Tomás “Mossy” Quinn’s arrival as Shelbourne chief executive in April raised a few eyebrows simply because people embedded in Irish sports tend to stay in their lane.
Sure, there is plenty of intellectual property shared between the GAA, the IRFU and the FAI, but for the most part the big three organisations are trying to entice the same paying customers.
The Dubs draw Shels, Bohemians, Shamrock Rovers and St Patrick’s Athletic fans on to Hill 16 in high summer. Quinn, who won three All-Irelands in his Gaelic football career as a sharpshooter for Dublin and St Vincent’s, saw the irony of the very same people being segregated for the recent derby between Bohs and Shels at Tolka Park.
“You could see guys segregated in the home and away sections, and the next morning they would be down in Na Fianna coaching. That took a little getting used to.”
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Currently, Shels’s average attendance is 4,600, which could be significantly more if Tolka is improved.
“Gaelic football, GAA, was what I played my whole life but I think sport is my passion,” he said. “Across multiple sports, I’ve always had an interest. I was fortunate enough to be on the board of directors of Golf Ireland for the last year.
“I worked in Dublin GAA for 11 years [as the commercial and marketing director] but I would have had opportunities within that time to spend time with other sports, from rugby to soccer to American football. So I’ve always had that natural interest in working in sport.
“There’s not that many jobs in Irish sport at a significant level, or to keep progressing, so I think what appealed to me was that opportunity.
“It’s a broader role than I was in with Dublin, there’s obviously more to it. And to be honest, it’s outside my comfort zone, so it’s a great challenge.”
Challenges are widespread at a club like Shelbourne despite investment from tech entrepreneur brothers Neil and Cathal Doyle. But it helps that Quinn arrives in the wake of Damien Duff guiding the club to a first Premier Division title in 19 years.
[ How Damien Duff delivered Shelbourne’s first league title since 2006Opens in new window ]
“The financial footing of clubs – there’s an onus on clubs to have an ability to make sure they’re operating in a responsible way and generating enough revenue to maintain having a men’s team, a women’s team, underage academy and everything else that goes with it.
“That is the biggest challenge for any club, I would say from my initial assessment. How do you continue to grow that? How can you do that in a sustainable method? What does that actually look like?
“And tied to that is facilities. We’re here in Tolka Park. I see opportunity in it, but there’s a massive cost associated with upgrading [the stadium].”
Quinn’s time working under Dublin GAA’s quietly efficient administrator John Costello, who retired in 2023, along with football managers such as the successful businessman Pat Gilroy and the rule-bending Jim Gavin, should ready anyone for the crossover into professional soccer.
“The biggest difference is John probably wouldn’t be sitting here doing one of these,” said Quinn of Costello’s famous reticence. “Straight away he’d be giving out to me.
“The big thing is their values are authentic and how they communicate with people. Sport to me is bringing people with you.
“When I think about those people, Pat Gilroy is a clubmate of mine, and I worked with a company alongside Pat for 10 years before working for Dublin.
“More so from working directly with John and Pat, it was their ability to communicate with people. If they make a decision, say why you’re making that decision.”
Costello transformed the Dublin GAA into a commercial behemoth, while Shelbourne have lost about €1 million per year since Duff arrived in 2022.
“No, we can’t [continue to lose money]. I think the onus is on us to strive and try and reduce that. It’s not good enough for me to come in and say ‘we lost a million last year, we can lose a million this year.’ That needs to change.”
Still, it’s a good time to become the Shelbourne CEO. Next stop is Nyon, Switzerland, for the Champions League draw, with Quinn determined to meet every Uefa stipulation to ensure the first-round qualifier in June can be held at Tolka.
“We are working through stuff with Uefa. There were Conference League games played here last year. Champions League is slightly different.
“Our intent, if we are 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 are winning games. First and foremost, Tolka Park is where we are playing European games.”
