Fund Raising Idea.

[Bud Wiser]

When I was down at the Punchestown Festival there a week or two ago I thought the idea of a "Ticket Collection" office (Mobile Chip Van type of thingy) was a great idea.  Here people queued up for tickets that had been left for them by friends and a constant queue it was.  Now, I am not talking about fund raising for clubs but for good causes and the Cormac Trust fund would be an apt one for what I have in mind as indeed the Childrens Hiospitals, Cancer Research, etc etc.

Say that the GAA made a "Collection Point" available in that big space at the back of the Cusack and the Charity that are to benifit man the box.  Then say I have a ticket for somebody that is coming up from the country.  I give him a password and leave the tickets in an envelope with his name and password.  He arrives and calls to the box, collects his ticket and pays a fiver for the charity. 

[Louth Exile]

Class idea

[Bud Wiser]

It would work if people travelling home from abroad who were buying their tickets by Visa and could not wait to have them posted. For that matter, I think the GAA are making it very hard on people who decide to go to a game at the last minute.  Take any Sunday and say you were going sea fishing and the weather turns windy and you decide at 12pm I will go into Croker and watch the game, which could be the Leinster hurling final with 25,000 people at it.  I would g;ladly give an extra fiver to the charity hut and walk in to a seat than I would give to some Visa card company who charge the same additional charge.  Just a thought I had anyway.

[Hardy]

I had the pleasure of meeting the bould Bud yesterday - he was generous enough to source a premium ticket for me. A fine gentleman and as gas a man as you'd meet in a long day's walk. This was the first time in my ten years here that I've met anybody from the board and Bud was decent enough to let on all the time that he was dealing with a normal person and passed no remarks about the strait jacket or the two lads in white coats with me.

But we spent our time over pints telling tall tales about horses and football and I never got the chance to tell him how good an idea the charity booth is. Would it be beyond the wit and capability of the combined brains of the members of this board to organise something like this?

[Bud Wiser]

Hardy,  I needn't have sourced you one at all seeing as you saw the scam still works!!  Despite all their scanners!  Try it next day and make sure but don't tell the world and its mother or there will be more in the Premium than on the Hill!

Another thing that struck me yesterday, the car park attendent in Clonliffe.   "You can't go down there lads, it's the VIP Car Park close to the gate."   But, I cant'.....etc. (explaining my position).....    Car Park attendent, "oh sorry, if you are an invalid the invalid car parking area is way back up there at the college"

For the benifit of the board, no I am not an invalid, just a bit out of sorts, and thank Jaysus for that because in the eyes of the gobshites who run the car park in Clonliffe it is more important to get an extra few bob so that the VIP's have only to walk out the gate onto Clonliffe Road while the invalid car park is half a mile away.   Only in Ireland!!!

[Kerry Mike]

Is that ticket "system" still working Bud, tried it myself !!

I will second Hardy's view "As fine a gentleman and as gas a man as you'd meet in a long day's walk".
Good to hear you are back amounst us for match days in Croker, and hopefully all the recent health issues are behind you Bud.

Good idea by the way Bud and if I can be of any help to get it running let me know.

[Hardy]

Bud - what you didn't tell us is your technique for overcoming such objections - wear them down:

You can't go in there without a permit - it's the VIP car park
- But I have to, I ....

If it's the invalid car park you want, it's back up there.
- No, I have to go in here - I made arrangements ...

Sorry - you need a permit
- No, I have to go in there.

All right - go ahead.

[Bud Wiser]

Is that ticket "system" still working Bud, tried it myself !!

It's working better than ever Mike, they have handheld scanners that go, Zap,Zap (zap) and now there is no delay at all.!!

As for the fundraising idea, well there is no doubt about it, it would work and the GAA should take the lead.  For example, take the Leinster Hurling Final, there will be about 25 - 30,000 people at it and no more than that.  If some of the remaining tickets were given to what we will hereinafter call "The Hut", even without any reduction whatsoever and a dedicated ticket line provided, with incoming calls only allowed, the revenue from premium rate enquiries alone would make at least a few thousand Euro a week.  Add to that the fact that people like myself who just want to turn up on the day will have no problem ringing and asking is there a ticket, going in and collecting it, and the fact that there are 1000 extra people to add to the athmosphere with increased revenue for the GAA everyone is a winner.

We are only into week one of the championship and already there are posts on the board "is Sundays Game all ticket" etc.
How many of them would not have minded making a phone call to "The Hut" and going in and collecting a ticket?  If it can be done in Puncturestown it can be done in Croker!

[magickingdom]

ok i'm all ears tell me about this "ticket system"... wont tell another soul

[Bud Wiser]

Well what you do is, say there are four of you and you have two tickets, you form..........no, on second thoughts, thgere are enough cute hoors in Kerry without me trying to educate ye.   Kerry Mike might break the code of Omerta on his way home from a rugby game some thursday night or Tony Fearon who also saw the operation might return in a blaze of glory but for now the scam is under lock and key.

Hardy, "Wearing them down".

That lad I was telling you about who comes from Pat Shiorts town had a big tank of a 42 foot boat on the Shannon and he tied it up in Dromineer one time and went on the piss fpor about six months.  When he came back it was platered with stickers like you get in a hospital car park. The river warden is a Brit with a big handlebar moustache and when we fell back onto the boat one night after being in the Whickey Still he appeared on the marina shouting and waving a torch.  "Where have you been?  I have been looking for you for the last six months etc,  Every sentence finished with "you can only berth at any marina for five days, THATS THE RULE, THATS THE RULE"  and Gussie says to him, "Are you finished? And yer man looks at him and Gussie says, "That is the most stupidist f**king rule I have ever heard in all my life, go off and have a pint or do something useful with your life"   Cue yer man doing an Irish jig on the marina.

[full back]

Aw Bud,
Dont worry about the cute Kerry hoors
Think of your Northern brethern (sp)

[Bud Wiser]

I'm not too sure about the new fandangled bar code readers.  They don't bother with looking at the costly hologram and if you Google Bar Codes you can buy copies for £60 including decoding.  All of which is pointless with our scam, aint that right Hardy ?  !!!Sorry full back, it's copyright, even John Gilligan with all his spare time could not come up with this one!  I might sell it to Peter McKenna for charity!

[Hardy]

Looks that way, Bud, though I was too busy yapping and not attentive enough to what they were doing with the scanners to be 100% sure just yet.

[Kerry Mike]

Kerry Mike might break the code of Omerta

I know nothing of Omerta and will not be revealing any information.

[Bud Wiser]

Right, all bullshit aside.  I am going to go for this.

Here is the plan.   I pick a Sunday Newspaper like the Turbine, Business Post.  They become the sponsor.  They provide the "Hut" with their name on it.  Ross O'Carroll Kelly would be proud.

To use the service you must be in the ground ten minutes before the start of the first game, no later, contribution to charity increases on a percentage basis and it would not be a facility for cheeky Dubs or Cheeky Laois men who turn up looking for a ticket when we decide to leave the pub.  The sponsor agrees to give a free copy of their Sunday paper to the first 500 users per Sunday. (They already do that in the Premium).  That way the first 500 can arrive, get their ticket and have a read of the most insane ideas ever invented by Liam Hayes.

Eircom would be the second sponsor.  A simple telephone line, two in hunting with ISDN, would cost about 300 Euro.

Peter McKenna is a gentleman and also a scholar. He makes decisions on his own assesment, not on what others tell him from my own experience and that alone is a breath of fresh air from what we are used to. (Anyway Hardy will tell you I can "wear him down")   I see that as the least problem. A P.O. Box office in one of the offices in Croke Park where unsold and returned tickets can be processed and transferred with standard allocations to be ready for sale at the hut.

If Allianze, the insurance company (who sponsor and get money from freeloading on the backs of young lads under 21 who get nothing and who they have reservations about insuring) can have their name plastered all over the place they can also provide EL & PL Insurance that would cost about 1,500 Euro tops.  Sure I'll fly their flag from the corner of the hut if that is what they want.

Tickets.  I would want tickets in pairs. Locations would be match dependent, ie not all on the top tier or with your eyes glaring into a security bar but evenly distributed around the ground.  In the secondry stages I wouldm have a section of the lower Hogan for example as a complete block that would indicate the success (we don't deal in failures on this board) of the system. Again, first come, better seats, get out of the pub and into the ground.

There would be a few loose ends to tie up but a positive attitude and a willingness to make it work could see a regular clientelle and more importantly a charity making a much needed weekly profit of anywhere between three and five thousand euro every week.

What charity?  Last Friday I went to a company AP Plastics in Ashbourne to get a job done, no staff available.  A young lad had died suddenly the night before in the exact same circumstances as Cormac and all the staff were out as a result.  The Cormac Trust Fund would be one of my considerations but I would not like to decide this on my own - views welcome please.

If students think this would work please comment, O'Neill down at the back there, what do you think?  If ye think it would be a runner then I going to go and meet these people in one day as I don't believe letters are the way to do it, nor do I wnat to be talking about it in six months time.

EDIT:  Any three people interested in coming on board to give this a try?  I remember some time back we tried to organize a golf classic with eveyone wearing their county jersey and it was scuttled and then I read in the paper all about a novel golf outing held down in Laois with ' players wearing their own county jersey' !!