State Sponsored Sport

A Picture of Smugness

It is becoming increasingly difficult to watch sport on RTE especially the GAA. I am a fan of the GAA and hurling in particular but it appears that the near bankrupt state broadcaster is pumping money into its championship coverage on which it can't possibly be getting a return. Ireland is the North Korea of sport. It is becoming increasingly galling to see the smug part time teachers (but then aren't they all part time?) they call analysts pontificate to the nation on the need for more committee's and a greater acceptance of the decisions of the Disputes Resolution Committee.

The coverage of the Championship on the RTE website is wall-to-wall and in many ways excellent. The problem is that the state should not be spending taxpayers money on sport. But what about all the fatties, surely encouraging them off their arses is good for society you cry? Firstly I don't think so and secondly even if it was then driving the GAA gravy train is certainly not the way to do it.

The only ones who don't benefit are the players but then most of them are students or teachers so I suppose they do actually benefit through being paid for getting the summer off to do nothing except play GAA.

Kevin Myers was slaughtered recently for commenting that RTE shouldn't be showing events like the Confederations Cup match between Spain and New Zealand. The Communications Director of RTE wrote the smuggest letter of all time to the Independent boasting of the viewer numbers this match got and saying that they didn't even have to pay for the rights because they came as part of the World Cup rights deal.

I would love to see the correlation between the amount of money RTE spends on it's sports coverage relative to the advertising revenue it brings in. Even if they broke even it still wouldn't justify their profligacy. Big Championship matches, Soccer internationals and the Champions League draw such a crowd anyway that just by having the rights to these matches is worth a large amount of advertising revenue anyway but if TV3 owned the rights, they would have to use their commercial success in this area to subsidise other areas. Maybe RTE do this too but they use the taxpayers money.

It's absurd to think that Ireland with a population of about 4 million can expect to run a BBC style broadcaster. The licence fee should be abolished and RTE sold off. Championship games would still be shown if the demand was there and if it ended up that you had to pay for them then it would only be because you wanted to see them not because the Government decided you should.

It's hard to write about this subject without sounding bitter and twisted but in an age when businesses are closing down on a daily basis the effects of the wasted millions poured into the GAA and other sporting organisations are becoming more and more apparent.

It's not just empty stadiums being renovated all over the country (the Gaelic Grounds one of the worst offenders) or the couple dozen reporters and pundits making a fortune off the back of RTE's coverage, it is the whole attitude which pervades this cosy cartel between RTE and the GAA, the idea that both organisations are somehow holier than thou, above question and as honest as the day is long.