The NSW GAA is facing a crisis, scrambling to secure a ground on which to play the 2010 season, now just weeks away.
The organisation’s traditional ground, Princes Park in Auburn, is almost certain to be re-allocated to another sport by the local council.

The leadership of the NSW GAA has painted this as a sleight on the Irish community, threatening to sue the council if any effort was made to reallocate the ground but from viewing the correspondence related to the matter, the writing has been on the wall for some years that the council favoured offering the use of Princes Park to a club or organisation with more of a stake in the local community.

Virtually none of the GAA’s players live in the Auburn Council area and even if the GAA had created a youth development programme, local Auburn kids would not have benefited.

The NSW GAA appears to have ignored the very strong indications from Council that  they were going to lose the ground. No plan B appears to have been developed with the result that this year’s competition is now under threat.

However, the GAA’s eviction from the current site, if it goes ahead, may set the organisation on a path to a more stable and reliable home ground.

Princes Park has long been a source of debate and discussion among GAA people in Sydney. In the past, the ground and its location were less of an issue as many Irish lived in the inner and outer west of the city.

In recent years however, with the emergence of County Bondi as the predominant enclave of young Irish, access to the ground became a major problem. Princes Park is almost impossible to get to by public transport, a fact which has served as a disincentive for players to compete and for fans to go along and observe.

Even if there is some eleventh hour rethink on the allocation of Princes Park for 2010, the NSW GAA will now devote all its energy into finding a new home for Gaelic Games in Sydney.

In order for the game to thrive, it will be necessary for the ground to pass some rudimentary common-sense considerations.

Top of the list should be accessibility, the ground should be near public transport.

The best result would be a shared facility arrangement with a rugby, Aussie Rules or cricket club. Such initiatives have worked very well in the United States and indeed in Perth where the WAGAA received significant grants from both Croke Park and the Irish Government to help develop Tom Bateman Park and Pavillion.

The WAGAA had set itself a plan to make the ground its permanent home.

It secured support from local, state and federal government before the GAA and Irish Government decided to help out. The facility is shared with a local baseball club who use it during the summer months.

A management committee, made up of representatives from both organisations, runs the facility. The result is that Gaelic Games has a dedicated home in Perth for the next 15 years at least.

The NSW GAA might want to seek out advice from the WAGAA about how to find a permanent home and make it work. There must be clubs, councils and even schools out there who are seeking partnerships to develop grounds and facilities.

The Western Australian GAA has been the only local sporting organisation to secure significant funding from Ireland.
While Australia continues to miss out, funds are regularly allocated to the United States, Britain and even Asia to develop Gaelic Games.

The current ground crisis in NSW GAA is an opportunity for the organisation to recalibrate its priorities, develop new strategies and seek out new leaders with energy, ideas and achieveable  vision for the future.