Is the championship format out of date? There is currently much debate about the slow burning championship of 2008. Many are wondering why the GAA do not insist on an opening championship blockbuster. For some reason the debate is not observing the obvious: the GAA can never guarantee a sell-out fixture so long as their draws are open and provincial. . Some years you get lucky and Mayo play Galway in the first round in Connacht or Meath draw the Dubs in the Leinster prelims. Tyrone might tumble out and face Derry and now you have two years of a serious opener guaranteed. Because Munster is using a seeding format, Cork and Kerry are kept apart - how unfair to the other counties in the province is that?. It has always been this way and only the Qualifiers can be tweaked to some degree. Indeed, the national leagues are the only avenues where HQ can insist on the opening day of the season starting with a bang-witness Dublin versus Tyrone to open the Croke Park floodlights a few years ago.. Of course, a topic closely associated with this lack of glamour fixtures in May and June is the small numbers of patrons attending those games. Despite an overall figure of just 54,000 for the first ten games in the football and hurling championships, it appears Croke Park officials are not perturbed. They have long experience of the crowds increasing as the months go on.. But I believe there is a trend. Granted Roscommon football is in a very dark place just now, but to think hardly 2,000 supporters made their way from Ros' to Pearse Stadium when they lost to Galway, is disturbing. After all, traditionally this is the third rated team in Connacht with a great championship rivalry with Galway.. The Leinster SFC meeting of Westmeath and Longford drew an attendance of 10,000, while the Croke Park double bill of Wicklow playing Kildare and Meath versus Carlow attracted just 22,000. Now let's be upfront here - Kildare . and Meath are two of the most populated counties in the country and have traditionally supported their teams strongly. So, what happened? Why did the crowds stay away?. In Ulster it was little different - Cavan's Ulster SFC win over Antrim at Casement Park was watched by just 7,000, while none of the games in the new-look Ulster SHC have attracted any more than 800 spectators.. Pat Daly, Croke Park's Head of Games Development, claims the figures are holding up well considering the slump in the economy. "The attendance figures reflect the quality of the games. The economy is going through its biggest slump in years at the moment but the attendance figures at games has held up fairly well so we'd be happy enough with that so far. Games are on television and that also has an effect.". All of this is true but there is an underlying reason why attendances might continue to fall. The GAA version of the Big Bang Theory is usually held in abeyance until the month of July and up until this year that was generally acceptable to the punters. If we got a couple of mid table clashes to whet the appetite we took the crumbs and waited for the real heat of summer. . But the uninteresting football draw that emerged this year has allowed fans to stay away from the early rounds. Of course the costs associated with match day trips increased dramatically in recent years but the entrance fee and the price of a tank of fuel will hardly keep a die-hard away. My own sense is they are waiting for the completion of the Culling Season before they emerge for the provincial finals.. The supporters of the bigger counties figured out a good few years ago that the championships only begin when the four provincial finals are decided. In the pre Qualifier days an underdog always had the chance of upsetting the odds as a winner takes all attitude and atmosphere surrounded the clash. The lack of a safety net often tightened the stomach of the favourite and led to a nervous and unsteady performance that the opposition could take advantage of.. Nowadays such an atmosphere does not exist and the fall back position allows the favourite to approach this type of game happy in the knowledge they are not going to wave goodbye to six months hard prep work if they have an off-day. The weaker county might beat you today, but not twice in the same year.. As mentioned above, we had Galway into the ring in mid May, facing a traditionally hungry opponent. Only 11, 000 people showed up in Pearse Stadium for a match one expected to be played in warm sunshine against a Roscommon side expected to contest the fixture as best they could. Neither scenario unfolded so, perhaps the fans knew best. . They stayed away and probably will continue to do so until Mayo emerge in July to face Galway in a final that should see full house signs up in the west. Dublin will draw a similar crowd but such attendances are a thing of the past in Munster. Ulster are the standard bearers in terms of patrons attending games (Dublin's following skews the Leinster figures) but their heady days of renting Croke Park for their finals seem like a long time ago now. . The product the GAA is selling is still very good value in my opinion - two championship matches for ?30 is little enough to pay for a good day out. Yes, one must consider tickets for the wife and kids, parking, the match programmes, the petrol and bit of food on the way up and back. . At a time when serious money from deals with the TV stations and the championship sponsors proper are being lodged to the bank, perhaps a little thinking outside the box would lessen the burden on the ordinary decent GAA supporter.. Big attendances are associated with attractive fixtures; increased expectation and better atmospheres bring the best out of the players. If the championships are to be sustained as a serious four-month gig, the format simply must change. Personally I would be very sad to see the provincial titles go - a Connacht medal, similar to the gongs in the other provinces, was so desperately sought after for well over 100 years.. But the alternative of playing in empty stadia, with counties concentrating on the Last eight rather than the provincial finals themselves is hardly appetising. If we have to throw away the old map and navigate a new path, then so be it. A bald fact has emerged since 2001 - the championships only begin on the August Bank Holiday weekend. Tweet

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