Penn State fans ready to hit Croke Park with ‘force’

A first trip to Croke Park as a visiting player or fan is a daunting experience for most.

With a capacity of 82,300, the Dublin stadium is one of Europe's largest. But for the student American football players of Penn State, who face the University of Central Florida at GAA headquarters on Saturday, a full house will represent a downsizing on the crowd they are used to.

Beaver Stadium, home to the Penn State Nittany Lions, holds almost 25,000 more spectators than Croke Park, and travelling fans do not expect the scale of the surroundings to get to their young players.

"107,000 come to Beaver Stadium, so we're used to big venues," says Penn State graduate Joe Doncsecz, who has landed in Dublin for the game. "We'll show up in force. Penn State will be there in force."

TV broadcast

Mr Doncsecz, who was visiting Temple Bar yesterday, is one of 20,000 North Americans expected in Dublin for the fixture – labelled the “Croke Park Classic”. It is the opening game of the season for both sides and will be broadcast on ESPN in the US.

Penn State has had to come to terms with sanctions arising from an abuse scandal involving a former assistant coach, Jerry Sandusky, which has seen it fined, stripped of titles and banned from post-season, or "bowl", games.

“We don’t have a bowl game to go to at the end of the year this year, so this is kind of our bowl game,” Mr Doncsecz said, when asked if the trip was an inconvenience. “It’s really nice that we have an opportunity to do that [in Ireland].”

He added: “In America, once you’re an alumni of a university and they have a big football programme, that’s part of your connection to the university. It carries with you through your whole life.”

Emerald Isle Classic

Two years ago, Notre Dame and Navy played their season opener, “the Emerald Isle Classic”, at the Aviva Stadium. Notre Dame had the inbuilt

Celtic

link with its “Fighting Irish” nickname and Aviva Stadium director

Martin Murphy

said afterwards that the event attracted 33,000 Americans and was worth €100 million to the economy.

The exact economic impact of such an event is hard to measure but organisers see this fixture generating some €30 million.