Square Ball

Build it and They Will Come
I recently read about how Ireland is being filled with 'white elephant' GAA county grounds, stadiums with a capacity that far outstrips demand.  Some say that these grounds may only be filled once or twice a year, whereas a small number of big grounds in each province would suffice.  Is it a fair criticism? 
 

Time to Become Self-Sufficient
The GAA's annual Congress has come and gone.  Some in the media in Ireland dismissed it as a 'non event' since there were no juicy stories to tell about epic battles on such controversial matters as allowing members of British security forces to play, or whether to allow non-gaelic sports into Croke Park. For gaels in North America, there was a matter of the utmost importance up for discussion: the issue of when players from Ireland can be sanctioned to play in North American clubs for the duration of the summer.
 

Non-Gaelic Sports are Not a Threat
The dust has settled after the opening of Croke Park to non-Gaelic games and the first sounds of God Save the Queen echoing through the Cusack and Hogan stands.  As of this writing, soccer has yet to grace the sod of our stadium, but all the indicators are that it will be another seven-day wonder and then back to business as usual.
 

Hurling with the Students in Monterey
Hurling can pop up even in the most unexpected of places.  Monterey, California, is no exception.  A small band of students at the local university have managed to get the makings of a college hurling team together, and the prospects are quite exciting.
 

Adopt the New Logo and Move On
The GAA redesigned its logo over ten years ago but hasn't quite managed to ditch the old one. It's time to drop the old and move on with the new.
 

Full Time Staff and Volunteers Wanted
There is a rising trend of GAA county boards in Ireland appointing full-time secretaries. Full-time staff are beginning to appear throughout the organization from Croke Park to provincial councils working in administration and games development roles.
 

Keep International Rules going
With the International Rules series out of the way after another ill-tempered test, there has by now been the usual chorus of calls from the media and from people within the GAA for the 'experiment' to be scrapped. Many are saying that the competition is on trial for its life and may be scrapped before long.
 

Amateur Status Under Pressure
GAA president Nicky Brennan recently admitted that the battle against illegal payments to county managers is a very difficult issue to address. Proving where the money went is almost impossible. Indeed, former president Peter Quinn several years ago was involved in a special investigation into illegal payments, and he concluded that not only was it impossible to trace the money, it was also impossible to find the tables under which it was all hidden.
 

Pork Barrels and Sports Stadiums
The world of American sport is incredibly different from the rest of the world. While the world watches Soccer, Cricket, and Formula 1, the US watches American Football, Baseball, and Indycar and Nascar. It's intriguing that a major world sport like Formula 1 has made so few inroads stateside that many Americans have never even heard of it.
 

The Physics of Footballs
Anyone watching the recent World Cup will have noticed the bizarre pattern on the ball with its propeller-shaped panels. Footballs in all their shapes and sizes have come a long way from the various objects used in medieval times.
 

The Science of Sliothars
Since hurling is a game whose story stretches back before the dawn of history itself, the humble Sliothar has had plenty of time to evolve.
 

Areas of Growth
My Marketing teacher once told me “there’s no such thing as a growth industry.” Only markets grow or shrink, industry just follows the market, or at least it should do. In the North American GAA, we have several markets, and some of these are shrinking and some are growing.
 

GPA Needs a Few PR Lessons
In March, the Gaelic Players’ Association issued a press release lambasting the incoming GAA President, Nicky Brennan, almost a month before the man had even taken office. Their complaint was that he had not met with them prior to a meeting with Minister John O'Donoghue on the issue of sports grants for inter-county players. Also provoking their ire was the fact that Brennan had already met with the AFL in Australia, and the North American Board in New York, apparently.
 

A Weight Problem
With the recent publication of an Economic and Social research Institute (ESRI) report showing that a fifth of Irish adults take no physical exercise, it is not surprising that Ireland is developing a weight problem.
 

Support Your Local Team
Many Irish people are fascinated by the fortunes of English Premiership soccer teams, almost the point of obsession. Why?
 

It Won't 'Do Rightly'
“It’ll do rightly” is a saying that frequently pops up in GAA business. A lax approach to organization was fine in Ireland for a long time, long before anyone heard of a profession called Event Planning. Not anymore it isn't.
 

Politics and Sport
Some people talk loftily about separating sport and politics. But they cannot be separated. Modern organized sport has supplanted war as a means of 'getting it out of their systems' for many rival nations.
 

Technology: The GAA's Friend
The predecessor of today’s Hogan Stand was an impressive piece of engineering in its time. It was the biggest cantilever stand in Ireland, overcoming the need for the dreaded pillars that blocked the view of many's a poor soul in stadia elsewhere.
 

A Drink Problem
One of the less welcome aspects of life in Celtic Tiger Ireland has been the explosion in binge drinking, or drinking to get drunk as opposed to having one or two social drinks. A conference was recently held at Croke Park organized by Dothain, a group founded by Dr Michael Loftus to combat alcohol problems, and Eurocare. The findings were that Irish drinking patterns are becoming more like those in England where town centers are awash with aggressive, puking, drunken masses several nights a week.
 

Our Own Worst Enemy
Anyone who has attended a GAA meeting at any level, be it club, division, or county, is likely to have encountered conflict of one type or another. This is inevitable. In a democratic organisation, everyone is entitled to their opinion on how to solve the problems we all face. In that respect, we are no different from many commercial organizations where executives are faced with complex tasks, but have to arrive at a single solution. In the business world, what separates the winners from the losers is peoples’ ability to manage this conflict and solve the problems at hand.
 

Segregation: Never a Good Idea
On the way to this year’s Ulster Final replay at Croke Park, my brother happened to be walking alongside another northern gentleman, a man who looked a bit lost. He was asking where to get tickets, seemingly unaware of the importance of the occasion and that it would be all-ticket. When chatting, giving directions, and putting him right, my brother remarked that he was going to be in the Cusack Stand. The man replied, “Oh, so the Tyrone fans will be in the other stand then?” Clearly this was his first time at a GAA match, and he was about to get his first taste of a large sporting event with no crowd segregation.
 

A History of Football (All Flavours)
A British TV commercial once poked fun at the idea of what a Saturday afternoon would have been like before soccer was invented. People kicked an object around a medieval market with Brazilian style fancy footwork, with onlookers clapping and cheering. It was quite humorous, but it was closer to the truth than you might think.
 

American-Born Players - The Way of the Future
There is an attitude among some in the GAA that in order to play Gaelic Football or Hurling to a decent standard, you must be born in a certain county and you need to have been born with a stick or ball in your hand. I would question this.
 

Three Thousand Years of Hurling
We in the GAA are fond of claiming the bragging rights to having the world's oldest sport in hurling, but the history of our national game is not always portrayed accurately.
 

GAA Survives in Any Climate
Some people would say that for gaelic games to survive, they'd need to be in an area where there are plenty of resources, the right weather, and a huge Irish population. But they'd be wrong.
 

The Media: Let's Use Them
The Irish TV networks have secured their GAA broadcasting rights for another few years. Coverage of gaelic games at home has come on in leaps and bounds in recent times, but there is a long way to go in North America.
 

Change Not Always a Bad Thing
There has been a lot of controversy lately about the rule changes in Hurling and Football. For those who haven’t been following, the football modifications include requiring the goal-kick to be taken from a tee, and the pick-up rule to be abandoned to allow players to pick the ball up directly from the ground like in ladies’ football.
 

Professionalism: The case against
There are people in GAA circles who are talking about how times have changed and we need to start going down the road towards professionalism. It’s great when this argument comes up; it’s so easy to pick holes in it.
 

The Cost of Doing Sport
The cost of hosting big sporting events like the Olympics is always a contentious issue. But must it always make a loss? And even if it does, does it matter?