Former Dublin GAA star Tomás Quinn on the challenges of a League of Ireland CEO

Irish Daily Mirror

23-05-2025

Tomás Quinn says the biggest challenge he faces as Shelbourne CEO is stemming the flow of money out of the club and making it self-sustaining. But it's a mission the former Dublin GAA star is ready to tackle head on as he swaps one code for another and beds into League of Ireland life.
Reigning champions Shels recorded losses of €3.5 million over the last three years - more than any other club in that period. Their return to the Champions League this summer carries the potential of lucrative financial reward, depending how deep the Reds go. But Quinn wants to see Shels on a sounder financial footing as plans to revamp Tolka Park over the coming years come into sharper focus.
He is only six weeks into his new job, having left Dublin GAA where he was Commercial and Marketing Director since 2013. Asked about shoring up the financial drain at Shels, Quinn said: 'That's a huge challenge and it's something I will learn in time. We have a plan to start reducing that.
'People ask me what's the difference between where I came from and where I am now and I'd say that a lot of the approaches in the past were very short-term and reactive. It wasn't too long ago that players were on short-term contracts, a lot of uncertainty. Look at our squad now and we have a lot of players who are on multi-year contracts.
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'Players are not just playing for this season but have an idea for next season. Are we doing the same off the pitch? A lot of the relationships we have in terms of commercial perspective and generating revenue are very much year on year, it's short term.
'It's not week on week but a lot of it is. Take a step back as a club and increase the opportunities. And that's not just sponsors, that's matchday experience, what can you buy and enjoy in the stadium. We have challenges in Tolka, we are tight on space, the layout and the rest, but we are looking at that, to improve it for fans but also tie to that the revenue.'
Quinn added: 'There's an onus on clubs to make sure they're operating in a responsible way and generating enough income to maintain having a men's team, a women's team, underage academy, everything else that goes with it. That's the biggest challenge for any club I would say, from my initial assessment.'
When Quinn was strutting his stuff for Dublin, he was part of a team that were the only show in town. His involvement in inter-country spanned from 2003 to 2012 and in his early days on the panel, the Dubs were not yet the all-conquering behemoth they would become.
But regardless of whether they were lifting silverware or not, Dublin were the kings of the capital, drawing exclusive support from north, south, east and west of the county. When the glory days rolled around under Jim Gavin, plenty of rival fans quite liked the half-baked idea of splitting the county into two GAA teams, north and south. But Dublin remained as Dublin - a one stop shop.
For the last 11 years, 'Mossy' Quinn worked as Dublin GAA's Commercial and Marketing Director but that's all in the past now, after swapping codes. He is Shelbourne's new chief executive, a surprise appointment at the time and tasked with overseeing the running of the League of Ireland's Premier Division champions.
As he said in Tolka Park yesterday, the role brings many new and varied challenges and chief among them is the fight for the hearts and minds of supporters. With four Premier Division clubs in the capital alone, it's a new dynamic for the All-Ireland winner with both Dublin and his club St Vincents.Asked if Dublin is big enough to sustain four big, successful football clubs, Quinn said: 'It's a good question, and that's what we're all striving to work towards. The hope is that yes is the answer. For anyone involved in football in Ireland, the thing is to see if we can get to that model.'The growth of the league is on an upward curve, but can we build on that or is it going to plateau now? That's the challenge for the league. There's so much going for it at the moment, the TV deal, the coverage, you can see it has enhanced it. There are brilliant characters around the league. The fact there are four Dublin Premier Division clubs does make it a challenge and it's different to Dublin GAA, where you have the whole county feeding into one.'Quinn was happy that Shelbourne fought to save Tolka Park, instead of moving into a redeveloped Dalymount Park with Bohemians. But he knows there are significant challenges associated with staying at the club's spiritual home, with plans slowly taking shape to revamp the dated ground.
Quinn said: 'I see opportunity in it but there's massive cost associated with upgrading Tolka Park, but it goes hand in hand. The stand above us isn't open at the moment but if we were in a position to spend the money to do the retrograde works, then you potentially have more people coming in.'If there are more people coming in then you're generating more revenue, you've an ability to grow your fanbase. It's trying to have a structured plan and step-by-step approach to get to that place. Work of this nature, you start one thing and it has a knock-on effect to what else needs to be done. But we want to increase the enjoyment on match nights, potentially a family stand, engaging different communities, different fanbases.'Quinn continued: 'There's no agreed long-term plan. We're still working through the lease agreement with Dublin City Council. There's work to be done over the next year. But the obvious thing is funding. There's the ongoing cost of running a club and then the investment needed for Tolka Park.'But while Tolka's long-term future is at the centre of Quinn's vision, it's also dominating his short-term thinking too. Shels are in a race against time just to get the ground up to scratch for UEFA, to host Champions League matches in July. Playing Europa Conference League games there last summer was one thing, but Europe's premier club competition is another.
Quinn explained: "We're working through it at the moment with UEFA. The hope and intention would be to play the first round at Tolka. If we're fortunate to progress to a certain round it has to be a UEFA approved stadium which is Tallaght or the Aviva. That would be a good problem to have as it means we're winning games. But first and foremost, Tolka Park is where we're playing European games."A week is a long time in Irish football, never mind six of them. But it's so far, so good for Quinn.'The best way I can describe it is I haven't driven home any day saying 'Jesus what am I after doing?'. I'm really enjoying it so far,' he laughed.But why League of Ireland football?Quinn said: 'GAA was what I played my whole life but sport is my passion, across multiple sports. I was fortunate enough to be on the board of directors of Golf Ireland for the last year as well. How sport is run in the background is always something I've had a massive interest in.'I was fortunate enough to work in Dublin GAA for 11 years but I had opportunities within that time to spend time with other sports, from rugby to soccer to American football to different things so I've always had that natural interest. There's not that many jobs in Irish sport at a significant level where you can keep progressing, so what appealed to me was that opportunity.'It's a broader role than I was in with Dublin and, to be honest, it's outside my comfort zone a little bit. It's a great challenge for me, it's a great challenge for the club to keep evolving and keep developing and there's a huge amount of work that needs to go into that.'