OPINION: GAAGO is the Sky Sports deal in disguise - fans pay and GAA gets richer

GAA President Jarlath Burns made a formidable defence of his Association and the GAAGO platform on the Claire Byrne Show on RTE Radio One earlier this week. He was forthright in saying that he hopes GAAGO becomes a "major revenue generator" for the GAA over the next few years. The comment stuck in the craw of many people and the GAA President should understand why.

GAAGO generated plenty of revenue last week for the GAA and joint owners RTE as the game of the year so far between Cork and Limerick in the Munster Hurling Championship was shown exclusively on the platform. It was jackpot time for the service which, despite some in the GAA making poor mouths, does make a profit every year. Thousands of people forked out to watch it.

I watched Sean Cavanagh speak about the GAAGO on the Saturday Game last weekend and read comments from Clare hurler Shane O'Donnell during the week, both All-Ireland winners in their own codes, and both against the GAA's stance on GAAGO. O'Donnell was quoted as saying: "I know that Jarlath Burns came out on Claire Byrne during the week, talking about that they see GAAGO as becoming a huge revenue generator for the GAA and my gut feeling is that’s not right.

"At the heart of it, what is the purpose of the GAA? Is it to make money? I really don’t feel like that is what it is there to do. If you were to settle on the GAA's purpose being to grow the game, then I think that GAAGO becomes a difficult stance to take."

Cavanagh said: "For me, there is a suspicion that the GAA is using GAAGO as a vehicle to maximise more revenue and more profit. That’s wrong, it’s driving profit off normal GAA people...the GAA are one of the richest organisations in the world. If anything, they should be saying for the big games ‘we will show them to everyone, we will find a way.’"

Burns hit back at Cavanagh and said his remarks were "superficial, emotional comment." Jarlath Burns is now in the highest GAA job in the country, but he was once a player like Cavanagh, and is still a supporter of the game, no doubt about that. But has he lost touch? These young men are speaking up for GAA people who can't afford to shell out hundreds of Euro to watch a game here and there on GAAGO and maybe attend ten or eleven games in person. GAA attendances have never been so high and that's thanks to peoples' love of their games. 

That's the crux of it; they are the peoples' games and Jarlath Burns could do well to remember that and that the GAA as an organisation ceases to exist without supporters, from the sidelines and voluntary committees of locals clubs, to people paying extortionate money to attend games in Croke Park. That's not to mention the players whose exploits on the pitch, free of charge, are the product the GAA are selling with all these rights deals. 

We had one of these controversial deals before in the shape of Sky Sports. It was criticised from all quarters, including high-profile GAA figures, as something that was just plain wrong. Former Offaly hurler and current Offaly GAA chairman Michael Duignan was a vocal and passionate critic, labelling it "a disgrace", referencing his own father being forced to go to a pub to watch a game because he did not have Sky Sports. It was another case of the GAA saying it had to maximise the revenue from the games.

When that very point was put to him on the Sunday Game at the time in 2017, Michael Duignan responded by saying, "They have enough money. There's enough money in the GAA. How much money do you want? What about the people who've supported the game all their lives and they can't watch it. I think it's disgraceful." To me, GAAGO is the Sky Sports deal by another name and it's somehow being presented to us as more palatable because it's run by the GAA along with RTE and not a British broadcaster. For the people Michael Duignan was talking about in 2017, the end result is the same; they must stump up more money or miss out, end of story. 

No holding back. Michael Duignan has his say on the GAA's decision to sell rights to the GAA Championship to Sky Sports. #RTEGAA pic.twitter.com/Wgcz762kSg

— The Sunday Game (@TheSundayGame) July 9, 2017

RTE is an organisation that gets a lot of Government funding, not least of which €160 a year out of every household in the country via the TV licence. We saw last summer where money goes in their organisation and yet they are partially in charge of GAAGO. It's almost like the GAA want to present that by launching GAAGO, they've somehow done us all a favour. Aren't we great lads showing games that would not have been shown otherwise? Blah, blah, blah. It's all blow from Croke Park and talk of covering costs and all the rest. GAAGO makes a profit and Jarlath Burns has admitted that is exactly what it's there to do. 

That said, of course there is a conflict having it built as a revenue making model. If I'm in charge of GAAGO in the morning and they ask me how do we make this thing "a major revenue generator" for the association as the GAA president says he wants, I'm going to say 'take some of the big matches, lads, stick them on GAAGO so the suckers at home have to pay to see them'. That is a major conflict in my book, whether anyone cares to admit it or not. 

The Government too have to stump up and back up the words of the likes of Taoiseach Simon Harris and Tanaiste Micheal Martin. They've both been critically of GAAGO and great games ending up behind its paywall. Jarlath Burns calls that electioneering, and he's probably right to a certain degree, but that will for change is something all parties should harness.

You have the leader of the country calling for these games to be free for the people, and the GAA, which says its ethos centres around the promotion of the games. Surely an arrangement can be made there funding wise to make that free service happen. With the size of the audience some of the games would get, you'd still get advertising money through the door that should all feed back to GAA clubs and county boards. GAA grassroots is still getting money it needs but a service like GAAGO, and it's a great service, is free to the public. TG4 does it regularly on their YouTube channel.

That's the model the GAA should be aiming for, and not one that dips its hand into the pockets of hard-pressed supporters already traipsing up and down the country filling gate receipts. Cut the PR speak and make it happen.