Laois GAA have recorded a significant surplus for the third year running, according to the recent set of accounts which will be presented to tonight’s annual convention in the Midlands Park Hotel.
A surplus of €231,755 is detailed in the accounts, as prepared by Laois GAA treasurer Paschal McEvoy and audited by Mazaars.
This follows on from a surplus of €376,037 in 2022 and €505,132 in 2021. The figures are for the 12 months ending on September 30.
A recent executive meeting of Laois GAA was told that a surplus of €120,000 was needed on an annual basis to meet loan repayments.
The most eye-catching difference across the detailed set of accounts is that Laois GAA spent €863,807 on intercounty teams. Not only is this considerably up on last year’s spend of €639,745 but it is also the highest amount ever recorded in this category by Laois GAA.
As shown by the figures below, this expenditure had been creeping up every year prior to the Coronavirus pandemic in 2020. The shortened seasons in 2020 and 2021 meant spending dropped but it came back up again last year before breaking the previous record from 2019 by more than €50,000.
Spending on county teams is broken down across a variety of categories, including Catering/Overnights, Players Travelling Expenses, Team Admin Expenses, Buses, Training Facilities, Sportsgear and Medical Expenses.
Spending increased in most categories with Catering/Overnights up almost €70,000 to €196,036, Travelling Expenses up almost €40,000 to €152,717 and Team Admin Expenses, across both hurling and football and across senior, U-20 and minor, up almost €100,000 to €259,772.
Spending on Team Admin expenses for senior hurling was over €100,000 for the first time at €104,565. This compared to €77,226 in 2022 and €65,781 on what was spent on senior football team admin, which was also up on the €35,032 it was in 2022.
County Team administration expenses
- 2015 – €604,450
- 2016 – €674,114
- 2017 – €698,644
- 2018 – €750,401
- 2019 – €813,354
- 2020 – €511,942
- 2021 – €419,399
- 2022 – €639,745
- 2023 – €863,807
Gate receipts, Laois’s biggest source of internal income, are down from €542,135 to €398,215 though the 2022 figures are somewhat distorted as they included the latter stages of the 2021 championships which had been delayed by Covid.
