GAA 'losing spectators' over paywalled games, warns minister
A junior minister has said the GAA needs to “re-examine” its decision to put games behind paywalls.
Jack Chambers said GAAGO, the association’s joint premium streaming platform with RTÉ, is having a “major impact” on sports fans.
The Minister of State at the Department of Transport made the comments when asked about annoyance among Munster fans that Saturday’s victory over Limerick by Cork was behind the GAAGO paywall.
“The GAA do need to re-examine this,” he told presenter Áine Lawlor on RTÉ’s The Week in Politics.
“I think it's having a major impact in terms of sport and the wider public interest, but also for the GAA itself.
“I think they're losing spectators.
“They're losing interest from people that would otherwise love to see these games.”
He added: “They should be promoting every opportunity for people to see the Cork Limerick game.
“I think we can all agree on that.”
His criticism echoes that of Taoiseach Simon Harris, who last week said the GAA — which had revenue of more than €112m last year — has “gotten this wrong” about putting games like Saturday’s Páirc Uí Chaoimh clash behind paywalls.
He said putting the game behind a paywall was not what people who support the GAA in every community want to see.
Alan Connolly of Cork is tackled by Dan Morrissey of Limerick during the Munster GAA Hurling Senior Championship Round 3 match at SuperValu Páirc Ui Chaoimh in Cork. Picture: Stephen McCarthy/SportsfileTo access it, individual sports fans would have had to either a €79 Season Pass subscription to 38 exclusive games from Championship 2024 or a €24 three-for-two bundle.
The latter is an individual subscription for three games for the price of two on any one of the 38 GAAGO exclusives in Championship 2024.
Saturday's Munster Senior Hurling Championship meeting at SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh was, according to reports, a sell-out.
If that was the case, then the 45,000-capacity crowd would have marked a record for a GAA fixture at the venue since the redeveloped Páirc was reopened in 2017.
The previous record for a hurling game was the 40,000 that attended the Munster meeting of the same counties in 2022.
The fact that there was no live free-to-air coverage of the game would have contributed to ticket sales in advance.
