GAA doing a deal with SkySports

[Zulu]

Gone again, really poor stuff from RTE.

[Sidney]

Down and Tyrone draw - replay not on television. No live stream. Not even a TV commentator in Newry.

Cork and Waterford draw - replay not on television.

Where are the outcries from those who were moaning about not being able to see their county on television as a result of the Sky deal?

Sky weren't given enough matches.

Oh yeah, and Des Cahill should be sacked for that excruciating attempt at humour where he quoted Dara O'Briain as saying that "London may have lost to Galway in football, but they'll beat them at cricket". FFS.

[Hound]

Sean Kelly is a self serving man in my opinion. He is a politician and will play to whatever angle he feels will give him the most votes. I note he says the lads in Belgium received a slap in the face because they have to pay €110 for a season of GAAGo. Is he of the opinion that they preferred to pay €20 a game, or whatever the Irish pubs in Brussels charge to watch the games, because I'm sure it wasn't free. They may want it free, of course they do, but €110 euro to see all the games live is not a bad deal in my view.

Ah I'd say there's no charge into the pubs AZ but not many pubs would be showing it I'd say so it might be a decent trek for some into see it. Could the GAA and RTE do it for free?

Really no charge? It was $20 per game in the states in 1997-2001 when I was there.

I've watched GAA matches in pubs in England, Spain, Portugal and Holland and never had to pay in, so its highly unlikely pubs in Belgium would charge.

Down and Tyrone draw - replay not on television. No live stream. Not even a TV commentator in Newry.

Cork and Waterford draw - replay not on television.

Where are the outcries from those who were moaning about not being able to see their county on television as a result of the Sky deal?

Sky weren't given enough matches.

Yeah, there would have been horrendous moaning if the Tyrone-Down replay had been on Sky about all the people who couldnt get to see it!

[Bingo]

Down and Tyrone draw - replay not on television. No live stream. Not even a TV commentator in Newry.

Cork and Waterford draw - replay not on television.

Where are the outcries from those who were moaning about not being able to see their county on television as a result of the Sky deal?

Sky weren't given enough matches.

Oh yeah, and Des Cahill should be sacked for that excruciating attempt at humour where he quoted Dara O'Briain as saying that "London may have lost to Galway in football, but they'll beat them at cricket". FFS.

Never mind more matches on TV/SKY/RTE, only 12,000 at the Cork V Waterford match yesterday. Why is this the case? Have we turned into a nation of armchair fans now or because its May no one is really bothered or maybe even know that the game is on?

[AZOffaly]

Down and Tyrone draw - replay not on television. No live stream. Not even a TV commentator in Newry.

Cork and Waterford draw - replay not on television.

Where are the outcries from those who were moaning about not being able to see their county on television as a result of the Sky deal?

Sky weren't given enough matches.

Oh yeah, and Des Cahill should be sacked for that excruciating attempt at humour where he quoted Dara O'Briain as saying that "London may have lost to Galway in football, but they'll beat them at cricket". FFS.

Never mind more matches on TV/SKY/RTE, only 12,000 at the Cork V Waterford match yesterday. Why is this the case? Have we turned into a nation of armchair fans now or because its May no one is really bothered or maybe even know that the game is on?

I'm not sure that early round games ever really got huge crowds to be honest. I remember Offaly playing leinster finals with less than 15,000 at it.  I think the reason people associate huge crowds with championship matches is because a) They were held in smaller grounds, and a crowd of 12,000 is like a multitude, and b) We remember when we were small, and even medium crowds seem huge.

I think we went through a spate of big crowds in Ulster, but even recently I've been at several games in Munster and Leinster with crowds of low to mid teens.

Also, Waterford would not have been very hopeful yesterday, so their bandwagon won't have revved up, and Cork can be hit or miss, although usually better for their hurlers. I'd bet there'll be 20k plus at the replay.

[Sidney]

Down and Tyrone draw - replay not on television. No live stream. Not even a TV commentator in Newry.

Cork and Waterford draw - replay not on television.

Where are the outcries from those who were moaning about not being able to see their county on television as a result of the Sky deal?

Sky weren't given enough matches.

Oh yeah, and Des Cahill should be sacked for that excruciating attempt at humour where he quoted Dara O'Briain as saying that "London may have lost to Galway in football, but they'll beat them at cricket". FFS.

Never mind more matches on TV/SKY/RTE, only 12,000 at the Cork V Waterford match yesterday. Why is this the case? Have we turned into a nation of armchair fans now or because its May no one is really bothered or maybe even know that the game is on?

I'm not sure that early round games ever really got huge crowds to be honest. I remember Offaly playing leinster finals with less than 15,000 at it.  I think the reason people associate huge crowds with championship matches is because a) They were held in smaller grounds, and a crowd of 12,000 is like a multitude, and b) We remember when we were small, and even medium crowds seem huge.

I think we went through a spate of big crowds in Ulster, but even recently I've been at several games in Munster and Leinster with crowds of low to mid teens.

Also, Waterford would not have been very hopeful yesterday, so their bandwagon won't have revved up, and Cork can be hit or miss, although usually better for their hurlers. I'd bet there'll be 20k plus at the replay.

Something like 8,000 people attended both the 1980 Leinster hurling final between Offaly and Kilkenny and the 1985 All-Ireland hurling semi-final between Galway and Cork.

Crowds for early round provincial matches were always poor in my memory up to the mid-90s when the advent of live TV brought about a notable upturn.

The back door and the recession are obviously the main factors in the decline of crowds.

[thejuice]

I hear the head honcho at Sky Sports called Brian Whelehan after today's Munster semi-final and asked him if he could guarantee a match of similar quality for their first live broadcast. 

[FermGael]

This black card debate shows up everything that is wrong with rtes coverage.  Brutal stuff.

[IolarCoisCuain]

Down and Tyrone draw - replay not on television. No live stream. Not even a TV commentator in Newry.

Cork and Waterford draw - replay not on television.

Where are the outcries from those who were moaning about not being able to see their county on television as a result of the Sky deal?

Sky weren't given enough matches.

Oh yeah, and Des Cahill should be sacked for that excruciating attempt at humour where he quoted Dara O'Briain as saying that "London may have lost to Galway in football, but they'll beat them at cricket". FFS.

Never mind more matches on TV/SKY/RTE, only 12,000 at the Cork V Waterford match yesterday. Why is this the case? Have we turned into a nation of armchair fans now or because its May no one is really bothered or maybe even know that the game is on?

I'm not sure that early round games ever really got huge crowds to be honest. I remember Offaly playing leinster finals with less than 15,000 at it.  I think the reason people associate huge crowds with championship matches is because a) They were held in smaller grounds, and a crowd of 12,000 is like a multitude, and b) We remember when we were small, and even medium crowds seem huge.

I think we went through a spate of big crowds in Ulster, but even recently I've been at several games in Munster and Leinster with crowds of low to mid teens.

Also, Waterford would not have been very hopeful yesterday, so their bandwagon won't have revved up, and Cork can be hit or miss, although usually better for their hurlers. I'd bet there'll be 20k plus at the replay.

Matches sold out a lot at the very height of the boom. I seem to remember every damn game being all-ticket once, and now it's pretty much just the All-Irelands and football games against Dublin after the end of July. It was almost considered shameful that you wouldn't go to games ten years ago, for what was twenty-five Euro anyway, when it was never so cheap to buy money?

My own guess for the current low attendances (compared to ten years ago; as people have been saying, a generation ago saw very low attendances, even for All-Ireland semi-finals) is twofold. Firstly, the recession. Going to a match counts as extra spend, not least when you can watch it live on the telly. But also, in the particular case of Cork v Waterford, the back-door system in hurling is much more unfair to underdogs than it is in football.

Above any county, I think the Waterford hurlers of the 2000s got hosed the most by the back door. They might have got past Cork once, but not twice, and then you had Kilkenny at the very height of their powers too. If Déise hearts are now too broken to go to games like they used to, I can see how that could have happened.

[AZOffaly]

Just wondering lads, has anyone seen any more on Sky Sports News about the GAA? There was a fairly upbeat report on the Down-Tyrone draw, (The video is on http://www1.skysports.com/gaa/ ) but I've seen nothing else yet, and there's no other games there. Surely the Cork Waterford and Limerick Tipp hurling matches deserved a bit of a mention, without even considering all the other games we've had. Getting a bit worried about the lack of oomph.

[Zulu]

Agree, considering their first live game is this Saturday there doesn't seem to be any real effort to promote the fact they've even got it. Maybe that was part of the deal Croke Park insisted on when giving them the rights - "Listen here lads, ye can show a few matches but none of yer flash Harry jiggery pokery nonsense now, the teams and the match officials know when and where it's on and that's enough"

[AZOffaly]

Or maybe they are afraid too many people will tune in for Offaly v Kilkenny and never come back

[Jinxy]

They'll have to run a message along the bottom for newcomers watching Offaly for the first time.
'Players may appear wider than normal, do not adjust your aspect ratio.'

[muppet]

They'll have to run a message along the bottom for newcomers watching Offaly for the first time.
'Players may appear wider than normal, do not adjust your aspect ratio.'

..and another saying the half full pint on the screen is NOT drinkable.

[GalwayBayBoy]

Should be a cracker in the Connacht football championship this weekend.