DUBLIN CEO John Costello has criticised the current championship structures, supporting a standardisation of fixtures to make the competition fairer and to facilitate better marketing of the games.
“The system at the moment with 11 teams competing in Leinster, nine in Ulster and so on is a crazy system. If you asked an outside consultant to come in and design a competition they wouldn’t come up with the current format and that is an obstacle.
“Personally I’d be in favour of an open draw for the championship where you would have dedicated dates and teams and a straightforward draw and the same number of games being played. Now you have teams in some provinces that win two games and get into an All-Ireland quarter-final.”
He was speaking in the context of yesterday’s announcement of a major promotional initiative, which will see the county playing all of its NFL home matches under lights in Croke Park. The “Spring Series” will feature three double bills with hurling plus one with camogie as well as musical entertainment. There will be special promotional prices for those availing of a four-match package, including €45 for one adult to attend all four fixtures and €110 for a family of two adults and two children.
There will also be a revenue share for clubs in the county, who sell these tickets to their members.
Costello said that the county board would launch “an aggressive marketing campaign starting next week featuring radio and newspaper ads. We’ll be launching in the clubs and in two weeks hope to launch the finalised entertainment acts for the last two games.”
The first of these events takes place tomorrow four weeks when the All-Ireland champions in both hurling and football, Tipperary and Cork, will play their Division One fixtures against Dublin in Croke Park and Jedward will provide the musical interlude.
Asked whether the initiative had been prompted by the success of Leinster rugby, Costello disagreed. “Not particularly. Dublin can command figures of 60,000-plus attending our matches during the summer. Reaching out to those people is the idea behind this and to become more commercial.
“Unfortunately we don’t have the same staffing structures as Leinster. We’re an amateur organisation and rely on funds from our members and clubs.
“Vodafone (county sponsors) coming on board was important because they have been very keen to assist us in the marketing and increasing merchandising revenue as well as other revenue streams.”
He also rejected any prospect of the project costing the county and paid tribute to the co-operation of the Croke Park authorities in bringing about the series. “We don’t anticipate losing money. We anticipate being able to give our clubs a decent revenue share of the profits from the series in Croke Park.”
Costello also said that the idea of staging matches in Croke Park had originated a few years ago but couldn’t be progressed because of the commitments of the stadium to rugby and soccer internationals.
“The last number of years Croke Park would not have been available. We had this idea a number of years ago. Due to the scheduling of the IRFU and FAI fixtures it wasn’t possible, as we didn’t want Croke Park for just one particular night. We decided we wanted to play all of the games there and this year it’s worked out.”
Both Dublin senior managers Pat Gilroy and Anthony Daly were present at the launch to support the idea. “By playing games in Croke Park you’re getting more experience of playing where the big games are played,” said football manager Gilroy, “and that has to be a positive in terms of preparation for the championship. Maybe there is a little bit where you’re giving away something for the league but the benefit is much greater, particularly when you’re bringing in younger fellas and getting them experience.”