After five months work, involving almost 300 people and resulting in 28 pages filled with 76 recommendations on the future of Mayo GAA that has been batted around the county for the last two months, the report of the Strategic Action Plan Committee arrives back in Castlebar tomorrow night, ready for dissection.
The surgery promises to be lengthy and invasive. Despite commissioning the report themselves last autumn, Mayo County Board have since frequently bumped and scraped against the committee, tried to delay its launch last February, and handled the report with kid gloves since publication. Although the report is wide-ranging in its breadth of topics, much of the attention was telescoped on the committee’s assessment of the debt owing on the revamped McHale Park. Subsequent board estimates place the figure close to €700,000.
The report also recommends the appointment of a full-time commercial manager and director of games to help improve Mayo’s revenue-generating capacity and revamp their coaching set-up alongside the existing post of games manager. The committee has suggested the post of commercial manager could create anything up to €850,000 in its first few years, but the creation of two new full-time posts is reportedly causing the board a problem. While the board appear amenable to almost three-quarters of the proposals, a substantial rump of opposition remains. Despite those reservations, the report will be presented as a package deal.
“We’re putting the lot in front of the Mayo GAA public because we feel for it to be truly independent, it should be voted on in its entirety,” said committee chairman Liam Horan.
“The report can still be subdivided if they wish. We just don’t feel it’s our place to subdivide our own report. We see this as a discussion document.”
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Aside from creating two full-time posts, the report also proposes a new worldwide supporters’ club tapping into the vast spread of Mayo people scattered around the globe. A call for a full audit of Mayo’s finances might draw resistance, but a five-year financing and fundraising plan could form the foundation for servicing the steep debts incurred in redeveloping McHale Park.
“We’re hoping clubs see the merit in the report,” says Horan. “It’s the clubs carrying the burden of the McHale Park debt. They’re the key body in Mayo GAA. The feedback would suggest there’s a mood for change. Hopefully people will see this is the only vehicle of change out there. If this gets shot down, how has Mayo GAA served itself? How else will we raise the necessary money to take on the McHale Park debt? How else will we pay for the coaching and development work? How will we harness the Mayo support as a worldwide resource?”
The debate won’t provide all the solutions but should produce the signposts to point them in the right direction.