CHAMPIONSHIP ATTENDANCES:THE GAA are happy attendances at championship matches will hold up this season despite the counter attraction of next month's Fifa World Cup. The association is also dismissive of any suggestion that some disappointing numbers in the first two weeks of the season are of any significance.
“There is a slight impact on the GAA in a World Cup year when Ireland aren’t involved,” according to association operations manager Feargal McGill. “When Ireland are involved the impact is definitely more noticeable. That’s just the reality of it. We’d expect a slight effect in June because people get interested in it and perhaps our floating supporters might be swayed at times, particularly if England are playing.”
Statistics for the relevant years support the view. The lowest June average attendances for any year since the new championship structures and their dilution of the sudden-death format were introduced in 1997 was eight years ago, the last time the Republic of Ireland qualified for the World Cup.
The 2002 average was 11,595, a drop of about 2,500 on the previous year and a substantial 4,000 below figures for the following season. Four years ago the World Cup in Germany produced the second lowest figure, 13,110, for the period under review even though Ireland didn’t qualify. Paradoxically the previous tournament, at which the country didn’t feature, 1998, fell in the year when June attendances were highest, at an average of 20,985 despite the World Cup being in France and having conflicting kick-off times.
The strong rise in figures since the last World Cup also reflects the fact first-round football qualifiers didn’t take place in any of the three Junes since, Division Four counties being excluded in 2007 and ’08, and not played until July last year. That greatly reduces the number of sparsely-attended matches and raises the average.
Attendance figures held up quite well in 2009, the first year of the economic recession, with a small rise in attendance but a slight loss of revenue due to various promotions designed to attract additional numbers. McGill says that raising numbers remains the priority with ticket prices frozen amongst other initiatives.
“Contrary to what many people seem to think, we’ve been doing an awful lot of work on marketing the championships, a lot more than in other years. We’ve produced a tool-kit or promotional manual for the provinces on promotion of games, outlining advertising campaigns, utilising local radio and devising ticket packages.
“We have been pro-active in terms of promoting the championship and will be launching a national advertising campaign later on in the summer.
“I think it would be very, very dangerous to allow a perception to develop that attendances have been poor to date. I would strongly challenge that. For example the 18,000 at the Tyrone-Antrim match was a good attendance. I don’t think you can compare the crowd at a provincial final with that at a first round.”
Although the attraction of a provincial final is considerably stronger than that of a first round, it should be noted the last time Tyrone and Antrim played prior to last year’s Ulster final was a semi-final seven years ago which drew a crowd of over 20,000.
This year there have been unimpressive turn-outs of 10,242 for Derry-Armagh – although this was in line with the crowd at last year’s Derry-Monaghan match which the GAA argue is a more comparable benchmark than the 27,633 which saw the counties’ previous championship meeting in 2005 – and last weekend in Portlaoise where the Meath-Offaly and Louth-Longford double bill drew only 7,122.
“The attendance in Portlaoise was hugely disappointing,” says McGill, “but to use it as a yardstick for declining numbers would be misleading. The main factor in Portlaoise was that the matches were being played at a neutral venue. Had there been a home draw in both matches for one of the teams the aggregate attendance would have been greater.
“Meath’s most recent home draw was last year’s qualifier with Roscommon, which attracted over 8,000, which is more than the weekend’s total attendance. Longford will always have 4,000 in attendance no matter who they play at home in the championship. I know there are other considerations but in the context of attendances I’m not a big fan of neutral venues.”
Other attendances commented on include the paltry 4,965 that turned out to see Kerry’s first championship tie with Tipperary the Sunday before last but that is almost identical to the crowd of 5,078 that attended the same match the last time it was played in Thurles when Kerry were All-Ireland champions.
Even the 2,269 that watched newly-promoted Waterford footballers beat Clare in Fraher Field was roughly twice the crowd that attended their previous championship meeting at the Dungarvan venue three years ago. “I watch attendances closely,” says McGill, “and I think we are exactly where we would have expected to be.”
