The Covid-19 pandemic has cost the GAA more than €25m over the past two years, despite Government supports of around €50m.
In 2021, the Government funded the GAA to the tune of around €30m having dished out €18m the year before, while there was additional money in wage supports and rent waivers.
By comparison, in 2019, the last financial year that wasn’t affected by the pandemic, Government funding to the GAA came in at around €6m.
In 2019 the GAA reported a record central revenue of €73.9m, which doesn’t include money generated by the four provincial councils, and while the 2021 figure of €68.3m is not far short of it, €29.8m of last year’s funding came from the Government.
The GAA was helped by the fact that crowds were back at Championship matches last year, albeit with restricted capacities, with gate receipts bringing in €11.7m compared to €3.7m in 2020, the bulk of which came from Allianz League games played pre-March 2020.
For the second year running, the Croke Park Stadium yielded no dividend for the GAA, instead incurring a loss of €5.9m in 2021 compared to €10.2m the year before.
However, that is set to change dramatically this year with no crowd restrictions anticipated given the current public health picture, while there are seven concerts, two by Ed Sheeran along with five Garth Brooks gigs, scheduled for GAA headquarters in 2022.
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