The Kilkenny county board is "sickened" by the fact that their ticket allocation for the All-Ireland hurling final against Cork on September 12th has been cut by 10 per cent. Apparently all counties have been informed that this cut is general and is caused by the continuing construction work at the Canal End of Croke Park.
Interest in the last hurling final of the Millennium has generated huge interest in Kilkenny and an estimated ticket sale of 17,000 was recorded for the semi-final against Clare. Informed sources believe that as many as 25,000 Kilkenny supporters will want to be at the match but the county's allocation for the final has been cut to 11,000 with only 4,500 stand tickets available.
A spokesman for Croke Park admits that there are problems about tickets but that the problem is not of their making. The GAA's public relations officer, Danny Lynch, explains that work on the completion of the Canal End was delayed because of a strike by scaffolding workers which lasted more than five weeks. "We are that much behind on the building programme and the capacity of the ground for the All-Ireland finals will be in the region of 61 or 62,000. Naturally we regret this but we have to take the advice of safety people and the construction company. "Needless to say we will do everything we can to accommodate as many people as we can but there is only so much that we can do. Some 8,000 will be seated on the Canal End for Sunday's football semi-final and we hope to have as many as 11,000 by the time the hurling final comes around.
"Every effort will be made to maximise the crowd for all matches but the Central Council of the GAA is deeply conscious of the fact that our games seem to be increasing in popularity all the time, particularly among young people but we have to be careful as well that people will not be in any danger," he said. The extraordinary support for Kilkenny last Sunday has been commented upon by several of the Kilkenny players, including D J Carey, Peter Barry, Brian McEvoy and Denis Byrne. They have expressed surprise at the number of young people who came to support the team and are determined not to let them down. The sale of replica jerseys in Kilkenny is also reported to have increased dramatically. The chairman of the Kilkenny county board, Ned Quinn, said that he will be contacting other counties who are not involved in the final with regard to the availability of tickets.
"We will have no reservation about asking other counties who are not involved in either the minor or senior matches to make arrangements with us with regard to tickets. We recognise that this is a national occasion and that other counties are entitled to their quota of tickets but we can only ask for their co-operation," he said.
The Kilkenny county board secretary, Pat Dunphy, has called the ticket problem as "chronic" but admits that the problem is virtually insoluble. "We will do our utmost to cater for as many genuine supporters as we can but we realise that some will be disappointed. "When we lost last year's final against Offaly there were 20,000 on the streets of Kilkenny to welcome the team home," he said. "All of those will be looking for tickets for the match against Cork but I'm afraid many will be disappointed" he said.
