Time for the GAA, Croke Park in particular, to get innovative !

[RadioGAAGAA]

To improve attendances (in general - not just CP).


Short term:

1. Drop ticket prices.

2. Move more games out of Croke. The expense of Dublin is farcial - there is also the money spent around the ground to add to the overall cost of the day.

3. As others have mentioned - ensure the league supporter gets tickets for the championship. For the younger generation, this could be done easily by getting tickets online - buying league tickets adds to your account, and gives you purchasing power online for the championship.

For the older generation... not so sure.

4. Don't play provincial matches outside the provinces. Even if it means a shortfall of tickets one match, the scramble adds to the next match.


Long term:

1. Do not build any all-seater stadiums. The proposed casement park farce is a case in point. Total white elephant.

2. Rip out the lower Canal end and have terracing.

3. Quit screwing with the playing rules.

[Maguire01]

I don't believe any of those long-term proposals would have a positive impact on attendances.

[Bud Wiser]

So Radio GAAGAA how many games a year would you like to see in Croke Park then, four?

As regards tickets on line, I bought tickets on line recently for a Man Utd game at Old Trafford.  To do so I had to register on their website.  Since that game I have got regular emails, another one just now, telling me all about what is happening at Old Trafford and even though I couldn't wait to get out of the place because the only reason I went was to bring my little 7yr old grandson, they make me feel part of it.  The GAA have the same Bar Coded tickets as Old Trafford, exactly the same.  They should not have to go through other agents.  They should have their own personalised website advertising Croke Park Stadium.  They should have their own staff who are Irish selling tickets and they should know who is playing, and general information about seating arrangements, additional information etc.  They should have a huge database built up and mail shots sent to those that subscribe to receive them but above all they should create a more inclusive type of athmosphere more of a personal touch than they have been providing up to now.  If they did this they can easily advertise in advance special offers like Old Trafford do by grading each game, and above all, knowing how many supporters are going to turn up instead of having more security guards than there are on the streets of Dublin - for what reason is another question, half are intimidating and not wanted.

I am not being critical of the current setup, far from it, they have achieved quite a lot but ask 10,000 people do they know who the PRO is, what does he look like or where is his office and you will find that half of them wouldn't have a clue.  Company staff outings should be offered whereby if a large company have staff that wanted to go to the game they get a block purchase deal.  I know we can't go out with guns and round people up and frog march them into the fecking place but I think we are not doing enough to make Croke Park more Hip-Hop and I do think that it is after we have made a serious marketing effort to get more to a Leinster Final that we nshould look at moving games away from it.

[neilthemac]

promotion of GAA championships should be tendered out to some PR agency who would get a cut of gate receipts based on attendances. They couldn't do a worse job than the GAA do themselves at the moment

[Bud Wiser]

I would be against an outside PR company, it would smack of Ticketmaster type sales.  I would not mind a PR company to be contracted in and to set up a stadium database.  I wonder what happened to these ideas? (Sunday Business Post 2003)

.....GAA PR gurus liven up Croke Park experience
Sunday, August 31, 2003

By Ian Kehoe

Contemporary Irish music booms around the stadium for 40 minutes before each game.

Six teams of face painters work the ground, decorating hordes of children in county colours. Even the players are heralded onto the pitch to the sound of Fanfare of the Common Man by Emerson, Lake and Palmer. Welcome to the new Croke Park experience.

These are just some of the initiatives of the GAA's new PR and presentation committee to liven up match day presentation at Croke Park. Other additions include live bands, audio-visual demonstrations and half-time entertainment.

"There is a different type of crowd attending Croke Park these days," said Jerry Grogan, the committee's chairman. "A lot more young people and women are coming to matches and we wanted to reflect that. More people than ever go to other international events and they judge us by those standards.

"We are trying to ensure that people will miss something if they don't come to the games. We want to give them something that can't be captured on television. I suppose it is about creating an atmosphere that can be enjoyed by all the family," he said.

Grogan said public response to the changes had been extremely positive and the committee intended to make more changes during its three-year term.

"We have got a lot of support. The Leinster council have provided funds and Cumann na mBunscol are sponsoring the face painting. It is an all-round effort," said Grogan

[TacadoirArdMhacha]

I'd like to see something to encourage more neutrals to go to matches. While cost is an issue, I think that for all lot of people it is only prohibitive when their own county aren't involved. Many will pay current prices and more to watch their own county without a moment's thought but are more likely to baulk at €20/25 to watch a match between 2 other counties, even though they'd like to go.

I think the current season ticket system is something that needs to be expanded, developed and improved. One way would be allowing the holders of any county's season ticket reduced admission to any championship match. Obviously you'd have to have special arrangements for matches that will be full houses but I think this would be a good way of encouraging people to go to matches in the early rounds of the championship.

[Bud Wiser]

I'd like to see something to encourage more neutrals to go to matches.

Now you are after walloping the nail on the head.  The total population of Laois for example is 58,000 including everyone from granny to baby so lets say if every single person of match going age and interest were all to up sticks and head for Croke Park they would not quarter fill it.  If Laois and Louth were playing in the Leinster final they would not half fill it and the attraction of the Dub's has been the saviour of Croke Park every year.  In fact were it not for the Dubs the stadium could be in trouble and I doubt if any of the corporate boxes will be renewed this year.   You are right, more neutrals have to be attracted, by doing something about it, not by talking about it like in the Press Release above and then doing nothing.  

As regards moving the Leinster Final out of Croke Park as expressed by others, that is defeatest attitude and is not the solution. Take Dublin Hurlers for example, this years players are a credit to Leinster hurling, I am living on my road for over 35 years in Dublin and the other week I saw two young lads and a young girl on the green space with hurleys.  Now, lets say these boys have lived the dream, reached a level they only thought about and in doing so reached the Leinster Final, and for the first time get to play in Croke Park which has been their ambition all along, only to find that they are shifted down the country because they can not get enough to fill it?

The PRO needs to come up with something that will (a) make Croker an attraction in its own right on match days, and (b) think of something like give away flags or hats or face painting for the first few hundred into the ground or something that will get the crowds in earlier.

I still think that if the GAA do not come up with innovative ideas Croke Park will become a fairly big white elephant all too soon.  We can't depend on the Dubs and Tyrone for the rest of our lives.  The article from the Business Post above suggests they have thought about it before but if they don't think about it again soon they will be closing the door after the horse has bolted.  None of the suggestions made in that article were followed up, well not to any great extent.  ( I thought Pat Short and fifty or sixty thousand singing along to the Jumbo Breakfeast Roll would have got a blast at it)

[Qwerty28]

Some very good ideas put forward already. For me, some really good pumping music before the game really gets the atmosphere going, especially in Croker. Anything apart form hr ads for Ulster Bank, Vodafone etc. Get eh guy who dies the music for the sports ads on rte to put something togeher. Even the build up to AI football final last year was a good atempt.

Also, for neutrals like myself who like goinG to matches in Croker (Im from longford so not too many games for me!!) have a buy 2 tickets get 1 free incentive for leinster/qualifiers/quarter finals.....might get a few people in who might not have  huge interest in gmae but want to go all the same

[Bud Wiser]

They have as I said the same ticket printing and management (scanning) system as Old Trafford.  What I can't understand is why they don't sell tickets to match the value they give.  I bought two Hogan Stand tickets for the Laois Mayo quarter final a few years ago and all I could see was a big barrier right in front of me.  This talk about "you have a perfect view from any seat in the stadium is bullshit.

Today, lads under twenty who can't get work had their dole cut in half down to a hundred euro a week.  There are pensioners and other deserving supporters that I do not need to explain here who would be entitled to some reduction.  Someone said that then supporters who were paying the full amount would complain - so:

Why not section the stadium, why should I pay the same price to sit behind a barrier at the back of the Hogan Stand in the corner down beside the Nally stand where I can see nothing compared to the guy sitting in the front row at the centre of the Hogan.  So why not take sections of the stadium like the back rows of the upper tiers, the end sections and seats that are located with what we will call secondary viewing areas. all supporters could still enter through the same gates, same turnstiles and into the same area before going to their seats because the scanners are set to read the barcodes.  Then, offer cheaper seats to anyone who wants them, if someone wants to complain, give them cheaper tickets and send them to the cheaper seats as well and make it clear on the back of the ticket that the seat they are sold is the seat they sit in.

I find it strange that the Croke Park Residents who had so much to complain about never complained about the burger trucks/stalls along the roads outside Croke Park. This is great for the Hogan Stand, not the one in Croke Park but the pub along with Gills and other pubs around Croke Park where you will see 'supporters' walking around the roads with pints and burgers in their hands while a minor team are slogging it out in an All-Ireland final. Put the stalls inside Croke Park in the assembly area behind the Cusack and get them inside the gates at least.

When the cats played Waterford in last years Final I was in the Cusack stand and there was a shop there. I asked for a small hurley for my little grandson, just something to bring him home, I can buy them in the shop in Ballyboden on thursday nights, I know, I know, but I wanted to give it to him from Croke Park.  Price?  €25.00  Lucky I was not a parent with a few young lads and had to listen to "Daddy I want one as well"   I could go on and on and on but all I say is that things have to change to where Croke Park becomes a fun day out, an exciting day out and a day out that doesn't leave your family eating out of a big bowl of rice for the following week instead of a nice bit of Irish beef.  

[Bud Wiser]

Not wanting to start another thread but it has just been announced that there is a €9Million euro cut in sports funding effective immediately.  Martin Cullens announcement will have a real impact on GAA in so far as development of local clubs are concerned.   What will happen Lucan Sarsfields for example who were promised 240,000 and have planning applications prepared etc? 

[bingobus]

Not wanting to start another thread but it has just been announced that there is a €9Million euro cut in sports funding effective immediately.  Martin Cullens announcement will have a real impact on GAA in so far as development of local clubs are concerned.   What will happen Lucan Sarsfields for example who were promised 240,000 and have planning applications prepared etc? 

In this the "Lotto" funding?

We were discussing the "Lotto" funding last night at the club. These Grants given to various sports clubs have already been shelved with no new grants this year (and prob next year) but existing, approved funds will still be paid on completion of said projects. This was announced last year I believe or earlier on in year.

However, my reading of these grants is that this was Lottery funding and not politcal funding. It came from ABC playing the weekly National lottery games and the surplus of these funds was distirbuted and administrated by the sitting Gov at anyone time.

Therefore, where are these funds now going and is it the Govs remit to cut this funding? Is the national now another form of taxation that is going into the running of the country rather than been ring fenced for the "good causes" and funding inititives that it was originally intended for?

Maybe this is a separate topic, if so bud, I'll delete this and repost.

[Bud Wiser]

I dont consider it a seperate topic at all bingo. How many times have we heard on this board that clubs throughout the country would be a lot worse off if it wasn't for the money the Dub's created by getting crowds to Croke Park for Leinster Finals and other games.  My understanding is that fundis from the Leinster Final are distributed to the provincial councils so in effect, what I am saying is that if 9Million has been knocked off the stack of money that was going to be given from the Sports Council, then there is all the more reason to try and get bigger crowds into Croke Park than there ever was. 

[thejuice]

Dublin will be the European Capital Sport in 2010, hope the GAA will have something prepared for this so we can promote the games across Europe and gain a wider audience.

[Bud Wiser]

What about the crowds at todays games, or lack of them?
Looks like the Football League Finals will have to be moved as well?

[Zulu]

20K+ with Kerry, Derry and Cork involved isn't bad, of all the possible finalists for the division 1 and 2 finals we probably got the 3 worst supported teams so 20K isn't bad. Add into the mix the fact we go out of our way to poor mouth it, which I find amazing, and the poor crowds are understandable.