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CROKE PARK CHIEF Peter McKenna has said he believes a Katie Taylor fight at the home of the GAA is highly unlikely this year.
A trilogy fight between the Bray boxer and old adversary Amanda Serrano at Croke Park has been suggested by promoter Eddie Hearn who represents Taylor.
Hearn claimed that while the associated costs with booking Croke Park had been prohibitive in the past, it could be a runner in 2025 with the likelihood of a full house for the superfight.
“We’re not going to harp on about the costs of Croke Park, it is what it is, but there is a lot of revenue in that fight now which gives you the opportunity,” said Hearn, who heads up Matchroom Boxing, last month.
But speaking at the launch of the GAA’s annual report and accounts for 2024, McKenna said he hasn’t spoken to Hearn since last October and he accused the promoter of ‘megaphone diplomacy’.
“Being honest, Eddie hasn’t been in touch with us,” said McKenna. “The last time I talked to Matchroom was, I’d say, probably October of last year. It flashes up every so often but no, we haven’t been contacted.
“It’s trying to find out where would be the slot (for hosting the fight). I think the difficulty there is that, what’s the style of the event? And what time of the year it would be on. We have Oasis and Robbie Williams so with the calendar there’s not a lot of space to say, ‘Yeah, I could fit it in on that weekend’, or whatever.”
McKenna shook his head when asked if he could see any possibility of the Taylor fight going ahead in 2025.
“The approach seems to be megaphone diplomacy, throw everything at it and something will happen in that sense,” he said of Hearn’s apparent approach. “Katie Taylor is a magnificent athlete and I think everyone is very, very proud of what she’s achieved as an athlete.
“But to fill Croke Park with 80,000, you need an undercard, you need a whole razzmatazz to go with it. Those things can’t be done in a short period of time. Even getting an event management plan together, getting the City Council to approve it and so on.
“There’d be a fair bit of work in that. So I think it’s a kite flyer rather than a genuine (plan), so I can’t see it happening because we haven’t heard about it, bar reading in the papers.”
McKenna declined to field any questions on the issue of a potential NFL game at the stadium later this year as has been widely reported.
But he spoke positively about a positive year for Croke Park Ltd in 2024 with record revenue of almost €60 million generated, thanks partly to six different concerts which were held there.
“€59.7 million, it’s huge,” said McKenna of Croke Park’s revenue for 2024. “1.65 million people coming through the doors. They are fantastic figures. Now there’s a huge amount of work in doing that and it’s credit to everyone who pulls it together. Yeah, it is probably a record year. You could go back to different times but I would see it as being the best year we’ve had.”
McKenna said that Croke Park will host three concerts this year – two Oasis dates and a Robbie Williams gig – but that will be it.
“That will probably pull it back a wee bit,” he predicted of 2025 revenue, compared to 2024.
McKenna made it clear that despite hosting various concerts and rugby matches, Gaelic Games are still the ‘core activity’ of the stadium.
“Non-core activity went very well this year, the year just recorded,” he said. “But we had nothing (in terms of concerts) last year, 2023. So it can be very up and down. You certainly wouldn’t be booking mortgages on the back of it. When it’s good it’s very good but it can go chilly. Covid is a good example. We had matches here but there was nobody at them because that was the nature of it. We see these years as benefits rather than the norm.”
Written by Paul Keane and originally published on The 42 whose award-winning team produces original content that you won’t find anywhere else: on GAA, League of Ireland, women’s sport and boxing, as well as our game-changing rugby coverage, all with an Irish eye. Subscribe here.
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