This week, GAA Director General Pauric Duffy called for a greater redistribution of wealth to smaller counties.

But can some of the wealth acquired by the likes of Dublin be spread around to weaker counties like my own Leitrim?

To find out about the appetite to do that, Ger, Wooly and Gizzy spoke to GAAconomics: The Secret Life of Money in the GAA author Michael Moynihan.

"Speaking to people, I found that there was an impulse within the GAA that this should be looked at. But it was looked at with a different approach in the sense that there's an enthusiasm for reining in the spending of the counties rather than spreading the largesse around," explained Moynihan.

"Pauric Duffy himself said that there are 10 or 11 counties who are quite wealthy enough. But there are 10 or 11 counties at the bottom who don't generate a lot of money and cut their cloth accordingly. And there are 10 or 11 counties in the middle who are an ongoing concern - they're in the news regularly.

"The likes of Carlow and Longford know at the start of every year, that the revenue isn't available. There isn't someone in Carlow or Longford willing to put €5 million in like AIG did for Dublin, so they cut their cloth accordingly."

There is also a self-fulfilling prophecy at play. The teams that make it deeper into the championship earn more revenue and they tend to be the wealthier counties. In addition, Moynihan describes the renting out of grounds as a "lucrative avenue if your ground is rentable".

Elaborating, he said: "Leitrim could probably do with a cash injection as a small county which has a small population. But if you were to tell Mayo and Galway to play the Connacht final in Carrick on Shannon for the good of Leitrim, you'd get a very short, sharp answer." 

 

A general view of Páirc Seán, Carrick on Shannon ©INPHO/Ryan Byrne