Inter-county team spend hits €1.68 million in Kerry
![Inter-county team spend hits €1.68 million in Kerry Inter-county team spend hits €1.68 million in Kerry](/cms_media/module_img/7732/3866389_9_articlesmall_2663721_1_.jpg)
FALL OFF: The Kerry SFC has not been a hit with the locals, like previous years. In the final David Clifford's East Kerry claimed a fourth title in five years.
KERRY GAA will report an operating profit of almost €400,000 to its annual convention next month - but the spiralling costs of funding its inter-county teams continues to mount, despite "best efforts" to control costs.
Kingdom treasurer Tom Keane confirmed Monday night that they have made a profit of €391,136 and has cash in the bank to the tune of €2,853,728.
But he warned of darkening clouds on the horizon, especially when it comes to inter-county medical and physio costs.
“Make no mistake about it, we are facing a lot of new challenges on the financial front, and we will once again have to ensure that we are prudent about our choices while still investing in our players and facilities. Over the last five years investment in our players was very important to the board, and we need to keep this up," he said.
Total expenditure for all Kerry inter-county sides has increased from €1,445730 in 2022 to €1,679,852 this year, an increase of almost €234,000 on last year. It's a figure Keane says “continues to grow despite the best efforts to control the costs.”
Keane explained that the extra costs have mainly been for increased medical and physio expenses and the presence of bigger panels early in the season due to the club commitments of key personnel. The cost of a warm-weather training trip to Portugal was also an extra factor to take into account in 2023.
The figure for training expenses for the senior footballers was €628,810 compared to €523,534 in 2022, an increase of over €105,000. Add in the likes of Championship meals and accommodation (€64,975), and the same during the Allianz League (€45,131), the total cost of training expenditure for the Kerry Senior Football team amounted to €628,810 - but that does not include Medical and Physio expenses, which is the elephant in the room as it a huge cost of €208,4458 - up on 2022 which was €191,014.
The outgoing Kerry treasurer, who steps down after five years in the role, added: "It is very hard to put an estimate on how much of Medical and Physio expenditure of €208,000 was spent on the senior football team. There were eight or nine senior players that had to be operated on after the All-Ireland last year outside of Stefan Okunbor who had surgery after the National League. You are talking about players like Tom O’Sullivan, Paul Geaney, Gavin White, Diarmuid O’Connor, Stefan, Joe O’Connor and there were a couple of hurlers as well. So when you add in the cost of surgery and rehab afterwards, it really mounts up so I would think it’s between 50 or 60 percent (spent on the senior football squad).“
Based on that estimate, the total cost of preparing Kerry's unsuccessful assault on Sam Maguire ratcheted up close to €750,000.
The Kerry senior hurling team came in at around €408K according to the Treasurer's report.
Mr Keane said on the liabilities side, Kerry have a Bank Loan of €324,785 and accruals of €1,348,017. Current liabilities fell from last year's figure of €1,711, 974.
At a time when there has been a lot of commentary and criticism of the Kerry SFC format and timing, Mr Keane admitted there is concern about a fall off in attendances in 2023.
He revealed that gate receipts generally fell from nearly €894,000 in 2022 to just over €733,000 in 2023. League and other championship games receipts are up just over €38,000. The big drop off in the figures comes from the fact that the senior county football championship is down from €449,184 to €239,437. That is an overall drop of €210,000.
“Traditional gate receipts have always been an important bedrock for the association's revenue stream, but over the last number of years, figures have fluctuated wildly particularly with the new split season which sees the traditional dates for championships moved.
"There has been a decrease of €160,000 year on year from our 2022 accounts but last year’s figures are somewhat inflated by the fact that it showed a year and half of competitive club and county championship gate receipts because of the timing of some championships running into a different year."