Christy O'Connor on Oasis at Croke Park: Concerts will continue to play crucial role in GAA calendar

After so many reunion rumours, the speculation intensified last week when the rock band Oasis teased their fans with a scheduled announcement for 8am on Tuesday, fuelling reports that the feuding Gallagher brothers – Noel and Liam - were ending their disagreement.

Fans had been pleading with the brothers to regroup since they disbanded in 2009, prompted by a backstage brawl at the Rock en Seine festival in Paris. And those fans finally got what they craved on Tuesday morning.

Confirming the Oasis Live 25 tour, the famous Britpop band announced: “The guns have fallen silent. The stars have aligned. The great wait is over. Come see. It will not be televised.” 

The news was all the more exciting again for their Irish fans with the announcement that Oasis will play two huge concerts at Croke Park next August, with tickets having gone on sale at 8am this Saturday.

The news also came just days before Croke Park was set to stage four huge Coldplay concerts between Thursday and Monday. The demand was so huge that, even after two extra dates were added, tickets for the four Coldplay concerts sold out within an hour of being made available.

The four concerts are set to bring in almost €4.5m for the GAA, with the Oasis gigs next year ensuring another couple of million for the association.

The flipside is that the All-Ireland senior hurling and football finals are now all but certain to remain in July. Those finals had already been scheduled to take place at the end of July anyway but there had been calls from leading GAA officials – particularly President Jarlath Burns - to review the split season on the grounds of promotion and shifting the conclusion of the championships into August.

ATTRACTIVE

Burns had also spoken of the need for more time, and more promotional value, between the two finals but that is becoming increasingly less likely with the ladies football and camogie finals taking place after the football finals. And particularly with the GAA having much more of an opportunity to attract big concerts between mid to late August, than earlier, or later, in the year.

Staging big concerts after the championship also alleviates some of the potential anger and frustration that bubbles to the surface when concerts are on in Croke Park during the championship.

During his reign as Dublin manager, Jim Gavin frequently questioned the practise, especially when it necessitated the pitch being torn up and re-laid before games. Between May-July in 2018, The Rolling Stones, Taylor Swift and Micheal Bublé all played at the venue when the championship was in full swing.

That capacity no longer exists within the split season model – especially during the summer months popular for outdoor concerts. Yet the potential for the GAA to take in huge revenue from concerts in early autumn further underlines why the association will be slow to extend the championship season into August.

The numbers dictate so much. Accounts filed last year showed how the turnover at Croke Park stadium declined nearly 20% during 2023 due to a lack of concerts and events being held at the facility.

According to the accounts, the main driver of the decline in turnover was a drop in “hire of facilities” revenue, which declined by €4.6m “due to the fact that the stadium did not host any concerts in 2023 compared to seven concerts in 2022”.

Croke Park’s “meetings and events” as well as “catering” divisions delivered a combined turnover of €13.3m in 2023, which was down from €19.3m in 2022.

Garth Brooks’ five concerts in Croke Park in September 2022 contributed significantly to the stadium’s €8.388 million rent revenue in 2022, which was up from just €816,500 in 2021. The seven concerts staged in Croke Park in 2022 were worth €7.6m to the GAA.

In the face of such crippling debt, concerts have always been deemed a critical aspect of helping pay off that debt in Páirc Uí Chaoimh – despite the frustration that may often cause.

Remedial work to the pitch in the aftermath of the Bruce Springsteen concert in May meant that the Cork footballers had to play their round-robin game against Donegal in Páirc Uí Rinn.

Páirc Uí Chaoimh was similarly out of commission for the footballers against Kerry in 2022 because of pitch remedial work following a pair of Ed Sheeran gigs the previous week. Yet there was far greater anger when the Cork hurlers were forced to play Clare in Thurles in their Munster championship match in May 2022 because of that Ed Sheeran concert.

BIGGER PICTURE

That’s unlikely to ever happen again but Cork GAA CEO Kevin O’Donovan told a county board meeting last November that their financial position meant Páirc Uí Chaoimh concerts, even at the height of championship, had to be considered. O’Donovan also spoke about having to take the bigger picture into account, especially when a concert in Cork is worth around €6m to the city and the local economy.

Concerts clearly are a golden goose, especially when compared with what the GAA can financially accrue from matches. Croke Park generated €8.3m from 36 match days during 2023. Yet the GAA will make more than half that figure across four days this weekend.

“Playing in Croke Park is a very, very, very big deal,” said Bono live on stage at the outset of U2’s Joshua Tree Tour in July 2017. 

For all kinds of reasons. On Jones’ road, in front of Hill 16. Come on.” 

With its capacity, playing in Croke Park is a huge deal for bands, promoters and fans. And especially for the GAA.