Kildare v Mayo AI Qualifier Round 3

[manfromdelmonte]

What's the story with season tickets? Turn up to CP for nothing and get attendance recorded or what? It doesn't affect me this weekend as I'm not able to go but there are people from Achill and Belmullet who will be wondering this.

Season ticket holders are part of the problem here if you ask me

Great idea, until smaller county grounds cannot cope with the numbers

[trailer]

Fair play to Kildare for wanting to host the match

This health n safety lark is a cop out

The H&S statement is a complete nonsense alright. There are actual reasons why you could argue the game should be moved and it's not H&S.

As has been said, moving games to higher capacity venues has been going on for generations. Mostly good intentioned so as many people as possible can attend the game, but clearly it also means more money for the GAA in ticket receipts and that's the main driver now it would seem (also the reason Kildare County Board voted to move the Wicklow v Dublin game out of Aughrim).

It looks like around 8,500 is the actual safe capacity for Newbridge. Tickets will presumably have to be set aside for a small element of officials, players's families, etc. Are the Kildare lads happy that approx 4,000 tickets will be left for Kildare supporters, with season ticket holders given first preference? That means there'll be Kildare lads here who probably won't get tickets. Kildare have supporters who go to O'Byrne Cup games and all away league games and they may not be season ticket holders. Some of these people will not get tickets. If Kildare County Board are happy to go on that basis, then the choice should be there's to make, in conjunction with the team management.

Mayo could have a similar predicament if they replace Cork in the Super 8 and have a home game v Dublin. The county board will have the choice of holding it in Castlebar, 15k tickets to each team (as far as I'm aware the GAA has always gone for 50/50 ticket allocations where demand outstrips supply), so thousands of Mayo fans will be locked out. Or move it to, say, Limerick, where maybe an extra 10k Mayo fans can attend. The choice should be Mayo's alone though, and I'm sure they'd choose Castlebar, but there'd be a lot of Mayo non-season ticket holders feeling very hard done by.  And we'd have stories of people following Mayo all around the country, 1000s of miles, 1000s of euros, and when they get a home game they can't even get it, plus all the great work they do for the club, etc. etc.

Of course the GAA should have sorted this all out from the start, so there'd be no surprises.

The spread of GAA county grounds is very uneven. Not every county has a ground with the capacity to suit HQ because of decisions made in the past and priorities. And the focus of the GAA is Croke Park. And home advantage is important when the margins are thin.

It's a structural problem.

Kildare are very picky about which ground Mayo beat them in 

Seriously thought, if it was to be shown on RTE would there be such a faux outrage? Games have been moved for as long as I can remember. I can barely remember Tyrone playing anywhere else in my youth other than Clones. Furthermore it's like 40 mins down the road. It's not as if they're been sent to Cork.
Kildare have in the past shown very little regard for the rules and regulations of the GAA so in my honest view and I appreciate it goes against the majority, they should suck it up and play the match in Croke Park.

[Mayo4Sam]

A lot of people on here saying that the H&S thing is bullshit, this is without any clue as to what is actually involved. I've tried looking for that Rafferty Report thats been mentioned but no sign.

Bottom line is we don't know what the actual capacity of the park is, i've heard everything from 6,200 to 8,000 to 10,000 to 12,000. Without knowing that we're all just talking out our arses.

However, there is a section in the season ticket T&C's

In the event that the number of Season Ticket holders exceeds stadium capacity the GAA offers no guarantee of the availability of seats or entry to that fixture

Which in itself is absolute bullshit

[sid waddell]

There are enough places in Newbridge for all season ticket holders.

Most of them will have to stand, but so what.

Kildare playing in Portlaoise in the past is a red herring and irrelevant.

They're correct here.

And the GAA know it. Everybody knows it.

[Rossfan]

How many season tickets have the Rhubarbs?
I've heard 4,000 and 4,800 mentioned.
Would the current non bandwagon Kildare have 1,000?
So that plus the 2 Co Board tickets for families of players, sponsors etc would use up 6,500 to 7,000 leaving about 2-2,500 for public sale.
That would have led to some whinging but at least the game would be going ahead and the innocent victims Cavan and Tyrone would be preparing for a trip to Enniskillen or Clones.

[highorlow]

As a compromise we should play the game at the RDS

[thewobbler]

A lot of people on here saying that the H&S thing is bullshit, this is without any clue as to what is actually involved. I've tried looking for that Rafferty Report thats been mentioned but no sign.

Bottom line is we don't know what the actual capacity of the park is, i've heard everything from 6,200 to 8,000 to 10,000 to 12,000. Without knowing that we're all just talking out our arses.

However, there is a section in the season ticket T&C's

In the event that the number of Season Ticket holders exceeds stadium capacity the GAA offers no guarantee of the availability of seats or entry to that fixture

Which in itself is absolute bullshit

We don't need to know the capacity, as we know that Mayo would fill it twice without need for a single Lilly to join them. Trying to be more specific than that is plain daft.

——

Somewhere in an almost parallel universe right now, the GAA have allowed Kildare home advantage, and there's a message board with hundreds of posts where people are sticking it into Kildare County Board for steadfastly refusing to play the game in the bigger venue that the crowd deserves.

——

Personally I hope a Kildare club refuses the Kildare County Board on similar grounds in the near future. This paranoid "everyone is out to get us" attitude that runs like a disease through the GAA sickens my hole. And those who imbibe deserve a full taste of the medicine.

——-

At some point this week it's going to start dawning on Kildare fans that a) they've been financing a team all year who are now refusing to play football, and b) that if the game was played in Newbridge, there'd be no chance of a ticket.

When you stop being emotional about this, it's an eminently sensible decision by CCC.

The tide will turn.

[Dinny Breen]

Anyone hear Ned Quinn the Chairman of the CCCC on offtheball?

Only caught the end of it where he was non-committal and didn't seem well prepared, definitely felt he didn't want to be on the air.

Jack Anderson though was very good. Looks like the DRA is the only solution, he feels costs will be prohibitive to Kildare and the GAA have a slightly better case but it will delay the whole championship if Kildare apply for an injunction.

That's the nuclear option right there. The GAA will not want that.

Sean Kelly's solution was to give Kildare a ton of money, straight out of the Bertie playbook. 

[JoG2]

Fair play to Kildare for wanting to host the match

This health n safety lark is a cop out

The H&S statement is a complete nonsense alright. There are actual reasons why you could argue the game should be moved and it's not H&S.

As has been said, moving games to higher capacity venues has been going on for generations. Mostly good intentioned so as many people as possible can attend the game, but clearly it also means more money for the GAA in ticket receipts and that's the main driver now it would seem (also the reason Kildare County Board voted to move the Wicklow v Dublin game out of Aughrim).

It looks like around 8,500 is the actual safe capacity for Newbridge. Tickets will presumably have to be set aside for a small element of officials, players's families, etc. Are the Kildare lads happy that approx 4,000 tickets will be left for Kildare supporters, with season ticket holders given first preference? That means there'll be Kildare lads here who probably won't get tickets. Kildare have supporters who go to O'Byrne Cup games and all away league games and they may not be season ticket holders. Some of these people will not get tickets. If Kildare County Board are happy to go on that basis, then the choice should be there's to make, in conjunction with the team management.

Mayo could have a similar predicament if they replace Cork in the Super 8 and have a home game v Dublin. The county board will have the choice of holding it in Castlebar, 15k tickets to each team (as far as I'm aware the GAA has always gone for 50/50 ticket allocations where demand outstrips supply), so thousands of Mayo fans will be locked out. Or move it to, say, Limerick, where maybe an extra 10k Mayo fans can attend. The choice should be Mayo's alone though, and I'm sure they'd choose Castlebar, but there'd be a lot of Mayo non-season ticket holders feeling very hard done by.  And we'd have stories of people following Mayo all around the country, 1000s of miles, 1000s of euros, and when they get a home game they can't even get it, plus all the great work they do for the club, etc. etc.

Of course the GAA should have sorted this all out from the start, so there'd be no surprises.

The spread of GAA county grounds is very uneven. Not every county has a ground with the capacity to suit HQ because of decisions made in the past and priorities. And the focus of the GAA is Croke Park. And home advantage is important when the margins are thin.

It's a structural problem.

Kildare are very picky about which ground Mayo beat them in 

Seriously thought, if it was to be shown on RTE would there be such a faux outrage? Games have been moved for as long as I can remember. I can barely remember Tyrone playing anywhere else in my youth other than Clones. Furthermore it's like 40 mins down the road. It's not as if they're been sent to Cork.
Kildare have in the past shown very little regard for the rules and regulations of the GAA so in my honest view and I appreciate it goes against the majority, they should suck it up and play the match in Croke Park.

Why exactly should they 'suck it up'? At least Kildare are showing a bit of backbone here.

[Aristo 60]

Well done Kildare. This Down man is behind you all.

[Dinny Breen]

A lot of people on here saying that the H&S thing is bullshit, this is without any clue as to what is actually involved. I've tried looking for that Rafferty Report thats been mentioned but no sign.

Bottom line is we don't know what the actual capacity of the park is, i've heard everything from 6,200 to 8,000 to 10,000 to 12,000. Without knowing that we're all just talking out our arses.

However, there is a section in the season ticket T&C's

In the event that the number of Season Ticket holders exceeds stadium capacity the GAA offers no guarantee of the availability of seats or entry to that fixture

Which in itself is absolute bullshit

We don't need to know the capacity, as we know that Mayo would fill it twice without need for a single Lilly to join them. Trying to be more specific than that is plain daft.

——

Somewhere in an almost parallel universe right now, the GAA have allowed Kildare home advantage, and there's a message board with hundreds of posts where people are sticking it into Kildare County Board for steadfastly refusing to play the game in the bigger venue that the crowd deserves.

——

Personally I hope a Kildare club refuses the Kildare County Board on similar grounds in the near future. This paranoid "everyone is out to get us" attitude that runs like a disease through the GAA sickens my hole. And those who imbibe deserve a full taste of the medicine.

——-

At some point this week it's going to start dawning on Kildare fans that a) they've been financing a team all year who are now refusing to play football, and b) that if the game was played in Newbridge, there'd be no chance of a ticket.

When you stop being emotional about this, it's an eminently sensible decision by CCC.

The tide will turn.

You couldn't be more wrong unless you were Lord Mayor Wrong of Wrongville.

I always take your point of view as an administrator, at least you are consistent. 

[trailer]

Fair play to Kildare for wanting to host the match

This health n safety lark is a cop out

The H&S statement is a complete nonsense alright. There are actual reasons why you could argue the game should be moved and it's not H&S.

As has been said, moving games to higher capacity venues has been going on for generations. Mostly good intentioned so as many people as possible can attend the game, but clearly it also means more money for the GAA in ticket receipts and that's the main driver now it would seem (also the reason Kildare County Board voted to move the Wicklow v Dublin game out of Aughrim).

It looks like around 8,500 is the actual safe capacity for Newbridge. Tickets will presumably have to be set aside for a small element of officials, players's families, etc. Are the Kildare lads happy that approx 4,000 tickets will be left for Kildare supporters, with season ticket holders given first preference? That means there'll be Kildare lads here who probably won't get tickets. Kildare have supporters who go to O'Byrne Cup games and all away league games and they may not be season ticket holders. Some of these people will not get tickets. If Kildare County Board are happy to go on that basis, then the choice should be there's to make, in conjunction with the team management.

Mayo could have a similar predicament if they replace Cork in the Super 8 and have a home game v Dublin. The county board will have the choice of holding it in Castlebar, 15k tickets to each team (as far as I'm aware the GAA has always gone for 50/50 ticket allocations where demand outstrips supply), so thousands of Mayo fans will be locked out. Or move it to, say, Limerick, where maybe an extra 10k Mayo fans can attend. The choice should be Mayo's alone though, and I'm sure they'd choose Castlebar, but there'd be a lot of Mayo non-season ticket holders feeling very hard done by.  And we'd have stories of people following Mayo all around the country, 1000s of miles, 1000s of euros, and when they get a home game they can't even get it, plus all the great work they do for the club, etc. etc.

Of course the GAA should have sorted this all out from the start, so there'd be no surprises.

The spread of GAA county grounds is very uneven. Not every county has a ground with the capacity to suit HQ because of decisions made in the past and priorities. And the focus of the GAA is Croke Park. And home advantage is important when the margins are thin.

It's a structural problem.

Kildare are very picky about which ground Mayo beat them in 

Seriously thought, if it was to be shown on RTE would there be such a faux outrage? Games have been moved for as long as I can remember. I can barely remember Tyrone playing anywhere else in my youth other than Clones. Furthermore it's like 40 mins down the road. It's not as if they're been sent to Cork.
Kildare have in the past shown very little regard for the rules and regulations of the GAA so in my honest view and I appreciate it goes against the majority, they should suck it up and play the match in Croke Park.

Why exactly should they 'suck it up'? At least Kildare are showing a bit of backbone here.

They didn't have much backbone in the Seanie Johnston affair.
Games get moved.

[sid waddell]

Anyone hear Ned Quinn the Chairman of the CCCC on offtheball?

Only caught the end of it where he was non-committal and didn't seem well prepared, definitely felt he didn't want to be on the air.

Jack Anderson though was very good. Looks like the DRA is the only solution, he feels costs will be prohibitive to Kildare and the GAA have a slightly better case but it will delay the whole championship if Kildare apply for an injunction.

That's the nuclear option right there. The GAA will not want that.

Sean Kelly's solution was to give Kildare a ton of money, straight out of the Bertie playbook.

Personally I think it would be hilarious were the championship to be held up over this, and it would be exactly what the GAA deserve.

This is like something straight out of Father Ted from Ned Quinn. Talk about digging yourself into a hole.

https://amp.independent.ie/sport/gaelic-games/gaelic-football/chair-of-the-cccc-claims-there-could-be-animosity-among-fans-if-kildaremayo-game-went-ahead-at-newbridge-37050377.html?__twitter_impression=true

Asked to elaborate on the safety issues, he said: "People are eager to see their own county playing championship and it was a possibility that people would turn up seeking to get admission to try and buy tickets outside the ground despite knowing that tickets weren't available.

"The risk would be that people would get involved with other spectators, that's the risk.

"I wouldn't call it crowd trouble but there could be animosity shown to people who had tickets and they couldn't get them, claiming they were regular supporters of Kildare."

[Jinxy]

I predict HQ will cave and the game will go ahead in Newbridge.
However, in revenge they'll appoint Cormac Reilly to ref it.

[JoG2]

Fair play to Kildare for wanting to host the match

This health n safety lark is a cop out

The H&S statement is a complete nonsense alright. There are actual reasons why you could argue the game should be moved and it's not H&S.

As has been said, moving games to higher capacity venues has been going on for generations. Mostly good intentioned so as many people as possible can attend the game, but clearly it also means more money for the GAA in ticket receipts and that's the main driver now it would seem (also the reason Kildare County Board voted to move the Wicklow v Dublin game out of Aughrim).

It looks like around 8,500 is the actual safe capacity for Newbridge. Tickets will presumably have to be set aside for a small element of officials, players's families, etc. Are the Kildare lads happy that approx 4,000 tickets will be left for Kildare supporters, with season ticket holders given first preference? That means there'll be Kildare lads here who probably won't get tickets. Kildare have supporters who go to O'Byrne Cup games and all away league games and they may not be season ticket holders. Some of these people will not get tickets. If Kildare County Board are happy to go on that basis, then the choice should be there's to make, in conjunction with the team management.

Mayo could have a similar predicament if they replace Cork in the Super 8 and have a home game v Dublin. The county board will have the choice of holding it in Castlebar, 15k tickets to each team (as far as I'm aware the GAA has always gone for 50/50 ticket allocations where demand outstrips supply), so thousands of Mayo fans will be locked out. Or move it to, say, Limerick, where maybe an extra 10k Mayo fans can attend. The choice should be Mayo's alone though, and I'm sure they'd choose Castlebar, but there'd be a lot of Mayo non-season ticket holders feeling very hard done by.  And we'd have stories of people following Mayo all around the country, 1000s of miles, 1000s of euros, and when they get a home game they can't even get it, plus all the great work they do for the club, etc. etc.

Of course the GAA should have sorted this all out from the start, so there'd be no surprises.

The spread of GAA county grounds is very uneven. Not every county has a ground with the capacity to suit HQ because of decisions made in the past and priorities. And the focus of the GAA is Croke Park. And home advantage is important when the margins are thin.

It's a structural problem.

Kildare are very picky about which ground Mayo beat them in 

Seriously thought, if it was to be shown on RTE would there be such a faux outrage? Games have been moved for as long as I can remember. I can barely remember Tyrone playing anywhere else in my youth other than Clones. Furthermore it's like 40 mins down the road. It's not as if they're been sent to Cork.
Kildare have in the past shown very little regard for the rules and regulations of the GAA so in my honest view and I appreciate it goes against the majority, they should suck it up and play the match in Croke Park.

Why exactly should they 'suck it up'? At least Kildare are showing a bit of backbone here.

They didn't have much backbone in the Seanie Johnston affair.
Games get moved.

eh? Completely different situation, and didn't they, in spite of widespread condemnation show backbone and stick to their guns? Any right thinking GAA man / woman should be backing Kildare here and not using the Seanie Johnston affair as a stick to beat them with