The All Ireland Final's are a long way off yet, so I think this is an appropriate time to discuss this Issue.

Croke Park holds approximately 82,500 people, and yet Counties normally only get about 22,000 tickets roughly for the final. With Croke Park nearly paid for, I believe its time to give each of the Finalists 35,000 tickets each. That's 70,000 tickets up front.

There would still be enough to go around the other non-competing 30 Counties, the two minor teams and the various officials, before a set amount goes to sponsor's.
35,000 is more than sufficient for any County, considering that I have seen Ulster Semi finals and finals sell less than 33,000 tickets in total split two-ways.

It's time to take the pain out of All Ireland final ticket hunt, and let people just get on with painting the sheep and Garda stations in the County Colours.

GaryMc82 (Derry) - Posts: 3017 - 12/06/2015 21:55:11    1736269

Every club in the country is entitled to apply for two tickets.
This is a good earner for clubs who sell raffle tickets for these AI final tickets

then you have the county allocations - committees in each county, provincial committees, cumman na mbunscol in every county and all the hangers on.

I know two people who don't go to a GAA match all year and then magically have a ticket for the AI final

valley84 (Westmeath) - Posts: 1890 - 13/06/2015 10:12:16    1736290

Gary - where would you be making cutbacks on the allocation of tickets ?? I completely agree with your post however the corporations and business folk will always get priority . The GAAs ethos conveys the rhetoric of inclusion when in fact ; it's like all sports as it based on hierarchy . Capitalism drives the sport through advertising etc so unfortunately the Centras and the AIBs will always get huge amounts . Always felt the All - Ireland finals have had much poorer atmospheres than the semis etc . By your suggestion Gary , there would need to be a cutback of 13,000 tickets , although Croker is nearly paid for , that's still a big amount .

TheRightStuff (Donegal) - Posts: 1688 - 13/06/2015 10:52:36    1736306

TheRightStuff
County: Donegal
Posts: 663

1736306 Gary - where would you be making cutbacks on the allocation of tickets ?? I completely agree with your post however the corporations and business folk will always get priority . The GAAs ethos conveys the rhetoric of inclusion when in fact ; it's like all sports as it based on hierarchy . Capitalism drives the sport through advertising etc so unfortunately the Centras and the AIBs will always get huge amounts . Always felt the All - Ireland finals have had much poorer atmospheres than the semis etc . By your suggestion Gary , there would need to be a cutback of 13,000 tickets , although Croker is nearly paid for , that's still a big amount .

It's time for this whole setup to change. How much money is enough? How much Income would it take per year, for the GAA to be happy?
Surely there is a long-term plan in place, as to what the future needs of the GAA is and projections of what amount of cash will be needed for the year.

Every club in the Country should NOT be entitled to an All Ireland final ticket, every non-competing County should received 100 tickets, no more and no less.

The two competing Counties should get 35,000 tickets each, that's 70,000 tickets. The remaining 12,500 tickets can be distributed whatever way the GAA want, as the bulk of the GAA fans will already be sorted and that will make for a better All Ireland final atmosphere.

A colleague of mine from Donegal, got a 2012 Final ticket and told me after the final about how a Tipperary man sat next to her kept babbling on about how he wasn't a football fan and just attended because of the novelty of Donegal v Mayo. She happened to know quite a few Junior Club members in Donegal, who sourced their tickets through their Club all year, only to miss out on the final as there wasn't enough tickets to cover Junior members.

They were extremely annoyed, especially considering earlier big games like the Ulster SF had a total attendance of 17,500!!! Apparently a few of these guys have drifted away, because of how events unfolded.

GaryMc82 (Derry) - Posts: 3017 - 13/06/2015 14:10:47    1736365

From 2011 but probably still similar now :

County allocations: 58,401
Provinces: 335 
Overseas: 470 
Central Council and former Presidents:798 
Camogie: 120
Ladies' football: 150
Rounders andhandball: 147
Sponsors: 935 
Press: 254
TV and radio: 74
Schools and educational bodies: 2,229
3rd Level: 240 
Croke Park residents: 250
Match officials and national referees' panel: 103 
Irish Sports Council and health bodies: 60
Match day / Vertigo / minor teams: 148
GAA staff and sub-committees: 718 
Jubilee teams: 68 
Mini-sevens: 244 
Term tickets: 4,144 
Season tickets: 1,884 

Total available for distribution: 71,772

Premium and corporate seating*: 10,528

Total capacity (as per planning permission): 82,300

bad.monkey (USA) - Posts: 4624 - 13/06/2015 16:18:02    1736398

bad.monkey
County: USA
Posts: 4027

1736398 From 2011 but probably still similar now :

County allocations: 58,401
Provinces: 335
Overseas: 470
Central Council and former Presidents:798
Camogie: 120
Ladies' football: 150
Rounders andhandball: 147
Sponsors: 935
Press: 254
TV and radio: 74
Schools and educational bodies: 2,229
3rd Level: 240
Croke Park residents: 250
Match officials and national referees' panel: 103
Irish Sports Council and health bodies: 60
Match day / Vertigo / minor teams: 148
GAA staff and sub-committees: 718
Jubilee teams: 68
Mini-sevens: 244
Term tickets: 4,144
Season tickets: 1,884

Total available for distribution: 71,772

Premium and corporate seating*: 10,528

Total capacity (as per planning permission): 82,300


It's time to thin out the clutter, and give each competing County 35,000 tickets each.
No wonder people often think the All Ireland final lacks the atmosphere of the Semi finals, sure just about every group under the sun gets tickets from the GAA.

Perhaps the GAA should select groups for courtesy tickets each year, Instead of giving them tickets every single year. It doesn't really seem right.

While I agree that many people who show up for an All Ireland final are not following their team all year round, This should be our chance to welcome them and show them what their missing on a regular basis.

GaryMc82 (Derry) - Posts: 3017 - 13/06/2015 17:12:04    1736407

bad.monkey
From 2011 but probably still similar now :
County allocations: 58,401
Provinces: 335, Overseas: 470, Central Council and former Presidents:798, Camogie: 120 Ladies' football: 150, Rounders and handball: 147, Sponsors: 935,
Press: 254, TV and radio: 74, Schools and educational bodies: 2,229, 3rd Level: 240, Croke Park residents: 250, Match officials and national referees' panel: 103, Irish Sports Council and health bodies: 60, Match day/Vertigo/minor teams: 148, GAA staff and sub-committees: 718, Jubilee teams: 68. Mini-sevens: 244, Term tickets: 4,144, Season tickets: 1,884
Total available for distribution: 71,772 Premium and corporate seating*: 10,528
Total capacity (as per planning permission): 82,300
Counties always will get more than the 29000 each. If you were to give 70000 to the competing counties which of these categories would you take tickets from and how many tickets do you take from each section?

ormondbannerman (Clare) - Posts: 13473 - 13/06/2015 17:48:10    1736415

Wouldnt be worrying too much derry fan. Arent longford on your side of the qualifiers again?

sceptical (Cavan) - Posts: 544 - 13/06/2015 17:51:43    1736417

The 2 competing counties should be getting as much as possible.So taking away the 12000 premium and corporate tickets at least 56,000 to 58,000 should go to the 2 competing senior counties.8,000-10,000 should go to the teams in the minor match

95% of remaining should be distributed to counties around the country and the allocation to clubs around the country should only be to counties that have not played in an all ireland final (hurling or football senior or minor in the last 10 years) and the rest should be left for raffling off in various drawsif cubs apply for them in advance.It's ridiculous that people from Kerry,Cork Dublin etc can get chance to go to the AI final as a neutral when they will have plenty of opportunities to attend supporting their own counties.The GAA should be keeping it's club allocation for people who won't have an opportunity to go to a final.

uibhfhaili1986 (Offaly) - Posts: 1296 - 13/06/2015 20:00:32    1736456

All tickets should be sold through the season ticket system first, then clubs get their allocation but they get 1 ticket for each adult player and club officer, no tickets sold through clubs for club members or the public like it is at the moment, people who don't support their county by not attending matches somehow have tickets for the final. Let them buy season tickets or through tickets.ice. If there wasn't a limit for season tickets members it's 5000 at the moment then as many as possible could buy them, I stopped buying tickets through my club because the club had orders for 100 tickets for every game, the same people went to every game but for the final only 10 out of the 100 got tickets, the rest were taken by players and club officers, we were only building up the numbers for the club so for the past few years I and my relatives have bought season tickets and we are guaranteed AllIreland final tickets if our county qualify and if we have attended over 60% of games

riverboys (Mayo) - Posts: 1389 - 13/06/2015 20:36:30    1736464

uibhfhaili1986
County: Offaly
Posts: 544

1736456 The 2 competing counties should be getting as much as possible.So taking away the 12000 premium and corporate tickets at least 56,000 to 58,000 should go to the 2 competing senior counties.8,000-10,000 should go to the teams in the minor match

There is no chance of the premium/corporate tickets being cut. When they were originally being sold the GAA released the figures on the money raised by these. I honestly can't remember the exact numbers but it was in the region of 7% or 8% of the tickets generating over 50% of the revenue. That won't be changed. As for giving 8-10 thousand tickets to the minor teams, it would be hard to justify that considering most stand alone minor matches wouldn't attract even a 1000 spectators, so the tickets allocated as things stand are already going to the kind of fair weather fans that people on here are giving out about.
As someone else said though, the best solution of all is the Season Ticket scheme, (if you can still get into it), as it guarantees your tickets for all games your county play, and for the final if you have 60% attendance.

AHP (Dublin) - Posts: 323 - 14/06/2015 10:35:42    1736540

AHP I wasn't saying the corporate tickets should be taken away.I was saying that leaving out the 12000 corporate tickets there are 70,000.00 left for the general public.Of which 56-58 thousand should go to the 2 senior counties and 8 to 10 thousand going to the minor counties.So at least 66,000.00 of the 70,000.00 non corporate and premium tickets will go to counties of the participating teams.And only a small number should be spread around the country.

It's ridiculous that the Ladies GAA,Rounders and all these other committees get tickets when they are likely to only be used by casuals there for a day out.

uibhfhaili1986 (Offaly) - Posts: 1296 - 14/06/2015 11:42:37    1736555

Fair enough UibhFhaili, I probably picked your post up wrong re the Premium/Corporate tickets, but as much as I'd like to see the competing counties get the lions share of the tickets,(especially now that we can actually get to a final), I can't see the status quo changing much. The age old argument is trotted out every year when it comes to allocating the tickets,and this criteria is used at club as well as County and national level, Who deserves a ticket for our showpiece game more, Is it someone that gives up hours, weeks and in many cases years to organise the games and structures of all our games, which include rounders and ladies football, or someone that goes to all the 'big' games every Summer, yet has probably rarely seen a league game and couldn't find his local GAA club with a map.
I'm not advocating one over the other, but its easy to see the GAAs argument for looking after those that look after its own interests. At the end of the day the allocation for ladies football, for example, is less than 3 tickets per County, which they might argue is not too much reward to receive for all their work.

AHP (Dublin) - Posts: 323 - 14/06/2015 13:36:41    1736604

14/06/2015 11:42:37 uibhfhaili1986
AHP I wasn't saying the corporate tickets should be taken away.I was saying that leaving out the 12000 corporate tickets there are 70,000.00 left for the general public.Of which 56-58 thousand should go to the 2 senior counties and 8 to 10 thousand going to the minor counties.So at least 66,000.00 of the 70,000.00 non corporate and premium tickets will go to counties of the participating teams.And only a small number should be spread around the country.
It's ridiculous that the Ladies GAA,Rounders and all these other committees get tickets when they are likely to only be used by casuals there for a day out. The people who volunteer their time directly for the constituent parts of the GAA deserve tickets to the premier days out of the GAA season. That is why each grouping as mentioned in above post gets tickets. Counties, fans from those counties, will always get more tickets than allocated tickets for their county but dont think your system should go ahead.
Why should Ladies GAA etc not get tickets? How can you say their tickets wont be used by non GAA people? How can you say those tickets go to "casuals" and what is a "casual there for a day out"???

ormondbannerman (Clare) - Posts: 13473 - 14/06/2015 21:55:13    1736981

sceptical
County: Cavan
Posts: 198

1736417
Wouldnt be worrying too much derry fan. Arent longford on your side of the qualifiers again?

I like Longford, they are among the very few who hold us in really high regard. They hold their recent qualifier win up like a Provincial or All Ireland Winners medal, and are dam proud of their good run against Derry.

Your a bit too parochial, the All Ireland Final ticket distribution needs to be addressed.

All too often in September every year, we hear of the massive ticket problems. With the main stadium nearly paid for, should we not finally be able to think about GAA fans ahead of the Corporations or TV?

One of the earlier posts on this thread lists some of the groups that got tickets for the 2011, Is it any wonder All Ireland final's sometimes lack atmosphere.
Fans of the competing Counties should be priority, then spread the ticket love after that is sorted.

GaryMc82 (Derry) - Posts: 3017 - 17/06/2015 21:57:59    1738812

The season ticket scheme means that all dedicated die hard fans have no excuse these days. If you are not a season ticket holder, then you are most likely a member of your local club.

yew_tree (Mayo) - Posts: 11230 - 18/06/2015 09:27:59    1738838

Gary

Do All-Ireland Finals lack atmosphere?

You keep stating it as fact but that is not my experience at all.

The vast majority of people in the ground are from the competing counties and it usually has a raucous atmosphere.

MesAmis (Dublin) - Posts: 13707 - 18/06/2015 10:08:51    1738856

It is a joke of a system, which in my view actually enables abuse. All it does is direct tickets to people with little vested interest in the game, and away from the ones who want to see it. They are then sold on for a large profit by these people, to the ones who wanted to see it in the first place. What is the point? The tickets should simply be split 50-50 between the two counties, with a few thousand put aside for sponsorship and tv/radio. Why are teachers getting tickets as opposed to any other profession? Surely a decent ticket allocation to the clubs would take care of any people who might be involved with coaching of children? What annoys me is when I know of a genuine fan who has had to spend weeks clawing and scraping for a ticket, maybe never getting one, and then you are sat beside one of these guys from neither county who declares 'oh I go every year', who display a noticeable lack of knowledge of the teams involved before they scoot off before the end to beat the traffic. It is the only sport in the world where the climax of the year is taken away from the fans.


yewtree, while I accept the season ticket point, the fact is there are over 80,000 seats - you shouldn't need to be a season ticket holder to get a ticket.

TheMaster (Mayo) - Posts: 16187 - 18/06/2015 10:14:51    1738860

yew_tree
County: Mayo
Posts: 6521

1738838
The season ticket scheme means that all dedicated die hard fans have no excuse these days. If you are not a season ticket holder, then you are most likely a member of your local club.

Yes I agree the Season ticket it the way to go, however not everybody can afford to front that money up front.

I don't think buying one season ticket is a problem, but buying for few family members can be a big ask for a single Income family with a tight mortgage and everything else Irish people are expected to fork out for. That is one of many financial scenario's that people can struggle with, that may stop them from buying a Season ticket. Many people are not Interested in Club membership, which can be for a variety of reasons.

The All Ireland final is a special time for Counties, I know all too well as neighbours Tyrone and Donegal have flown plenty of colour along the roads over the past 12 years. The All Ireland draws the Interest of people within the County, who ordinarily are not GAA fans, club members or season tickets holders.
I think tickets for final's should be more accessible to the competing counties, and less geared towards corporate Income.

Is 35,000 tickets for each competing county really a bad Idea?

GaryMc82 (Derry) - Posts: 3017 - 18/06/2015 13:28:38    1739010

MesAmis
County: Dublin
Posts: 8754

1738856
Gary

Do All-Ireland Finals lack atmosphere?

You keep stating it as fact but that is not my experience at all.

The vast majority of people in the ground are from the competing counties and it usually has a raucous atmosphere.

Yeah I think they do, well they do when you compare them to some of the Semi finals. And those Semi finals quite often have less people at them.

GaryMc82 (Derry) - Posts: 3017 - 18/06/2015 14:17:28    1739064