IT MIGHT SURPRISE you to learn that it was almost 22 years ago when Cavan decided to sell fresh air.
It was Cute Cavan Hoorism at it’s very best. They had one of the most storied stadiums in the history of the GAA in Breffni Park. Set in a natural hollow, almost nuzzling into the hill at the top end it had been the scene of many battles and the greatest of players.
But what use to them was it, if they couldn’t squeeze a bit more money out of nothing? And so, they changed the name to ‘Kingspan Breffni Park.’
At the time, it was a minor controversy. In the offices of The Irish News in Belfast, the conversation raged as to how to approach the thorny topic.
After all, Kingspan weren’t paying any journalists or newspapers to mention their name. So why should they?
“I’m going to use it every single time,” said one more ill-set character in the office, “To remind them of the day they sold out.”
And despite the €1 million that has come into the accounts since for this honour, they never actually got round to finishing the stadium.
It has huge potential and nice steps have been taken with the dining rooms and the excellent addition of a museum. But in places, it’s as rough as toast and raw as ropes.
Which brings us nicely to the revelation in The Irish Examiner that Cork’s Páirc Uí Chaoimh is set to be rebranded SuperValu Páirc, tonight at a county board meeting.
The figures involved are astonishing. While Breffni Park get €50,000 per annum for their deal, this is placed somewhere between €250k to €300k.
And what’s the big deal now anyway?
17 other counties, including London, have their county grounds named after some business or other. It’s accepted practice now.
TUS. FBD. Netwatch. Glennon Brothers. Glenisk. Chadwicks. All brands we are familiar with now. Household names. Money for the county boards, which they can then invest and filter down through the club units. Good news stories, surely?
Then why does SuperValu Páirc feel a bit, well, ick?
Perhaps it’s because it’s Cork again. This stadium has become a leper’s bell for the county. They couldn’t stage any concerts last year, and this year Bruce Springsteen will keep the footballers out of the venue if they reach the senior football championship round-robin phase. Two years after Ed Sheeran took up the squatter’s rights.
What was it built for?
With a €30 million debt to be serviced, the present incumbents of the Cork county board are only doing what they can to gulp some oxygen before they are pulled under the water again.
In doing so though, they come up against that flinty surface of where tradition and commerce meet.
And then there’s that other thing, that some counties just need to be saved from themselves. Allowing county boards to go off and plan and build a stadium without checks and balances centrally is a peculiar madness within the GAA.
Resentment then enters the picture when other units have to soak up the spillage. There might be a shiny new Páirc Uí Chaoimh, but what use is it when the county footballers don’t play big games there?
Without coating anything in a sepia tinge, the old traditions still matter in sport; they are essential to the GAA.
Some might say that ‘tradition’ just means more of the same old shite served up over and over again. That may be true. Though it works.
The Irish Examiner reports that the stadium filed an operating loss of around €331,000 last year. If that’s consistent, then the new money coming in is not even paying off the running costs, let alone the debt.
This, at a time when the cost to run the county senior hurlers and footballers in 2023 fell just shy of €2 million. In a new, condensed split-season.
If you want to name a stadium, then fine. Others have done it. Dropping the name of Pádraig Ó Caoimh though is a line many feel slight unease, to outright furious about.
The names of stadiums around the country are often a window into a fascinating past. As a county with a deep involvement in the War of Independence, dropping the name of Uí Chaoimh is unmooring them from a world of history.
The same man who went through penal servitude in Pankhurst prison later was freed and became the General Secretary of the GAA.
The same man who brought the All-Ireland final to New York, was also the same man to ban President Douglas Hyde from the GAA after attending an Irish international soccer match.
All that association to the dark and light of a troubled past and deep, deep history. All gone to service a debt and puff up the chests of those paying the sponsorship.
The meeting tonight that will inevitably give the scheme its’ blessing, would have been one for the ages. The arguments and counter-arguments over this would have taken statesmanship and world-class debate. It would have been fascinating to read the accounts.
Depressingly, as in many other counties now, the media are banned from the meetings.
Chasing money has led to the decimation of professional sports. GAA followers are at heart, romantic and quaint and believe their passion marks them out as a little different. A big chunk of that is chipped away now.
Back in April 2006, then GAA President Sean Kelly was speaking at an event renaming stands in Croke Park.
“There has been a lot of talk about the value of naming rights for stands and stadiums,” Kelly said.
“But the naming rights issue can go too far. Is it not far better to go to the Cusack Stand or Croke Park rather than the Reebok Stadium or the Telstra Dome? It’s better to go somewhere named after heroes or names that resonate. “We’ll never go too far down that road in this Association and it will certainly never happen in Croke Park.”
We will see.