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Pearse Stadium. Laszlo Geczo/INPHO

Galway GAA to boost finances with naming rights for Pearse Stadium

The proposal is at an advanced stage.

GALWAY GAA, WHICH has managed to double its profits for the year despite becoming the first county to spend over €2m on their teams, is set for a big financial boost early in 2023 with a deal on naming rights for Pearse Stadium in Salthill.

Treasurer Michael Burke said the proposal is at an advanced stage and is expected to be finalised after Christmas, providing another boost to the county’s coffers.

Burke delivered a set of accounts which showed an income of €4,560,520 against an expenditure of €4,149,752, with the profit of €410,768 more than double the surplus of 2021.

County chairman Paul Bellew said Galway would continue to invest in all their teams and that a huge volunteer effort would continue to raise the finance required.

“It is a €4.5m business being run by five permanent people and an officer base which claimed a total of €128 throughout the year,” said Bellew.

A total of €2,161,497 was spent on the county’s six teams at minor, U-20 and senior. The biggest outlay was on Pádraic Joyce’s senior footballers with a spend of €1,072,102, while €978,803 was spent on Henry Shefflin’s senior hurlers. Galway spent €112, 806 on their U-20 hurlers and €62,784 on their U-20 footballers, while €98,781 was spent on the minor hurlers and €83,435 on the county’s minor footballers who won the All-Ireland title.

Galway GAA’s annual convention at the Lough Rea Hotel heard that 45% of the team expenditure was on players’ expenses, 10% on gear, 10% on medical and 11% of strength and conditioning, stats teams and other members of backroom teams.

“There has never been an issue resourcing teams in Galway and there never will be,” added Bellew, who was returned unopposed as chairman for a second year. All of the other county committee officers were returned unopposed.

He said that 257 players wore the Galway jersey in 2022 for those six teams, with a total of 90 people involved in the backroom teams for those sides.

Delegates were told that the county’s long-term debt, which largely arose when a large tract of land was purchased for a training centre in Athenry which never materialised, is now under control in co-operation with Croke and that the remaining amount of €1.5m will be cleared by 2028.

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