August Bank Holiday weekend

[joemamas]

Judging by latest market effort, "bring a friend promotion" somebody in Croke Park has finally figured it out. I would say they are already anticipating a record low crowd for this coming August bank holiday weekend. As they say "It may be a day late and a dollar short".

Good God, four or five years ago they marketed August Bank Holiday as "a feast of football" and I have to say did a really good job at it, and had the flexibility to mix and match games depending on potential match ups. It had unofficially become the real starting point of the All-Ireland series. Now come this Bank Holiday weekend and they will be lucky to get 50-60k combined over two days. Talk about dropping the proverbial ball. Would love to hear the GAA's response to this. Please don't give me the six day turnaround, as that is a crock of sh*t. Tell the Provincial secretaries to have their respective finals finished two weeks before that weekend. End of story. It is total amateur hour again by GAA fixture committees.

One more example of this and the inconsistencies that prevail, Kerry play their q/final on July 31st and have a four week break to their semi-final on August 28th.  Tyrone play their q/final on August 6th and have a two week break to their semi-final on August 21st. God forbid they have a draw, they will be up three weeks in a row.

August Bank Holiday schedule.

Saturday July 30th
Mayo V Westmeath
Donegal V Cork

Sunday July 31st
Galway V Qualifier winner
Kerry V Qualifier winner

As I mentioned lucky to be 30k at each, where am I going with this, the GAA knew for past six months that Dublin would not be playing this weekend, why didn't they just give tickets away to underage footballers of weaker footballing counties for a day out in croke park. Go so far as saying Division 3 and 4 teams and counties who got relegated from Division 2 who may be struggling.

It would serve two purposes.

1. Create an atmosphere in Croke Park. It is a crappy place to be when two thirds empty, and is completely devoid of an atmosphere.
2. Promote the games in counties where the gap is for the most part is getting bigger and bigger.

Somehow I get the feeling that the GAA in Croke Park are measuring themselves on their financial results year over year, which appears to be driven more by sponsorship and TV rights and not on promoting the actual games themselves.

[twohands!!!]

When you have five different bodies setting the dates and prices for championship games, it's no wonder that it's an unholy mess.

Provincial councils were grand back in the day when people were travelling by horse-cart, there were no phones and administration was done by post. In a world where there is email and mobile phones and they are just a needless layer of bureaucracy.

[Maroon Manc]

Never thought about a replay in Tyrone's quarter final. If Galway can make the semi I'll be praying for a draw if Tyrone play Mayo as expected.

Its terrible planning, Tyrone should be on the same weekend as Galway and not Kerry.

[An Gaeilgoir]

No Need to have of the Qualifier or QF games in Croke Park, the exception being the Dubs game. Its Crazy stuff, bringing Mayo, Westmeath, Cork and Donegal to Dublin.

[joemamas]

No Need to have of the Qualifier or QF games in Croke Park, the exception being the Dubs game. Its Crazy stuff, bringing Mayo, Westmeath, Cork and Donegal to Dublin.

I agree about the qualifier part, but my guess is that if they kept the q/finals on the Saturday and Sunday, it would still attract a lot of neutrals and with a little bit of marketing, both could easily be sold out.

You what is amazing, you most likely will get ten or twenty common sense responses on this topic, and most of bloggers are regular GAA people, yet you have apparently a bunch of paid people sitting in Croke park for Twelve months and they cannot come up with any better.

I would love to sit at a fixtures committee meeting, I get the feeling that "No" and "We would be setting a dangerous precedent" would be common terms used again and again. Lord help us.

I hope one of the newspapers columnists see this and ask Croke park some very direct questions on this. Unlikely on the latter I would say.

[Rossfan]

When you have five different bodies setting the dates and prices for championship games, it's no wonder that it's an unholy mess.

Provincial councils were grand back in the day when people were travelling by horse-cart, there were no phones and administration was done by post. In a world where there is email and mobile phones and they are just a needless layer of bureaucracy.

+1.

[rosnarun]

I assume when you say common sense responses  you actually mean 'Agree with me responses'. the Provincial councils are now out of the equation
Where Also should Donegal play cork? traditionally Mayo and Donegal would both bring large crowds with them and so what if there are a few empty seats , its the poor form of Westmeath and cork that will cause it not THE GAA, There always some one looking for something for nothing and in the long run these people are not good for any association .
The matches are the important thing everything else is secondary and the players would want croke park,

[Kuwabatake Sanjuro]

Galway, Tipp, Clare and Kerry should be played in Limerick or Thurles. Croke Park will be rather empty.

[BennyCake]

Would either hold a double header?

[Avondhu star]

No Need to have of the Qualifier or QF games in Croke Park, the exception being the Dubs game. Its Crazy stuff, bringing Mayo, Westmeath, Cork and Donegal to Dublin.

I may be wrong but I think having QFs in Croke Park is a condition listed when they were selling corporate and premium boxes.

[macdanger2]

Galway, Tipp, Clare and Kerry should be played in Limerick or Thurles. Croke Park will be rather empty.

Limerick would be a perfect location for those two games

[tonto1888]

So is it Kerry v Clare and Galway Tipp

[yellowcard]

It used to be the best weekend of the year when the 4 quarter finals were played together, 2 on Saturday and 2 on Sunday. Now it has been totally diluted with 2 fixture being a round behind. It seems that 10 weeks isn't sufficient time to whittle the 32 teams down to 8. More GAA fixture logic.

[didlyi]

Would either hold a double header?

Limreck would easily cater for it. Capacity 48k. Clare 15k, kerry 5k...waiting for semi, galway 10k and tipp max 10k.

[joemamas]

It used to be the best weekend of the year when the 4 quarter finals were played together, 2 on Saturday and 2 on Sunday. Now it has been totally diluted with 2 fixture being a round behind. It seems that 10 weeks isn't sufficient time to whittle the 32 teams down to 8. More GAA fixture logic.

That was one of my original points. There may very well be some red faces in Croke park come Tuesday morning. If the four quarter finals were on same weekend they could mix and match and could possible have a minimum of 65k on both days, now next Sunday will have something in the line of 30-35k.

To avoid this again, GAA should admit their mistake, (doubtful) and revert back to four q/finals on Saturday and Sunday of bank holiday weekend