It’s taxpayers money, budgets are set out accordingly depending on pressing needs. You are advocating millions being spent on providing a hobby which is currently being catered for while big problems exist with road networks, hospitals, schools etc.
The GAA might be loaded but as I said it is a completely frivilous waste of money, the game is thriving in Dublin at the minute, there is huge money being pumped into the GAA in Dublin, so much so that Dublin have gone miles ahead of everyone else at county level in football. This money would be far better served in areas like Louth, Wicklow, Leitrim, Longford, Carlow, Sligo, Laois, Westmeath etc.
You have zero pragmatism at all in what you are saying, you don’t seem to have any rational knowledge on how much this would cost. You haven’t seemed to offer any critical thought to what you are proposing and plenty of it has been laid out here.
It’s not long ago you were cribbing on about the funding made available to Dublin and how it’s destroying the game, now you are saying they should be pumping €10m+ into the area to improve the numbers being catered for. There’s neither head nor tail to you.
Have you ever been to Sean Moore Park? The facilities are superb but the club has always battled being stuck between two areas that are rugby and soccer daft.
The hurlers were senior not so long ago but are now toiling away in division 3.
The footballers are been stuck at the intermediate level for what seems decades now, with many heart-breaking, gut-wrenching near misses along the way to the holy grail of senior football. It’s all a far cry from the 60s when we were the dominant force in southside football.
No I didn’t, because you said ‘Rochestown and Douglas one of the areas I’m comparing, would be more affluent than Kilmacud.’
If I had decided to check surrounding catchment areas I would have checked Mount Merrion, Blackrock and Foxrock. They are more expensive than Stillorgan.
And yes, house prices are a perfect indicator of affluence (which is the amount of money people have).
I don’t really care about your argument in general, just pissed myself laughing when you suggested that these places are richer than Crokes’ catchment.
Counties with high proportion urban areas always struggle. Outside of Dublin you look at the main counties right now in football.
Donegal
Mayo
Kerry
Tyrone
Monaghan
All counties where rural areas heavily dominates urban areas in terms of population. Look at Armagh and Derry for instance. Derry City has a population of close to 100k, majority nationalist and there hasn’t been a county player from Derry City in the past 30/40 years. Likewise Armagh, North Armagh which includes the population base of Craigavon, Lurgan and Portadown has a population of around 100k and while there would be sizeable unionist population there, it still possesses a big Catholic population - Lurgan would have majority Catholic population while Craigavon and Portadown would also have reasonable Catholic communities. Yet the Armagh panels always seem to be dominated from clubs in South and Central Armagh.
The GAA struggles in urban areas, for a variety of reasons. Wicklow and Louth are two prime examples of that, counties with fairly big populations but relatively small in terms of area. Louth have two LOI teams in Dundalk and Drogheda and soccer would definitely seem to hold a sway there in the urban areas.
Not true. Waterford is a thriving hurling city. In my lifetime it wiped a thriving professional soccer club out. We have a pale imitation now that can’t get a sniff. It has never let rugby get so much as a toehold. One of the reasons has been a constant series of new clubs and splits that has always generated massive competitive tension.
No they are not. Fundamentally house prices are an indicator of supply and demand. A chap in Waterford in the same job as a chap in Dublin living in the same house will be significantly more affluent than a chap in Dublin because he will have massively more disposable income and a much smaller level of debt. Do you think owing more money to a bank makes you more wealthy?
I didn’t mention Waterford. I’ve cited Armagh, Derry and Louth as three counties who struggle in urban areas. I would say Sligo would be another county, the town compromises of about 1/3 of the county’s population and Sligo Rovers have been going well in previous seasons.
No. If it’s supply and demand then it’s the exact same. A person has to be richer to buy in an area where the demand is high. They have to have more money. Where they get this money is up to them. Your suggestion that a someone in Waterford is with the exact same job as a fella in dublin etc is correct of course, but there are much better jobs in dublin and more of them. There are much more richer people in dublin. It is that fact that drives up house prices. And one of the highest priced areas in dublin is the catchment area of Crokes. Your what aboutery is just mischief making.
On the other hand West Belfast has the highest concentration of GAA clubs in a single area in the island, something like ten or eleven clubs within a two and a half mile radius. Yet Antrim are shit.
But it does struggle in many areas, hence why outside of Dublin (which has a huge population advantage over every county) that most of the top teams are counties with predominantly rural populations, certainly in football anyway.
You are wrong. Its one indicator. Bur that area is mixed. You can find cheap housing as well. And people may be living in an area without a penny to spend.
I didn’t bring class or affluence into it. But having spent alot of time in rochestown and stilorgan i would say Rochestown is much more affulent. Alot more old money, alot less struggle one would imagine.