There are 15 criteria by which the Government judges the merits of proposed major sporting events seeking State support.
They were included in a strategy framework that was published in July of 2024.
By point No7, the requirements start to get worthy, with notional events needing to ‘have the potential to deliver on a wide range of Government policy objectives’, including climate and diversity priorities.
There’s more on this fuzzy theme as you go down the list. The early points are the ones that matter, and the first one in particular.
In determining whether the State should support a proposal, ‘events that ensure an economic return, both at national and regional level, will be a primary consideration’.
National icon: Katie Taylor celebrates her epic win over Amanda Serrano in New York last year
And for all that the nation loves Katie Taylor – and we really do – and no matter how deep the desire to see a bona fide national hero finish her career with a sold-out fight in Croke Park next autumn, public money won’t be involved unless the proposal guarantees a return.
That is the official line, and it needs to be maintained.
Charlie McConalogue, the junior minister for Sport, told RTÉ the Government had yet to receive a proposal for the bout from Taylor’s management or promoter.
And if it did, he noted the ‘very clear system’, in the major events strategy by which it would be judged.
This was the day after Taylor talked of ‘a very positive meeting’ between her management and Croke Park officials.
‘I think everybody seems to be on board,’ she said.
Eddie Hearn had been in Dublin a fortnight earlier for meetings with stadium management, this after he ruled out Taylor being on the undercard of a mooted Tyson Fury-Anthony Joshua bill.
Negotiations: Eddie Hearn speaks to the media about Katie Taylor outside Croke Park
This was a week after Peter McKenna, the Croke Park stadium director, told the BBC that Taylor could realise her Croker dream, but as part of a Fury-Joshua show.
And this gets to the nub of a plan that many want to see happen: how many people would actually pay to see it?
There have been long-standing doubts about Taylor selling 80,000 tickets for Croke Park as a stand-alone event, with McKenna arguing in February of last year that to hit those numbers, ‘you need an undercard, you need a whole razzmatazz to go with it’.
He also noted the ‘megaphone diplomacy’ deployed by Hearn in his ongoing efforts to get Taylor into the ground.
It was a justified observation, given the promoter’s often shameless efforts to make it happen, applying crude moral pressure with talk of Taylor’s standing in this country, as if Irish people needed to be told that.
Hearn is a professional promoter, whose job it is to make money for himself and those he represents.
Chilled: Katie Taylor would love to bid farewell to the Irish people at Croke Park this year
That shouldn’t be facilitated by making loose commitments of public money, for Katie Taylor or anyone else.
If a Croke Park clash is to happen with the support of the Irish State, an economic return is needed for the taxpayer as well as Hearn and especially Katie Taylor.
Ed Sheeran’s name has now come into circulation.
He was in the 3 Arena to see Taylor beat Chantelle Cameron in November 2023, and he congratulated her in her dressing-room afterwards.
And it’s now being suggested that Sheeran could be part of Taylor’s Croke Park farewell, significantly increasing the potential audience and the viability of the event.
That sounds like a plan that even the most cautious civil servant could approve.
It would also tacitly acknowledge that despite Hearn’s years of bluster, Katie Taylor, as a stand-alone attraction, could not fill Croke Park.
If he believed she could, one suspects she would have already fought there.
One further potential caveat needs applying: next autumn will see Garda resources stretched.
Ireland will be in the middle of the EU presidency, with all the attendant security commitments, while on October 4, Israel are due in Dublin for a Nations League game guaranteed to be laden with complications.
But Taylor’s enthusiastic comments this week indicate that roadblocks are being cleared, and her dream could be realised.
Her great career and towering status in this country deserve such a send-off – once the sums involved make sense.
Ireland owes her – but owes nothing to Eddie Hearn.
