Offaly GAA accounts show healthy surplus for 2023
THE Offaly GAA accounts are showing a healthy surplus of €161,493 for the last year on their day to day running, the annual convention will be told on Tuesday night.
Although down on the massive surplus of €514,452 from last year, those figures did carry the caveat that they also included revenue from the 2021 county senior hurling and football semi-finals and finals along with the 2022 figures due to a change in the GAA's financial year.
The overall surplus for the last year is €88,983, when deficits for both O'Connor Park and The Faithful Fields are taken into account. Both of those figures are reduced from the previous year, O'Connor Park down from €38,263 in 2022 to €25,126 in 2023 and The Faithful Fields deficit reduced from €65,868 in 2022 to €47,384 in 2023.
The 2023 accounts include all gate income for the 2023 championships. Gross gate income for the 2023 leagues and championships was €516,870 which compared to €815,243 for 2022, but as mentioned the 2022 accounts included a figure of €288,179 arising from the 2021 championships, which finished much later in the year due to Covid. The gate receipts for 2022 on their own were €527,064 so there was a slight reduction of €10,194 year-on-year in gate receipts.
The total income for the year was €2,515,271, which was slightly down on the €2,537,904 received in 2022. Expenditure amounted to €2,426,288 in 2023 which was up from €2,127,583 the previous year.
The board's own income was €1,959,306 this year, which was down from €2,057,407 in 2022, while income from The Faithful Fields was also down marginally from €145,597 in 2022 to €136,225 this year, but income from O'Connor Park showed a marked increase from €334,900 in 2022 to €419,740 in 2023. The main increase in that figure came from O'Connor Park signage, which was up from €56,969 in 2022 to €117,603 in 2023, while there was also an extra €18,507 from an energy grant which didn't apply the previous year.
The board's expenditure increased from €1,542,955 in 2022 to €1,797,814 in 2023 and expenditure on O'Connor Park also increased to €444,865 this year from €373,163 the previous year. The big increase in expenditure came in the area of general repairs and upkeep of grounds and equipment which rose from €59,632 in 2022 to €102,265 this year. Expenditure on The Faithful Fields was down from €211,465 in 2022 to €183,609 in 2023.
Expenditure on county teams exceeded a million euro again but was down just under €50,000 on the previous year. The figure for 2023 was €1,160,854 compared to €1,209,334 for 2022.
After that the biggest expenditure was on Coaching and Games Development, which amounted to €350,161 in 2023 up significantly from €7,400 the previous year. This is primarily accounted for due to a new financial structure introduced in 2023 to support Games Development and Coaching. The total income from Central Council, Leinster GAA and club contributions was €347,451 while total Coaching and Games Development costs were €350,161. The new grant support structure has allowed Offaly GAA Clubs to significantly increase the number of coaching staff in 2023 to 10 coaches at present.
The other main expenditure areas were €139,368 on match expenses (down from €247,592 in 2022) and Administration expenses of €123,537, up from €65,057 in 2022. The big drop under match expenses was under the heading of Venue Rental – Club, which was down to €53,840 from €109,782 in 2022, while ticketing costs dropped from €55,311 in 2022 to €20,728 this year.
On the income front, the biggest source was income from Associated Bodies, which amounted to €819,025, up from €469,821 the previous year. This includes funding from Central Council and Leinster Council under various grant schemes, plus share from National League gates and commercial income from Croke Park. The aforementioned gate receipts amounted to €516,870.
Commercial income from all three streams combined was up year on year. Income from the County Committee amounted to €378,162, compared to €438,763 the previous year, with sponsorship amounting to €311,916 (€359,664) of those figures. Income from O'Connor Park signage increased to €117,603 from €56,969 the previous year while Faithful Fields sponsorship jumped to €58,800 from €25,750, meaning that overall sponsorship was up to €488,319 from €442,383 in 2022.
Other income amounted to €245,249, a drop from €333,580 in 2022. This income includes club affiliations and club levy, league income and the main drop came in the area of fundraising, which was down from €150,522 in 2022 to €89,837 in 2023.
Under expenses from county teams, the biggest outlay was for team administration, which was up marginally to €374,889 from €365,913 the previous year. Sportsgear, equipment, gym and laundry amounted to €221,393 (€250,127 in 2022), Players travelling expenses €220,049 (€213,194), catering €194,235 (€191,246) and medical expenses, including physiotherapy €97,436 (€133,518).
Overall the accounts show how much it costs to run a County Board each year and to be showing a surplus at the end of the year is a positive outcome for Offaly.