Laois GAA streaming service brings in over 70,000 euro in welcome boost for coffers

2020 has been a difficult year for County Boards all over the Country and Laois have been no different.

Just a few months ago, there were rumblings of a deficit of over 200,000 euro expected when it came to the end of the year.

Fast forward those few months and Laois County Board have come in a lot healthier, albeit still in the red to the tune of 62,980 euro.

A highly successful streaming service was introduced back at the start of the club championships and the highly popular service has yielded takings of over 70,000 euro for the County Board.

A small outlay of just over 15,000 has seen the project come in with a net worth of 55,000.
In a year of such uncertainty, it is a massive fillip and a success story that hasn't gone un-noticed in the reports of Laois GAA officers ahead of the County Convention on the 14th of December.

Laois PRO Paul Dargan commented;
“With games behind closed doors or limited attendance we had sleepless nights to create, build and stream the games to the people of Laois all over the world.”

“It was extremely testing to build but thanks to the help of John Moynihan of All Rounder Sports we created what was an amazing platform to bring the games to people from Borris in Ossory to Brisbane, Portlaoise to Portugal and Graiguecullen to Germany.

“The first weekend alone we had people logged on from every county in Ireland and all over the world.

“We had thousands of people log on for games in all codes. The kind messages we received from people all around the world made up for the challenges that we faced with every broadcast.

“Thanks to all our commentators and co commentators who helped during the games, so many of you helped out and you made it possible but also professional in every way.

“We were ahead of all other counties in our production and that’s down to all your hard work and involvement.

“We stood in the wind and rain on many a night but thankfully we still managed to stream the games to the people we missed and couldn’t attend the games.”

Meanwhile Secretary Niall Handy was paid tribute to those who made the project such a success in his report to Convention.

“I want to take this opportunity to thank Paul Dargan and Michael Egan for firstly making this happen and it had happen fast, with confirmation of streaming only happening in the days leading into our first championship game.”

“I must say the quality of the service was excellent, with the one exception being the day of Storm Alex.

“In total we streamed almost 50 games, which returned a revenue profit of in excess €55k, which we certainly had not budgeted for at the outset, where the initial intention was just to provide a service for our members to watch their clubs playing.

“It is an initiative Leinster Council GAA is considering expanding and exploring, and whilst exemption was permitted this year under the unusual circumstances we found ourselves, it has the potential to be inhibited in the future under the terms of the National broadcasting deals,” explained Mr Handy.