The GAA's finance department has shot down suggestions that Proposal B at this month's Special Congress could be worth an extra €10million annually.
The Irish Examiner reported that GAA director of finance Ger Mulryan addressed county treasurers on Thursday night. His numbers suggested a qualifier system would be financially more beneficial.
Delegates are scheduled to vote on proposals to potentially alter the All Ireland Football Championship at Croke Park on October 23.
Proposal A would keep the provincial championships tethered to the All Ireland series, albeit with the make-up of the provinces changed somewhat.
Proposal B seeks to use the provincial championships as separate pre-season competitions, with the championship played 0n a four-division league basis.
A 60 per cent majority is required to push through either of the proposals.
The GPA has strongly backed Proposal B, highlighting its guaranteed number of games for each team and the potential financial benefits to individual counties and provincial boards.
Conor O'Donoghue was part of the Fixtures Review Taskforce that helped draw up both proposals. He told OTB AM this week, that Proposal B could see GAA coffers benefit to the tune of €10million a year.
"The fact that you're multiplying the number of games by three or thereabouts, it gives you much more scope to take in revenue," the former Meath minor football manager said.
"We're talking about 65 per cent additional revenue vs. their three-year average in the few years before Covid.
"For me, the numbers of games here is going be your friend from a financial perspective."
Not so, according to Ger Mulryan.
In his address to county treasurers - according to John Fogarty - he said a senior championship with a backdoor system and Tailteann Cup would generate a net figure of €19.6million.
By contrast, he estimated that Proposal A would rake in €19.3million, with the league-as-championship format the poor relation with estimated revenues of €18.8million.
Mulryan felt O'Donoghue's use of Super-8 attendance figures as part of his modelling falsely inflated his final figures.
GAA DEBATE: Will Proposal B do more harm than good? | Cahair O’Kane on OTB
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