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24 Oct 2025
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24 Oct 2025
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County Board Treasurer Albert Cooney going through the financial statements at the Longford GAA Convention in The Rustic Inn, Abbeyshrule on Thursday night last. Photo: Declan Gilmore
The most pleasing aspect to emerge from the financial statements presented at the Longford GAA Convention in The Rustic Inn, Abbeyshrule on Thursday night last was that the cost of running the county teams (senior, U-21 and minor football and senior hurling) in 2016 was down around €80,000 on the figures for the previous year.
Longford GAA Convention
The players travel & team expenses category accounts for the bulk of the money spent with around €200,000 the total for this year as compared to around €265,000 in 2015. The all local senior football management team put in place for 2016 obviously eased the financial burden.
Another reason for the cost drop was the early exits suffered by both the county minors and U-21 football squads in the Leinster Championship.
Having reached the Leinster title decider and All-Ireland quarter-final in 2015, the Longford U-18s lost to Westmeath in the opening round this season and were then beaten by Offaly in the qualifiers. The U-21s, on the other hand, crashed out away to Wexford in the opening round after getting through to the provincial semi-final the previous year.
In summing up, the total cost of looking after the various county teams for 2016 came in around the €370,000 mark, compared to the 2015 figure of around €450,000.
A lot of money is still being spent on both football and hurling and the breakdown for 2016 is as follows:
Players Travel & Team Expenses - €199,798 (as compared to €265,092 in 2015)
Catering - €58,052 (as compared to €66,189 in 2015)
Medical & Physiotherapy - €41,191 (as compared to €37,647 in 2015)
Gym & Pitch Hire - €47,746 (as compared to €63,521 in 2015)
Sportsgear & Equipment - €23,904 (as compared to €18,106 in 2015)
The overall income generated during the past year amounted to €819,797, which includes a grant from Central Council amounting to €175,000.
The gate receipts from the 2016 county championships totalled €133,305, showing a drop of around €10,000 on the 2015 figures of €143,742.
The Race Day at Punchestown continues to be a terrific success, both from a financial and social aspect, and the annual Longford GAA fundraiser yielded a profit of €64,359 this year which is up around €6,000 on the 2015 figures of €58,293.
But the overall expenditure to run Longford GAA continues to be greater, amounting to a total of €833,219 in 2016, and thus the accounts for the year show a trading loss of around €13,000.
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