Price of Croker may be too high for soccer and rugby

Despite all the prophets of doom getting their tuppence worth in the various media over the past few weeks, when the cordite finally cleared from Croke Park and the amendment to rule 42 had been passed, no one had actually died. No one got so much as a scratch and the GAA organisation didn’t come tumbling down.

The No campaign diehards will go back to their dark, dank corners in the club houses and mutter and whisper curses on the FAI and IRFU, but, no one will be listening. Their day in the sunshine may have passed decades ago, but it is they, and not the progressives in the GAA that could still have the last laugh.

There’s now widespread speculation that the GAA - especially the defeated diehards - will be looking for top dollar for the use of Croke Park. One estimate puts the price of hiring the Jones’ Road stadium at €2 million. At an average price of €40 per ticket and a crowd of 70,000 that work’s out at receipts of €2.8m.

While €800,000 is nothing to be sneezed at, that figure would be well whittled down by the time overheads and salaries are taken into account.

Also, that €800,000 only applies when Croker is full. The GAA manage to fill Croke Park six or seven times a year. The IRFU and the FAI might just manage that between them in a season.

All in all, it doesn’t leave the rugby and soccer people with much room to maneuver.

It may well pan out that the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff will offer the best value for money for both organisations. Having said that, from a rugby perspective at least, the Cardiff pitch is not the best sod in these islands and it’s capacity to have back-to-back games played on it during the Six Nations would be in serious doubt.

One option the IRFU are considering, , based on a mutually beneficial share of the gate receipts, is to simply to waive "home" advantage during those two or three years Lansdowne Road is being redeveloped.

Currently, the IRFU charge the FAI a percentage based fee of between 10-15 per cent of gate receipts for the use of Lansdowne. One would hope the GAA could be persuaded to offer a price that is similarly reasonable to both organisations.

There’s still a lot of twoing and froing to be done before the whole sorry mess can be sorted out and while many blame the mess on the FAI and IRFU, it’s not really they’re fault.

Bertie Ahern’s behind the scenes meddling with the National Stadium white elephant has led to all of this. Maybe he could bring his ‘legendary negotiating skills’ to bear to sort out this debacle of his own making.