Attendances

[GalwayBayBoy]

With Galway, Kilkenny and Kerry clubs involved it’s no surprise with such a poor support. They hardly get behind their counties.

If a Mayo or Ulster club were in the final you would have a good overall county support backing their clubs.

There are Galway clubs playing on Paddy's Day most years between football and hurling and the attendance has never been that low. Must have been a reason for it this year.

And Corofin v Dr Crokes was considered a "dream final" so to speak yet the attendance was down massively.

Both hurling clubs in the final come from very small parishes so they are not going to account for many by themselves.

To me it looks like they didn't get as many neutrals in as other years for whatever reason.

[Maiden1]

With Galway, Kilkenny and Kerry clubs involved it’s no surprise with such a poor support. They hardly get behind their counties.

If a Mayo or Ulster club were in the final you would have a good overall county support backing their clubs.

There are Galway clubs playing on Paddy's Day most years between football and hurling and the attendance has never been that low. Must have been a reason for it this year.

And Corofin v Dr Crokes was considered a "dream final" so to speak yet the attendance was down massively.

Both hurling clubs in the final come from very small parishes so they are not going to account for many by themselves.

To me it looks like they didn't get as many neutrals in as other years for whatever reason.

With Corofin being so successful in recent years would they get much supporters from other Galway clubs?

[manfromdelmonte]

With Galway, Kilkenny and Kerry clubs involved it’s no surprise with such a poor support. They hardly get behind their counties.

If a Mayo or Ulster club were in the final you would have a good overall county support backing their clubs.

There are Galway clubs playing on Paddy's Day most years between football and hurling and the attendance has never been that low. Must have been a reason for it this year.

And Corofin v Dr Crokes was considered a "dream final" so to speak yet the attendance was down massively.

Both hurling clubs in the final come from very small parishes so they are not going to account for many by themselves.

To me it looks like they didn't get as many neutrals in as other years for whatever reason.

With Corofin being so successful in recent years would they get much supporters from other Galway clubs?

Most diehard Galway fans were already at a county gsme the day before

[BennyCake]

With Galway, Kilkenny and Kerry clubs involved it’s no surprise with such a poor support. They hardly get behind their counties.

If a Mayo or Ulster club were in the final you would have a good overall county support backing their clubs.

There are Galway clubs playing on Paddy's Day most years between football and hurling and the attendance has never been that low. Must have been a reason for it this year.

And Corofin v Dr Crokes was considered a "dream final" so to speak yet the attendance was down massively.

Both hurling clubs in the final come from very small parishes so they are not going to account for many by themselves.

To me it looks like they didn't get as many neutrals in as other years for whatever reason.

Could be a cost issue too.

While I’m 90 minutes+ from Croke Park, I’m not likely to be one of said neutrals on St Patrick’s Day. Nor would I imagine there’d be many neutrals from Galway or Kerry, given the distance.

I have been down for a couple of AI club finals when Crossmaglen were involved. Last was 2012 I think, and the tickets were €25 then if I remember correct. I’m sure they’re €30 or more now. So it all adds up, particularly if you’re attending your county’s league game the same weekend.

[Saffrongael]

I was at games on Sunday as a neutral, tickets are still €25.

[Farrandeelin]

How about making football attractive to watch and we might get 25% more people going to all  games?

Are Ros that Bad? 

[Redhand Santa]

Rugby grounds are the perfect size for rugby crowds. They tend to look busy because finding 20,000 more-than-casually-interested patrons from one province isn’t overly difficult. Yet there’s a bloody good reason why Thomond and Ravenhill weren’t rebuilt as 35k venues. Even with an “entire province” behind them.

As such It’s an odd thing to believe, that there are 50,000 people in Ireland who would happily give up a family day to travel to Croke Park, and sit in the freezing cold, watching teams they have little-to-no interest in.

Club finals day is the showcase of a parish-level competition. Only the biggest parishes in Ireland have more than a thousand genuinely interested patrons. You simply cannot expect 80-90% of your audience at a sporting event to be of the casually interested sort.

Throwing in a few fireworks and a novelty band won’t change that.

Now if we could do a public hanging or something like that on the undercard, you might have a chance.

——-

Also, if Dublin v Tyrone in the NFL is of little interest to the average joe from Dublin or Tyrone, it’s more than a touch expectant to think that tourists would revel in such an occasion.

In the past the gaa have made an effort to market two Tyrone Dublin games - the 125 anniversary and the first game under lights. Also the Dublin Kerry league final in 2016 when they had the easter rising show. All those games attracted full houses.

Saturday's Tyrone Dublin game attracted little or no marketing. I'm sure with a bit of effort and turning it into a bit of an event you could have got a very big crowd especially with Dublin being so busy at the weekend. You couldn't do this with every league game but you could certainly pick out one or two games in the year that you could do something with.

And given St Patrick is the patron saint of Ireland celebrating the day as part of a gaa event makes sense and there is no better place to hold a show than croke park. And it's the show element that will help attract the tourists and then get to promote and show of our own games when they are there.

[Bord na Mona man]

When St Patrick's Day falls midweek the attendances at the club finals are higher. At weekends, the potential walk in crowd of neutrals in diminished by people going away for a long weekend.

[highorlow]

When St Patrick's Day falls midweek the attendances at the club finals are higher. At weekends, the potential walk in crowd of neutrals in diminished by people going away for a long weekend.

How did this years crowd compare to last years?