San Diego won’t host North American Board finals

By Pierce O’Reilly

The North American County Board GAA finals, scheduled to be played in San Diago later this year, has run into difficulty. At a recent meeting with San Diego officials, the board chairman and registrar decided that due to local reservations, the games would be switched to San Franciso.

North American Board chairman Sean Gannon said that it was a mutual agreement.

"Obviously, we’re all disappointed that the finals aren’t going ahead there, but the home team couldn’t handle a competition that has grown in such huge numbers in the last few years," Gannon said.

San Diego was chosen to host the finals after the 1998 convention when Clan na Gael delegate Francis Kilgannon put forward the motion. Earlier this year, Gannon received a letter requesting that the North American Board travel to the city to meet with club officials over several obstacles the local club were encountering in their preparations.

"The American finals is a huge competition to host," Gannon said. "We have over 50 teams competing and they attract up to 5,000 spectators. The club felt they couldn’t do the competition justice and we granted them their wish."

Several GAA pundits around the country feel that to run the competition successfully it must be hosted in one of the larger cities where there is a large Irish-American base. Gannon, however, disagrees.

"We played the finals in Washington two years ago and it was a resounding success," he said. " They only have one team. It’s my opinion that the finals are available for who ever is fit to host them."

The North American championship started initially playing games between cities in 1949. Ten years later, they formed the association at the Detroit convention. New York, who were the strongest and largest city playing the natives games at the time, refused to enter the agreement and decided to run their own championship and league competitions. This decision later led to several clashes and regular friction with top GAA officials in Ireland. New York remained the backwater of the Irish association and operated on its own agenda until the last few years.

At present, the North American County Board is made up of 10 divisions. They include the Northeast, the Midwest, the Central, Southern California, Philadelphia, Mid-Atlantic, Western, the Northwest and Denver.

San Diego, who play in the Southern California division, are one of the smallest clubs competing. The North American board had required a state-of-the-art facility to host the finals.

"It wasn’t the facilities that caused the concerns, it was more their lack of manpower on the ground and financial inadequacies that forced them to contact us," Gannon said.