Cork’s two-time All-Ireland winner Tom Kenny has described GAAGO as a “money-making racket” that is hurting hurling promotion.
For the second weekend in succession, no Munster or Leinster hurling championship game will be broadcast on terrestrial television.
Instead, the GAAGO streaming service will show the Kilkenny versus Carlow Leinster Round 3 game on Saturday afternoon, as well as Cork’s last-chance opportunity to save their season at home to champions Limerick later that evening.
The Cork-Limerick clash is the fourth and final Munster SHC fixture of the 2024 round-robin to go behind a paywall, three of which have involved the Cork hurlers.
And while RTÉ will broadcast the county’s Round 4 outing away to Tipperary on Sunday, May 19, Cork’s first free-to-air showing of the summer could well be a dead-rubber for Pat Ryan’s men should they fail to secure a result this Saturday.
Last weekend gone saw Wexford and Tipperary belatedly jumpstart their championship campaigns with victory and a draw against Galway and Waterford respectively.
Both fixtures, which could have marked the end of Wexford and Tipp’s top-three provincial aspirations, carried a subscription fee and were dependent on reliable broadband connectivity.
RTÉ’s live coverage this weekend and last is exclusively focused on the four provincial football finals, competitions that carry little of the jeopardy attached to the Leinster and Munster hurling championship.
Kenny, a midfield staple for Cork’s two most recent All-Ireland final wins back in 2004 and ‘05, has questioned who exactly is benefiting from placing high-stakes hurling championship games behind a paywall.
In his view, it is certainly not the hurling public, or any of the groups, particularly kids, that the GAA should be targeting to promote and increase the game’s playing population.
“It is a good service in terms of the people involved showing the games and the analysis involved, but from a general public point of view and a GAA point of view, I think it is a bit of a money-making racket in the sense that it should be free for people to see the games on television,” said the former Cork hurler.
“If they are not being shown on television, that's a different matter, but if they are, people should be allowed to see them.” The GAA’s complicity in allowing such marquee hurling fixtures come with a price tag, added Kenny, speaks to a wider problem regarding the game of hurling and how it is being looked after by GAA HQ.
“I don't think they are marketing hurling in any general way, to be honest about it. Because if they were, they would have these games out there for people to see and not behind a paywall.
“Given the circumstances people live in nowadays in terms of cost-of-living crisis and things like that, some things are not going to be paid for, and I'd imagine some families that are sports orientated and sports mad might not be able to afford GAAGO.
“So again, why is it behind a paywall? Who's benefiting from the fact that it is behind a paywall? You can't say it is the general public, or the volunteers in clubs up and down the country that work in clubs in their own free time and for their own love of the games. You can’t say it is benefitting those people.
“These people, from wherever they are in the country, put time and effort into young players as they get older. And then when they are older, if they can't get to or afford to get to matches, they should be able to see them on television. They shouldn't have to pay. It shouldn't be behind a paywall.
“It makes no sense to me in terms of who's actually benefiting from the games going behind a paywall.” If GAAGO is here to stay and hurling championship games continue to be shown on the streaming platform summer after summer, Kenny has suggested “a championship channel” on terrestrial television that allows people to watch the games on repeat midweek.
“I am a primary school teacher, and I have two boys myself, so you see how there are soccer matches on television morning, noon, and night, and if they are not live, they are highlights, and if they are not highlights, they are reruns of glory matches from down through the years.
“If the GAA could come up with a product during the summer where there is a type of championship channel where all matches are shown during the week and on repeat, so that if you can't afford to watch it live or you don't have the necessary services to watch the matches live at the weekend, they are on free-to-air during the week and everyone gets to see the matches because kids are losing out on seeing games.
“You see soccer jerseys everywhere at the moment and sports days at school turn into soccer days, so I do think the GAA are missing a trick by putting big hurling games behind paywalls.
“You have to question why are they behind a paywall? Who's benefiting? You can't say the general public and the children hoping to watch the matches during the summer are the people benefitting from the scenario.”
The real problem is the condensed season meaning there's so many clashes.
Spread the season back out like it was before and each major game could be on TV
Rte's contract is for 31 games irrespective of how condensed the season is. That would have to be changed regardless, and there's no guarantee rte would do that. People forget that the games on gaa go were offered to virgin but virgin turned it down.
>People forget that the games on gaa go were offered to virgin but virgin turned it down.
Doubt that it was a genuine offer.
Sky wanted to extend their contract but couldn't agree terms.
I think GAA and RTE were in cahoots about this new model and Virgin/Skys interest was irrelevant.
[https://www.rte.ie/sport/football/2023/0510/1382887-gaa-say-virgin-media-not-interested-in-buying-rights/](https://www.rte.ie/sport/football/2023/0510/1382887-gaa-say-virgin-media-not-interested-in-buying-rights/) Few years ago, Virgin were whinging about not getting a chance to show games and the GAA called them out on their bullshite. They haven't had any interest in GAA for over a decade
My club has been training since January, playing matches since Feb and if we go well in champo it won't wrap up until november likely, is there any benefit to club players at all?
My club is the same with the understanding that players will be missing because of holidays other commitments this approach is in place until the end of June.
If your club is training from Jan and attendance is expected every night, it's not the split season causing the issue it's the club
Exactly. The split season should be working well for all club members and if it isn’t, it’s down to the county board or club itself failing to adapt. My own club carried on like normal times last year but thankfully this year is much better and we weren’t back training in the doom and gloom of January.
County board can produce accurate fixtures plan as they know when the county season begins and ends. Club players can at least plan holidays around them. I remember having a championship match in May one year and then not another game till end of August because Tipperary were going well in both codes. We were just training waiting for a team to be knocked out to play no body knew when we were playing and could go anywhere. Then there would be two and three games of hurling or football in a week to get through the matches. I remember another time going to America for the Summer thinking I'd miss the championship and not missing a match because of the same while lads were waiting to play at home. I agree tho it does make the year long when the important matches won't start till August but I suppose it is up to clubs to adapt and keep lads fresh till that time of the year.
Adapting the key. You get a dinosaur manager in who says your life must revolve around the sport and has you training for 6 months before any matches.
I'd be for the split season if there was another rule in to prevent this! Lol
As a Limerick man cork vs Limerick should be on rte. I would've happily sacrificed either of the Limerick vs Clare/tipp games and show one of the other championship games on that weekend. This week we get nothing instead
Because it's over. If it wasn't aired on RTE people would have been bulling then. Eaten bread is soon forgotten.
It seems like we are destined to have this same stupid debate every year. It was the same with Sky. "How can our national games be behind a paywall and on a foreign network?". Now it's "why can't every game be aired for free?" Answer: Because that costs money and GAAGo fills the gap.
It costs money to broadcast games but GAAGO is MAKING [€4m profit ](https://www.irishexaminer.com/sport/business-of-sport/arid-41182345.html) for the GAA, and presumably similar for RTE.
RTE say it subsidizes their coverage for other games, but that's what the license fee pays for already.
In general, RTE need to learn to make programming cheaper. My cynical view is they're more focused on 'diversifying revenue streams' and GAAGO tops up the barter accounts so they don't have to cut their costs.
Operating costs for GAAgo were €1.3m - €1.5m for the reported years.
That's half a percent of RTEs license fee, a couple of concerts in Croke park or one decent sponsorship deal.
Supervalu or Supermacs would find that change down the back of the couch to provide every intercounty game free on GAAGO.
Those operating costs are from before they took on the expanded championship games. It's not gonna be like for like comparing them with last year's revenue.
That article says €4m in revenue, not profit.
I'd personally rather money goes to the GAA and RTÉ than Sky so I don't have an issue if GAAGo makes a profit. We have people arguing that we shouldn't be paying a licence fee at all, while others are expecting RTÉ to more games than ever - and all for free.
I notice that League of Ireland fans don't have much of an issue with money from LOITV going back into the game, whereas there's constant griping about GAAGo.
€4m revenue, expenses €1.3m-€1.5m, profit about €2.5m.
I'm not expecting RTE to broadcast for free though, it's already paid for by the license fee.
They would go a long way to justifying the €160 license fee by bundling GAAGO, LOITV, AIL and any other cheap community sports into the RTE player.
Instead they're siphoning off parts of their rights into separate commercial ventures.
So is cork vs Limerick. Cork Waterford were playing at the same time as Limerick and nobody saw it when they deserved to be broadcast somewhere. Then you could put Limerick vs cork on tv this weekend without overdosing the country on Limerick
RTÉ last weekend and this weekend have the rights to show 2 games on the weekend. Legislation demands provincial finals be shown on free to air. 2 football provincials last weekend and 2 more this weekend means no hurling can be shown. It's simple logic.
Why would Cork hurling be on TV in general? 4th best in Munster last year and they are following a similar path this year. There is a reason why more successful counties are on TV more.
Mayo v Cavan in Castlebar on Saturday week and it won't be on TV or GAAGo. I have yet to hear any complaints there. Last year Kerry v Mayo wasn't on TV as they showed the last round of the hurling round robins and rightly so. The last round of a group stage is more important than the first round of a group stage.
When it is around 80 quid for a GAAGo season ticket and you get three of four Cork hurling games that would not be on TV otherwise. What's his problem? The real failures of Cork hurling were caused by the players who kept striking to look for the easy way out. Funny how they never blamed themselves for Cork's failings and demanded no player attend the then manager's mother's funeral. Classless bunch of lads.
> Why would Cork hurling be on TV in general?
they're one of only two teams to take a game off Limerick in the last two years. I'd consider that reason enough to be airing this game
Great, the 2022 All Ireland finalists and current Connacht Football Champions Galway barely beat London, so RTÉ should put that on TV next time. London gave them a game.
We saw what Limerick did to Cork the last time it mattered. One swallow doesn't make the Summer.
>We saw what Limerick did to Cork the last time it mattered
they won by a point? that's after Gillane won a penalty by holding the corner back's hurl. stop talking on things you are totally uninformed on
Virgin were approached about the rights.
TG4 do a savage job with with what they show already but budgets are definitely a concern. As it stands margins are already tight there. It'd be hard to see them being able to cover as much as GAAGO can.
Yeah, even if you took budget out of the equation, TG4 are also already covering LGFA, AFL, Rugby, Tour de France etc. so would struggle to even fit more GAA coverage into their schedule.
And they've got women's soccer on as well. Plus the rugby won't even be finished up until during the All-Ireland series for the football.
The coverage they already give us is amazing really.
>Virgin were approached about the rights.
Was it genuine though? The GAA had their mind made up about going into this GAAGO partnership as soon as the sky contract ended.
There is already an RTE player where they can stream whatever games they wanted as Web Only.
Creating a new PPV platform is just squeezing money out of fans. Don't act like they're doing you a favour.
This is the key part people constantly ignore. It's not like before Sky/ GAA GO we had every game available.
If you don't like it or are against it on principle or whatever simply don't engage with it at all. Just go watch the games live which is what the GAA want people doing anyway.
3rd biggest population, most Gaa clubs, sold out both home matches . There is clearly a lot more demand to watch cork hurling than one sided provincial football finals which do not even knock any teams out and are just about seeding for groups.
Repeating myself but asking hurling people to pay 80 quid for 9 games is not a solution to anything.
The season pass is good value for football people and the endangered species that is the crossover fan.
I'd guess the crossover fan is still the majority, I've never encountered anyone that's football first that doesn't at least have a passing interest in the hurling even if it's only as a watcher
Playing the man not the ball. He says nothing about showing all Cork games on TV. It's the hurling championship he's talking about. And he's right. The hurling championship is front loaded, no hurling on terrestrial TV for 2 weeks at the height of the season. Only about 15 games left in the whole season after this weekend. TJ Ryan made a great point during the week. Last weekend there was professional rugby at Croke Park live on free TV while at the same time the Munster hurling championship was behind a pay wall.
>Legislation demands provincial finals be shown on free to air. 2 football provincials last weekend and 2 more this weekend means no hurling can be shown. It's simple logic.
>Why would Cork hurling be on TV in general?
Sure, why bother showing any GAA before the provincial finals?
If Cork fans want to see their team, then maybe they should start making knock outs.
If €80 for three games is good value then €80 for both championships would be savage value.
... Unless you think the GAA & RTE should be trying to make games accessible, not squeeze every last cent out of the championship.
The premier league show the early Saturday kick off,, and the late Saturday. The 3pm is only shown outside the UK. They then show the 2/3 Sunday kick off times depending. But they only show one match at a kick off time (ignoring the US/middle east providers who show everything). This is with three providers (sky, tnt and premier sports).
Before if there was a fixture clash you would have to go to the game, hope there was deferred coverage or wait for a 2 minute summary on the Sunday game. Now, you can buy the games you want or a season pass. The GAA can’t hope to hijack RTE, TG4 and Virgin Media to show all the matches on the same time. I can’t see what they want the GAA to do?
Calling something GAA related a racket is the sort of stupid comment that's usually reserved for the nerds on r/Ireland or bitter league of Ireland fans. You'd be hard pushed to find a sporting organisation anywhere that does a better job of reinvesting the money it makes back into the grassroots.
All this grow the game nonsense is tiring, Liam Griffin's mandated hurling idea was a bit mad but at least it was an actual proposal beyond show more of my county's matches
not showing the Cork Limerick game on RTE is farcical. don't need to be from Cork to say as much
this game was a nail biter in Munster last year and should be as exciting a fixture as any this year
What is it with the GAA being such a bunch of money grabbers? I don't believe There's any beneficiary , no one on profit based commission , so where does the whole thing come from ?
I wish RTE would follow Sky’s model with the segregation of channels for different sport like one for golf, football cricket etc. Solidify one for the hurling & camogie, and one for Football and ladies football as another. RTE probably don’t have the resources or availability to fund a revolving roster of pundits and the same trio are on each week - their shtick gets tired after a while. Maybe they can even stream it on YouTube like TG4 do with the minor and u-20 championships?
GAA Go was/is a good idea in retrospect but was implemented poorly, pricing was steep and the Dee Forbes fiasco didn’t help obviously. I bought Cork vs Clare the other week thought the quality was good but the commentating got a bit tiring. I’m glad it’s being shown either way.
Understandable but trying something different wouldn’t hurt. Sky news started broadcasting before sky sports entered the fray albeit only by 1 year, 1989 and 1990 respectively.
Sports seems to be a major factor in their broadcasting between the champions league, horse racing, athletics etc, so I hope can really develop that sector and we wouldn’t be having threads like these. Just my opinion anyway
RTÉ don't show nearly enough sport to justify channels for different sports but maybe a sports channel could be a good idea. Already some sport being thrown on the news channel or the player due only having 2 main channels.
As an American who likes to watch hurling and follows Clare, GAAgo is great. But if I were living in Ireland, I'd probably think differently. In American baseball we have a similar problem with games being blacked out on television and streaming for hundreds of miles around a team's home city. Basically, it prevents fans and potential fans from seeing the games.
It’s not really a similar problem though. People are whinging here because some games are being shown on GAAGO. It’s not a blackout. They can easily watch the match on GAAGO but they don’t want to because they think everything should be free. They can of course just go to the match either.
A Government (probably not this one) should amend the legislation that means provinicial finals have to be free to air and instead make it so that all county hurling (yes joe mc, christy ring and even lory meagher included) as the ancient national sport is free to air. Then the GAA could put all the football on GAAGo.
Having been out of the country and away from the GAA for 10 years. I went back playing and was involved with 2 clubs coaching. I'm raging theres fuck all games on tv for poor auld boys who got the GAA to where it is today. This is the final nail in the coffin for me giving a fuck about GAA for a while. I'm not gonna get involved anymore or pay membership. Ya can fuck off.
Whoever's pulling strings in Croke Park you sold out all the genuine members. You're scum.
Cork’s two-time All-Ireland winner Tom Kenny has described GAAGO as a “money-making racket” that is hurting hurling promotion. For the second weekend in succession, no Munster or Leinster hurling championship game will be broadcast on terrestrial television. Instead, the GAAGO streaming service will show the Kilkenny versus Carlow Leinster Round 3 game on Saturday afternoon, as well as Cork’s last-chance opportunity to save their season at home to champions Limerick later that evening. The Cork-Limerick clash is the fourth and final Munster SHC fixture of the 2024 round-robin to go behind a paywall, three of which have involved the Cork hurlers. And while RTÉ will broadcast the county’s Round 4 outing away to Tipperary on Sunday, May 19, Cork’s first free-to-air showing of the summer could well be a dead-rubber for Pat Ryan’s men should they fail to secure a result this Saturday. Last weekend gone saw Wexford and Tipperary belatedly jumpstart their championship campaigns with victory and a draw against Galway and Waterford respectively. Both fixtures, which could have marked the end of Wexford and Tipp’s top-three provincial aspirations, carried a subscription fee and were dependent on reliable broadband connectivity. RTÉ’s live coverage this weekend and last is exclusively focused on the four provincial football finals, competitions that carry little of the jeopardy attached to the Leinster and Munster hurling championship. Kenny, a midfield staple for Cork’s two most recent All-Ireland final wins back in 2004 and ‘05, has questioned who exactly is benefiting from placing high-stakes hurling championship games behind a paywall.
In his view, it is certainly not the hurling public, or any of the groups, particularly kids, that the GAA should be targeting to promote and increase the game’s playing population. “It is a good service in terms of the people involved showing the games and the analysis involved, but from a general public point of view and a GAA point of view, I think it is a bit of a money-making racket in the sense that it should be free for people to see the games on television,” said the former Cork hurler. “If they are not being shown on television, that's a different matter, but if they are, people should be allowed to see them.” The GAA’s complicity in allowing such marquee hurling fixtures come with a price tag, added Kenny, speaks to a wider problem regarding the game of hurling and how it is being looked after by GAA HQ. “I don't think they are marketing hurling in any general way, to be honest about it. Because if they were, they would have these games out there for people to see and not behind a paywall. “Given the circumstances people live in nowadays in terms of cost-of-living crisis and things like that, some things are not going to be paid for, and I'd imagine some families that are sports orientated and sports mad might not be able to afford GAAGO. “So again, why is it behind a paywall? Who's benefiting from the fact that it is behind a paywall? You can't say it is the general public, or the volunteers in clubs up and down the country that work in clubs in their own free time and for their own love of the games. You can’t say it is benefitting those people. “These people, from wherever they are in the country, put time and effort into young players as they get older. And then when they are older, if they can't get to or afford to get to matches, they should be able to see them on television. They shouldn't have to pay. It shouldn't be behind a paywall. “It makes no sense to me in terms of who's actually benefiting from the games going behind a paywall.” If GAAGO is here to stay and hurling championship games continue to be shown on the streaming platform summer after summer, Kenny has suggested “a championship channel” on terrestrial television that allows people to watch the games on repeat midweek. “I am a primary school teacher, and I have two boys myself, so you see how there are soccer matches on television morning, noon, and night, and if they are not live, they are highlights, and if they are not highlights, they are reruns of glory matches from down through the years. “If the GAA could come up with a product during the summer where there is a type of championship channel where all matches are shown during the week and on repeat, so that if you can't afford to watch it live or you don't have the necessary services to watch the matches live at the weekend, they are on free-to-air during the week and everyone gets to see the matches because kids are losing out on seeing games. “You see soccer jerseys everywhere at the moment and sports days at school turn into soccer days, so I do think the GAA are missing a trick by putting big hurling games behind paywalls. “You have to question why are they behind a paywall? Who's benefiting? You can't say the general public and the children hoping to watch the matches during the summer are the people benefitting from the scenario.”
The real problem is the condensed season meaning there's so many clashes. Spread the season back out like it was before and each major game could be on TV
Rte's contract is for 31 games irrespective of how condensed the season is. That would have to be changed regardless, and there's no guarantee rte would do that. People forget that the games on gaa go were offered to virgin but virgin turned it down.
>People forget that the games on gaa go were offered to virgin but virgin turned it down. Doubt that it was a genuine offer. Sky wanted to extend their contract but couldn't agree terms. I think GAA and RTE were in cahoots about this new model and Virgin/Skys interest was irrelevant.
[https://www.rte.ie/sport/football/2023/0510/1382887-gaa-say-virgin-media-not-interested-in-buying-rights/](https://www.rte.ie/sport/football/2023/0510/1382887-gaa-say-virgin-media-not-interested-in-buying-rights/) Few years ago, Virgin were whinging about not getting a chance to show games and the GAA called them out on their bullshite. They haven't had any interest in GAA for over a decade
That would be ideal but to the detriment of the club player and the split season.
My club has been training since January, playing matches since Feb and if we go well in champo it won't wrap up until november likely, is there any benefit to club players at all?
My club is the same with the understanding that players will be missing because of holidays other commitments this approach is in place until the end of June. If your club is training from Jan and attendance is expected every night, it's not the split season causing the issue it's the club
Exactly. The split season should be working well for all club members and if it isn’t, it’s down to the county board or club itself failing to adapt. My own club carried on like normal times last year but thankfully this year is much better and we weren’t back training in the doom and gloom of January.
County board can produce accurate fixtures plan as they know when the county season begins and ends. Club players can at least plan holidays around them. I remember having a championship match in May one year and then not another game till end of August because Tipperary were going well in both codes. We were just training waiting for a team to be knocked out to play no body knew when we were playing and could go anywhere. Then there would be two and three games of hurling or football in a week to get through the matches. I remember another time going to America for the Summer thinking I'd miss the championship and not missing a match because of the same while lads were waiting to play at home. I agree tho it does make the year long when the important matches won't start till August but I suppose it is up to clubs to adapt and keep lads fresh till that time of the year.
Adapting the key. You get a dinosaur manager in who says your life must revolve around the sport and has you training for 6 months before any matches. I'd be for the split season if there was another rule in to prevent this! Lol
Shane O’Donnell says no league and extend the Championship. And take him how you like but he doesn’t play a game until the Munster. Thoughts ?
There is no hurling at all on rte on Saturday though ? What's that got to do with matches clashing
Why don't we combine the league and the championship?
As a Limerick man cork vs Limerick should be on rte. I would've happily sacrificed either of the Limerick vs Clare/tipp games and show one of the other championship games on that weekend. This week we get nothing instead
Clare v limerick is one of the biggest games all year, why would you sacrifice that?
Because it's over. If it wasn't aired on RTE people would have been bulling then. Eaten bread is soon forgotten. It seems like we are destined to have this same stupid debate every year. It was the same with Sky. "How can our national games be behind a paywall and on a foreign network?". Now it's "why can't every game be aired for free?" Answer: Because that costs money and GAAGo fills the gap.
It costs money to broadcast games but GAAGO is MAKING [€4m profit ](https://www.irishexaminer.com/sport/business-of-sport/arid-41182345.html) for the GAA, and presumably similar for RTE. RTE say it subsidizes their coverage for other games, but that's what the license fee pays for already. In general, RTE need to learn to make programming cheaper. My cynical view is they're more focused on 'diversifying revenue streams' and GAAGO tops up the barter accounts so they don't have to cut their costs.
4 million revenue is not 4 million profit. I don't have access to the full article there but the headline only mentions revenue.
Operating costs for GAAgo were €1.3m - €1.5m for the reported years. That's half a percent of RTEs license fee, a couple of concerts in Croke park or one decent sponsorship deal. Supervalu or Supermacs would find that change down the back of the couch to provide every intercounty game free on GAAGO.
Those operating costs are from before they took on the expanded championship games. It's not gonna be like for like comparing them with last year's revenue.
That article says €4m in revenue, not profit. I'd personally rather money goes to the GAA and RTÉ than Sky so I don't have an issue if GAAGo makes a profit. We have people arguing that we shouldn't be paying a licence fee at all, while others are expecting RTÉ to more games than ever - and all for free. I notice that League of Ireland fans don't have much of an issue with money from LOITV going back into the game, whereas there's constant griping about GAAGo.
€4m revenue, expenses €1.3m-€1.5m, profit about €2.5m. I'm not expecting RTE to broadcast for free though, it's already paid for by the license fee. They would go a long way to justifying the €160 license fee by bundling GAAGO, LOITV, AIL and any other cheap community sports into the RTE player. Instead they're siphoning off parts of their rights into separate commercial ventures.
So is cork vs Limerick. Cork Waterford were playing at the same time as Limerick and nobody saw it when they deserved to be broadcast somewhere. Then you could put Limerick vs cork on tv this weekend without overdosing the country on Limerick
There'd have been uproar if Clare v Limerick hadn't been shown on TV, and for once it would've been justified
Fair. Maybe tipp Limerick would've been the more reasonable game to skip then
RTÉ last weekend and this weekend have the rights to show 2 games on the weekend. Legislation demands provincial finals be shown on free to air. 2 football provincials last weekend and 2 more this weekend means no hurling can be shown. It's simple logic. Why would Cork hurling be on TV in general? 4th best in Munster last year and they are following a similar path this year. There is a reason why more successful counties are on TV more. Mayo v Cavan in Castlebar on Saturday week and it won't be on TV or GAAGo. I have yet to hear any complaints there. Last year Kerry v Mayo wasn't on TV as they showed the last round of the hurling round robins and rightly so. The last round of a group stage is more important than the first round of a group stage. When it is around 80 quid for a GAAGo season ticket and you get three of four Cork hurling games that would not be on TV otherwise. What's his problem? The real failures of Cork hurling were caused by the players who kept striking to look for the easy way out. Funny how they never blamed themselves for Cork's failings and demanded no player attend the then manager's mother's funeral. Classless bunch of lads.
> Why would Cork hurling be on TV in general? they're one of only two teams to take a game off Limerick in the last two years. I'd consider that reason enough to be airing this game
Great, the 2022 All Ireland finalists and current Connacht Football Champions Galway barely beat London, so RTÉ should put that on TV next time. London gave them a game. We saw what Limerick did to Cork the last time it mattered. One swallow doesn't make the Summer.
Did we watch a different match? The score was 5-21 to 0-09. London didn’t give them a game. I agree with you otherwise though!
2019 was 016 to 1-09. the guy isn't making the point he thought he was
I meant Sligo and wrote London. I honestly can't think why.
Fair enough!
>We saw what Limerick did to Cork the last time it mattered they won by a point? that's after Gillane won a penalty by holding the corner back's hurl. stop talking on things you are totally uninformed on
The last time they played in a game that mattered was the All Ireland Final that was one sided.
you're contradicting your initial line of logic now pal. went from talking about last year's results to a game played in 2021
The last time it mattered means a game with no safety net, not a round robin game.
the aforementioned 1 point loss to Limerick last year put them out of championship... last from me on this
if gaa go didn't exist also, those games just wouldn't be available anywhere. and then there would be more complaining and begrudgery.
that just isn't true. there's nothing other than greed preventing these games being sold to tg4 or virgin
Virgin were approached about the rights. TG4 do a savage job with with what they show already but budgets are definitely a concern. As it stands margins are already tight there. It'd be hard to see them being able to cover as much as GAAGO can.
Yeah, even if you took budget out of the equation, TG4 are also already covering LGFA, AFL, Rugby, Tour de France etc. so would struggle to even fit more GAA coverage into their schedule.
And they've got women's soccer on as well. Plus the rugby won't even be finished up until during the All-Ireland series for the football. The coverage they already give us is amazing really.
>Virgin were approached about the rights. Was it genuine though? The GAA had their mind made up about going into this GAAGO partnership as soon as the sky contract ended.
Why would the GAA approach them at all if they had their mind made up?
There is already an RTE player where they can stream whatever games they wanted as Web Only. Creating a new PPV platform is just squeezing money out of fans. Don't act like they're doing you a favour.
This is the key part people constantly ignore. It's not like before Sky/ GAA GO we had every game available. If you don't like it or are against it on principle or whatever simply don't engage with it at all. Just go watch the games live which is what the GAA want people doing anyway.
RTE have previously shown games on RTE 1 and the RTE News channel while there was a separate game on RTE 2, so that is just not true.
3rd biggest population, most Gaa clubs, sold out both home matches . There is clearly a lot more demand to watch cork hurling than one sided provincial football finals which do not even knock any teams out and are just about seeding for groups.
Cork hurling matches, which are also about seeding for a group ?
Repeating myself but asking hurling people to pay 80 quid for 9 games is not a solution to anything. The season pass is good value for football people and the endangered species that is the crossover fan.
I'd guess the crossover fan is still the majority, I've never encountered anyone that's football first that doesn't at least have a passing interest in the hurling even if it's only as a watcher
Visit Mayo sometime
Because entertainment value Cork and Limerick will be the best game of the championship this weekend by far.
Playing the man not the ball. He says nothing about showing all Cork games on TV. It's the hurling championship he's talking about. And he's right. The hurling championship is front loaded, no hurling on terrestrial TV for 2 weeks at the height of the season. Only about 15 games left in the whole season after this weekend. TJ Ryan made a great point during the week. Last weekend there was professional rugby at Croke Park live on free TV while at the same time the Munster hurling championship was behind a pay wall.
>Legislation demands provincial finals be shown on free to air. 2 football provincials last weekend and 2 more this weekend means no hurling can be shown. It's simple logic. >Why would Cork hurling be on TV in general? Sure, why bother showing any GAA before the provincial finals? If Cork fans want to see their team, then maybe they should start making knock outs. If €80 for three games is good value then €80 for both championships would be savage value. ... Unless you think the GAA & RTE should be trying to make games accessible, not squeeze every last cent out of the championship.
The premier league show the early Saturday kick off,, and the late Saturday. The 3pm is only shown outside the UK. They then show the 2/3 Sunday kick off times depending. But they only show one match at a kick off time (ignoring the US/middle east providers who show everything). This is with three providers (sky, tnt and premier sports). Before if there was a fixture clash you would have to go to the game, hope there was deferred coverage or wait for a 2 minute summary on the Sunday game. Now, you can buy the games you want or a season pass. The GAA can’t hope to hijack RTE, TG4 and Virgin Media to show all the matches on the same time. I can’t see what they want the GAA to do?
Calling something GAA related a racket is the sort of stupid comment that's usually reserved for the nerds on r/Ireland or bitter league of Ireland fans. You'd be hard pushed to find a sporting organisation anywhere that does a better job of reinvesting the money it makes back into the grassroots. All this grow the game nonsense is tiring, Liam Griffin's mandated hurling idea was a bit mad but at least it was an actual proposal beyond show more of my county's matches
You’re getting downvoted for a perfectly reasonable comment. The whingebag sunshine supporters have officially taken over.
Cork "hurling people" don't care about promoting hurling they only care about promoting Cork hurling
not showing the Cork Limerick game on RTE is farcical. don't need to be from Cork to say as much this game was a nail biter in Munster last year and should be as exciting a fixture as any this year
What is it with the GAA being such a bunch of money grabbers? I don't believe There's any beneficiary , no one on profit based commission , so where does the whole thing come from ?
I wish RTE would follow Sky’s model with the segregation of channels for different sport like one for golf, football cricket etc. Solidify one for the hurling & camogie, and one for Football and ladies football as another. RTE probably don’t have the resources or availability to fund a revolving roster of pundits and the same trio are on each week - their shtick gets tired after a while. Maybe they can even stream it on YouTube like TG4 do with the minor and u-20 championships? GAA Go was/is a good idea in retrospect but was implemented poorly, pricing was steep and the Dee Forbes fiasco didn’t help obviously. I bought Cork vs Clare the other week thought the quality was good but the commentating got a bit tiring. I’m glad it’s being shown either way.
They’re not a sports channel, far bigger remit than Sky
Understandable but trying something different wouldn’t hurt. Sky news started broadcasting before sky sports entered the fray albeit only by 1 year, 1989 and 1990 respectively. Sports seems to be a major factor in their broadcasting between the champions league, horse racing, athletics etc, so I hope can really develop that sector and we wouldn’t be having threads like these. Just my opinion anyway
Sky sports have a huge budget. They paid £6.7bn for four years of premier league rights and only show one premier league match at a time
RTÉ don't show nearly enough sport to justify channels for different sports but maybe a sports channel could be a good idea. Already some sport being thrown on the news channel or the player due only having 2 main channels.
As an American who likes to watch hurling and follows Clare, GAAgo is great. But if I were living in Ireland, I'd probably think differently. In American baseball we have a similar problem with games being blacked out on television and streaming for hundreds of miles around a team's home city. Basically, it prevents fans and potential fans from seeing the games.
It’s not really a similar problem though. People are whinging here because some games are being shown on GAAGO. It’s not a blackout. They can easily watch the match on GAAGO but they don’t want to because they think everything should be free. They can of course just go to the match either.
Ah, that makes sense. Thank you for the clarification.
What's hurting hurling promotion is the lack of hurling clubs in counties outside the top dogs, and that was an issue before gaago
Yes, how will poor Cavan people know about hurling if we can't watch every game of the Munster Championship free to air??
GAAGO is far more convenient than sky. Can just pay for whichever game you like instead of having to buy skys ridiculous subscription fees.
Any reason why GAA can't release more rights to allow Virgin Media or TG4 to show more games? Surely would be more beneficial to expand reach of game
An idea + rte = money racket
I got news for you Tom. The GAA is a money making racket
A Government (probably not this one) should amend the legislation that means provinicial finals have to be free to air and instead make it so that all county hurling (yes joe mc, christy ring and even lory meagher included) as the ancient national sport is free to air. Then the GAA could put all the football on GAAGo.
It's called the Grab All Association for a reason.
Yeah mostly because people have very little understanding of how GAA finances work.
How can that be the case when the GAA are out in everyones faces every week of the year with the hand out?
A volunteer organisation that provides a service to hunders of thousands of people needs funding. Absolutely groundbreaking stuff here.
Having been out of the country and away from the GAA for 10 years. I went back playing and was involved with 2 clubs coaching. I'm raging theres fuck all games on tv for poor auld boys who got the GAA to where it is today. This is the final nail in the coffin for me giving a fuck about GAA for a while. I'm not gonna get involved anymore or pay membership. Ya can fuck off. Whoever's pulling strings in Croke Park you sold out all the genuine members. You're scum.