Ball attendees enjoying the MCD-organised event. Photo: Martin McKenna
Rory O’Donovan
Features Editor
If you were asked to seriously consider it, what one question would you ask of those responsible for organising the Trinity Ball?
I did consider it and I began trying to ask them: Why are tickets so bloody expensive?
Once I reflected on this question, I was led to wondering who exactly is in charge of the ball. Should my questions be directed towards the Ents Officer? The SU? Or some higher college authority?
In fact, the organisation that hold the answers to all of our Trinity Ball related questions, is an external one: MCD. Described in last year’s TN Ball Guide as ‘the country’s most successful event management firm’, MCD are unquestionably giants in their field. They have successfully organised some of the biggest concerts this country has ever seen, they run one of our most popular festivals – Oxegen – and they own and manage some of Dublin’s most renowned venues – The Gaiety, The Ambassador, The Olympia and one perhaps more familiar to many Trinity students – The Academy.
Suffice to say, MCD are certainly qualified to manage Europe’s largest private party, but does their involvement maximise the value we, the students and the university, get from the Ball? My original question about ticket prices was left to one side unanswered as my curiosity was captured and I began a relatively unsuccessful quest to find individuals who were sufficiently qualified to give me some insight.
A former Ents ‘crew member’, agreed to tell me about their experiences of Trinity Ball organisation: ‘Not that I’d have anything particularly bad to say about them,’ they told me, ‘but I would certainly be very careful with what I was saying, they’re extremely sharp these guys.’ And that was effectively all that they said.
MCD are notoriously litigious. They have been known to react forcefully and rapidly to anything that could negatively affect their reputation – with the most infamous incident proving to be their legal dispute with boards.ie over comments posted regarding the 2006 Oxegen festival. The former Ents crew member advised that people would be ‘very careful’ with what they told me. I hoped they wouldn’t be too careful.
Next I was directed towards the experiences of Karl McDonald, who co-edited last year’s TN Ball Guide and, in doing so, was exposed to the influence MCD have over anything related to the Trinity Ball. Karl told me he was initially a ‘little worried about working with MCD … within college they’re unpopular, which I never exactly thought was fair considering how difficult it would be to do it on the scale they do it at without them.’ In the struggle for editorial independence Karl noted that ‘even though it’s free advertising, they really don’t need you. The ball sells out regardless’.
Whilst the team behind the Ball Guide were striving towards something ‘with a bit of intelligence and personality’, it became clear that ‘is not exactly what they’re looking for’. In a meeting with MCD, Karl tells me ‘they asked for approval over everything we were putting in, in the guise of helpfulness, but I couldn’t really have said yes to that, as I’m sure they were aware.’ Eventually, Karl ended up ‘personally guaranteeing that there wasn’t going to be anything negative written about the acts themselves’.
Karl described the scenario as resulting in a ‘balancing act’, between what they wanted to print and ‘what we thought MCD would veto’. MCD are, essentially, the providers of a college service that has been outsourced – should our ability to criticise them be stunted?
Former Ents Officers seemed an obvious source of information and one I spoke to told me that ‘it is difficult to work with MCD… but they have made the ball commercially viable’. They went on to say that ‘there should be a better working relationship with the Ents Officer and MCD – mainly they shouldn’t just hand you a list of confirmed bands.’ While last year’s TN Ball Guide asserts that the Ents Officer ‘puts forward proposals and aspirations’, it won’t come as a surprise to many that this Ents Officer at least claims to have had little influence on the line-up.
But other former Ents Officers were unequivocal in their praise for the MCD relationship. Former Ents Officers Darragh Genockey and Ed O’Riordan expressed sentiments not dissimilar from the quote I got from current Ents Officer Chris O’Connor – ‘MCD manage the ball fantastically and it would not be the same without them’. Surely the Ents Officers would know if the arrangement was best for students? Their arguments are convincing: The ball sells out every year now – it is a huge success; MCD have the capacity to attract acts that Ents Officers would struggle to; MCD have financial liability if the Ball was to be cancelled for any reason.
By now my curiosity was aroused, but not to excess. There were some small evident disagreements, some displays of authority and some suspiciously cagey responses to my requests for on-the-record information. But many refuted any negatives of the arrangement quite sincerely and, on the surface Trinity Ball was undoubtedly now a hugely successful event. Then it suddenly hit me – no one had mentioned money.
MCD, Ents, the SU – surely there was a financial aspect? Reliably informed that SU accounts are open to student perusal I sent an email to the college authorities requesting to see the Trinity Ball accounts related to Ents and MCD. Within minutes I got word that my request had been flagged and enquiries were being made into what my angle in gaining access to them was. An hour or so later I received a reply stating : ‘I can tell you that the Ball makes a surplus and the surplus is distributed to the CSC, SU, DUCAC, Publications and the GSU’. A week later, my persistence in gaining access was rewarded as I was deemed entitled to a little more information – namely that the various college bodies associated with the organisation of the Ball make €37,942.50 off it. A request for annual accounts relating to a particular aspect of the SU was met with a vague description and one figure. Transparency? By now, what I really wanted to know was to what extent MCD profit from the Ball – effectively, how the division of profit is weighted. Is it unfair to assume that an event the SU essentially hold the rights to, should result in at least the lion’s share of the profits being spent on things that benefit the union, and the university?
I was getting the impression I wasn’t going to get anywhere with my enquiries. There was certainly something suspicious happening behind the scenes. My misgivings were confirmed by an SU insider, who told me they believe ‘there is definitely something to how secretive they are being about the accounts. They don’t want the relationship being discussed.’ The source concluded ‘the amount of money made from the Ball is potentially a lightning rod of controversy’.
MCD have made the Ball ‘viable’ and ‘profitable’ – so everyone keeps telling me – but at what price to us?
Whatever the truth that lies behind the mystery may be, there is something extremely skewed about the balance of power that exists between Trinity College and MCD. As the guardians of the Trinity Ball, a lucrative Trinity franchise, the college authorities responsible for it have a clear duty to ensure that in any arrangements, it is the students that reap the benefits.
MCD may be a powerful and seemingly capable partner, but surely any individual in this college, as those being provided with (and paying for) a service, have the right to criticise and question them? Indeed, surely they have the right to make demands of them? This article has concluded with a lot of questions left unanswered but I am willing to bet that someone who reads it can answer them – and should.
