Leinster Council secretary Michael Delaney's concerns about the province's over-reliance on the Dublin footballers as a source of revenue was substantiated by the council's accounts for 2006, which were released yesterday.
They show that Dublin, provincial champions for the past two years, were responsible for the two gates that reached seven figures. The Leinster football final took in €1,651,588, with the semi-final between Dublin and Laois earning €1,363,790.
These two events contributed more than half of the total championship gate receipts of €5,831,332.
The council is happy with the figures, bearing in mind Delaney's caution, as Dublin played just two provincial matches in Croke Park - Leinster taking the financial hit of allowing the first-round match with Longford to go ahead at Pearse Park, where the reduced capacity resulted in a gate of €203,784.
Overall income was up slightly on the previous year by €429,626 to €7,890,707. There was, however, a significant fall of nearly €60,000 in sponsorship income, a direct result of a national initiative by Croke Park.
"Up until last year," said Delaney, "we had a sponsorship deal with Sony covering our summer camps but that was taken over nationally by VHI last year so that all of the income goes directly to Croke Park. It's a loss to us but the argument is that the new arrangement is for the greater good."
One item of expenditure that showed a considerable increase was the expenses incurred by the provincial teams, which rose from €41,488 to €144,513. This was caused by Leinster reaching the finals in Boston both years but as the 2005 match was played later in the year it didn't get into that year's accounts. So the figures relate to both years.
Floodlighting grants to counties amounted to €1.6 million but were disbursed to the counties in question.
The current league campaign has seen two counties in Leinster hold their first matches under lights. Páirc Tailteann in Navan and O'Moore Park in Portlaoise have both upgraded to join Dublin's Parnell Park as venues with lights in the province.
Meanwhile, the referees for the All-Ireland club hurling finals have been announced. Cork's Diarmuid Kirwan takes charge of the senior match, between Loughrea and Ballyhale Shamrocks at Croke Park on St Patrick's Day. The junior final, between Clooney Gaels and Danesfort, will be refereed by Eoin Shaughnessy of Galway. Dublin's Eamonn Morris takes charge of the intermediate final, between Robert Emmets and Killimordaly.
The junior and intermediate matches take place on March 11th.
Ahead of the weekend's Hurling League, Shane McGrath has been drafted into the Waterford team for the Walsh Park match against Cork. McGrath plays at right corner forward in place of the injured John Mullane.
WATERFORD (SH v Cork): C Hennessy; D Prendergast, T Feaney, A Kearney; D Coffey, K McGrath, J Kennedy; M Walsh, E Kelly; D Shanahan, K Moran, S Molumphy; S Walsh, S Prendergast, E McGrath.
