a rather cringeworthy thing to come out with and leaves us open to ridicule.

The reaction from Jim Roche was expected also.. Success will bring its own Rewards.. cant argue as such.