GAA president Jarlath Burns has said that he is "very surprised" by criticism of the GAAGO service from the Government, adding that "you would almost think there was an election coming up."
Amid criticism that Saturday's Munster Senior Hurling Championship game between Cork and All-Ireland champions Limerick was available only on GAAGO, Taoiseach Simon Harris last week said that the organisation have "gotten this wrong" on streaming service GAAGO.
However, Burns has come out in defence of the service, insisting that were it not for GAAGO, those hurling games would not have been available to screen anywhere.
"If you try to imagine a world without GAAGO, the rest of these games just would not be broadcast because we only have one broadcast partner.
"Myself and Tom Ryan, the Ard Stiúrthóir, last Wednesday actually had a meeting with the Sports Minister, Thomas Byrne, and all of his officials. We actually put that on the agenda, GAAGO.
"We asked him were there any residual issues coming up regarding it. He said, no, we accept that GAAGO is an outstanding service, particularly for our exiles abroad, people who wouldn't be able to watch any of the games, and GAA has a growing global market as well.
"Thomas Byrne actually said those words and, the previous week I had a meeting with Pascal Donohoe in my own office in Croke Park, it was an excellent meeting. He has a great passion and understanding of the GAA.
"GAAGO didn't even come up. So, I’m very, very surprised and disappointed at the Taoiseach and then the Tánaiste would actually speak about something that we have already been in front of an Oireachtas committee for.
"They were satisfied with our answers. It came up last week at a meeting. There were no issues.
"You would almost think there was an election coming up."
Minister for Transport Eamon Ryan disagreed with the comment.
"It is not electioneering, it is actually true. I think there is a real need and benefit when our people can see our games," said Mr Ryan.
Fine Gael Senator Tim Lombard has made calls for the GAA to appear before the Seanad, with the Taoiseach supporting him, saying; "I think that is entirely appropriate."
Burns dismissed that suggestion, pointing to his appearance before an Oireachtas committee last year to discuss GAAGO.
However, the GAA president did confirm that he would be seeking a meeting with the Taoiseach to obtain answers for the criticism of the GAA from the Government.
When asked if he would take up Senator Lombard's suggestion, Burns replied: "No, I'm not minded to do that this year, we did that last year. They were very happy with the responses that they got, nothing has changed since then.
"But I will be asking for an early meeting with the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste to get them to explain exactly where they are, with regard to the criticism of our association."
'In order to make GAAGO viable we can't just show the peripheral games'
— RTÉ GAA (@RTEgaa) May 13, 2024
Jarlath Burns, GAA president, accepts that the business model requires some of the biggest. most attractive games - like Cork v Limerick - to be behind the paywall #GAAGO pic.twitter.com/IxxytvIXFI
Burns insisted that funds raised through GAAGO and the sale of broadcast rights are crucial to the future of the organisation, pointing to the decision of the GAA to end sponsorship ties with alcohol and gambling companies.
"I will make absolutely no apologies for trying to extract as much commercial revenue as we possibly can from our games," he said.
"We do not have the same auctioning power as, for example, the Premier League has. If you look at the Premier League, Arsenal played Man United yesterday. They will make more from that game from broadcast rights than the GAA will make over five years.
"That's their number one source of revenue. Their second major source of revenue is from alcohol companies. We refuse to accept any revenue from alcohol companies. Their third is from gambling companies. The GAA has blacklisted all gambling companies in terms of commercial revenue.
"That only leaves our games. Our games are the most important things that we have."
With the development of centres of excellence and redevelopment of stadiums in up to eight counties, Burns estimates the GAA may require up to €500m to fund these infrastructure projects.
He continued: "In order to make GAAGO financially viable, we can't have the peripheral, small games, so we do have to have some games to attract people that they'll say; 'there are a couple of big games on, that will justify my purchase of €69'.
"We do not have shareholders, we have stakeholders, and our stakeholders are demanding that we do our best, that we try to fund all of our infrastructure projects.
"If we only put the big games on free-to-air, GAAGO is less attractive and it won't pay for itself.
"GAAGO has it's own rigging units now, we employ 39 people and I would urge the Government to reflect on the fact that this is a digital start-up, a young company that we are led to believe that the Government is promoting and now we have senior Government ministers talking against the start-up of a young company that is there to fill a gap."
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