I agree with Carlowman, reality is that the GAA is built on the club and the efforts of volunteers up and down the country, a lot if people can't attend inter county matches because they are out every night of the week working to keep the game alive.

What about the hurling man in Antrim, Down, Derry etc unlikely to ever see their county on All air eland final day (89) the exception, are they to be denied a chance to go to the All Ireland just cos their county isn't in it - they spend hrs every wk keeping the game alive in their own county yet are meant to give up their ticket to someone who thinks that attending 3/4 inter county games a yr entitles them to a ticket to the showcase for our national game?

My only issue with ticket allocation is that it should be based on number of clubs and members for those competing counties than simply giving each of the competing counties the same - for example there are only 48 clubs in Down so literally only club member who was even registered effectively got a ticket in 2010, compare that to the likes of Dublin and Cork were most clubs were holding draws for their allocation - that is what is unfair, providing a couple of tickets to each club in the county to reward those who keep are games alive is only right and proper.

As for corporate tickers, yes it frustrating but without the corporate entity we wouldn't have Croke Park, nobody likes the gobsh@te who knows nothing about the game getting a tickets but happens in every sport now due to the way games are funded - corporates get 10k of the 82k tickets so really there are loads of tickets still available for the man/woman who is actively involved in their club, the one exception at times is in the likes of Cork and Dublin were club memberships are taken into consideration properly for county allocation

PaudieSull1 (Down) - Posts: 738 - 19/08/2015 09:16:35    1772269

Thankfully the season ticket has solved some of the issues with All-Ireland final tickets but not all of them. As pointed out by other posters you could have gone to every single game that year and still not be guaranteed an All-Ireland final ticket, if you don't have a season ticket.

I really believethat the majority of tickets should be going to the 2 counties involved. Why bother giving tickets to every single club in the country when these could be going to supporters within the counties involved.

JimTheLegend (Donegal) - Posts: 247 - 19/08/2015 09:39:16    1772281

I've been to the House of Commons and two Heineken Cup matches (a final and a semi). Never been inside the gate at Leinster house and never had a smell of an AI ticket but once: an English born & reared cousin got a few, apparently.

plike (Kerry) - Posts: 569 - 19/08/2015 09:53:16    1772289

Jim - simple question how many actual club members in Donegal, would doubt it would be more than 10000, if even that ,hence their all Ireland allocation is enough to cover the real GAA fans. Turning up 5/6 days a year for what is effectively a day out to watch your own county doesn't entitle you to a ticket ahead of the man/ woman who is working tirelessly every week to promote our games with little or no reward, all Ireland hurling day is a special day for hurling people across the country and long may it continue.

PaudieSull1 (Down) - Posts: 738 - 19/08/2015 09:54:10    1772291

REDANDBLACK30 - Sponsors have to get their tickets. Like it or note, Croke Park and the GAA makes alot of money from the corporate sector. That is the real world we live in. Any real fans I know have always got a ticket be it through their club, hunting or in the last few years being a season ticket holder by where all such worry is gone.

yew_tree (Mayo) - Posts: 11563 - 19/08/2015 10:02:12    1772297

"I really believethat the majority of tickets should be going to the 2 counties involved. Why bother giving tickets to every single club in the country when these could be going to supporters within the counties involved. "

Because its an ALL ireland and people from carlow, derry, antrim etc have a right to experience it aswell

DoireCityFC (Derry) - Posts: 1580 - 19/08/2015 10:07:15    1772303

How much are the season tickets? Should I sell the wife, the car or the house?

plike (Kerry) - Posts: 569 - 19/08/2015 10:08:22    1772307

plike
County: Kerry
Posts: 249

1772307
How much are the season tickets? Should I sell the wife, the car or the house?

€95 for an adult and €10 for a juvenile. You get the following:

All your County's Allianz League round matches plus all League semi finals, play-offs and finals in that code
- Your County's opening Championship fixture
- All Allianz League round matches in your selected code. So if you have a Longford Football Season Ticket you can go to any Allianz League Football match.*
- AIB GAA Club All-Ireland Finals in Croke Park on St. Patrick's Day

CroiGorm (Dublin) - Posts: 1547 - 19/08/2015 10:21:08    1772321

@CroiGhorm.

I was hoping to fish a weasel. Never mind. It's great value right enough. Compare it to a Premiership season ticket...

plike (Kerry) - Posts: 569 - 19/08/2015 10:25:27    1772328

The All Ireland tickets generally filter down to the fans of each respective county. There is no issue my end of the men or women who are out training teams, raising funds, cutting the grass etc. across the country getting the opportunity to go to an All Ireland final. It is a game and association for All Ireland's Gaels.

AthCliath87 (Dublin) - Posts: 345 - 19/08/2015 10:25:55    1772329

@plike - Maybe someone else will bite! I'm clearly slow off the mark.

CroiGorm (Dublin) - Posts: 1547 - 19/08/2015 10:28:59    1772331

PaudieSull1 I agree that someone from the county involved who hasn't gone to a game all year does not really deserve a ticket. However there are supporters who go to a few games a year and have an interest in their team, they deserve a ticket in my opinion. The same goes for loyal supporters who live abroad, they deserve a ticket. I appreciate the hard work being done by individuals for their clubs with little or no reward. I just feel strongly that the All-Ireland final should be about the two counties involved. I mean the tickets for the Champions league final hardly go to every soccer club in Europe - maybe a bad analogy but you get my point.

Personally if Donegal were not involved in an All-Ireland final and I somehow managed to get tickets, I would be giving those tickets to someone from the counties involved. I know how much it means to get to a final that your county in playing in so it would give me more pleasure to give them away to someone from the finalists.

JimTheLegend (Donegal) - Posts: 247 - 19/08/2015 10:30:45    1772333

Red and Black, i think you are really struggling to understand the concept of the GAA, it was built on volunteers and community participation not rewarding people simply for turning up to watch 7/8 games a season. Myself and thousands like me across this country would be down at our clubs that many nights in a single fortnight!

"Tickets to be distributed by county board tickets offices, no clubs to get tickets" - so effectively you would undermine the very unit of the GAA on which the organisation is built??? What about the guy who is out every day of the week with teams including Sunday but can't go to county games as he is taking juvenile teams. Just as important what about the wives and partners of some of these club mentors and officials who don't see them from one end of the year to the next and whose holidays are put on hold as it might clash with the u16 championship etc, these are the people who can and do get recognise with all Ireland tickets from time to time and rightly so. Some of these people in a month will spend more on diesel taking young lads to matches than some people will heading to follow THEIR team at county level (following your county is great but the way it made out here is if it's a real sacrifice ffs taking 30 kids to u10 match instead of being with your family on a Sunday that's sacrifice).

'I wouldn't take a ticket to any All Ireland final not involving my county. You are denying someone who would value it more a chance to see their county in All Ireland, maybe a once in a lifetime chance" - again you misunderstand the whole concept of our organisation, most people promoting our games do so as they love 'the game' itself and what it represents is special to them. Only about 8 counties in Ireland have a realistic chance of being in an All Ireland hurling final over a 20/30 year period, but there are 1000s of passionate hurling people in Laois, Kerry, Carlow, Antrim, Down etc who cherish the occasion of All Ireland hurling day. I would be certain they 'value' that tickets far more than some fella who has been to 5/6 games during the year but has never been instead a training pitching n his life or used their own car to bring young lads to games around gee county/country.

Sorry if I sound a bit harsh but every year you have people coming onto radio shows, websites etc moaning about lack of tickets and what about the guy who has been to 4/5 championship games this year ( but whose sole contribution to the GAA is simply that) - the only people I really feel sorry for are some of the genuine club members in the massive clubs in Dublin etc who lose out due to the lack of proportionality in competing county allocation along with the genuine club man in the likes of Kilkenny, Galway etc who gets a ticket for himself but has to leave the young lad/girl at home despite the kids not seeing him all year due to his work for the GAA. They are deserving cases but for me rocking up to 4/5 games a year where you are entertained and get value for money doesn't entitle you to all Ireland tickets ahead of the bedrock of our organisation regardless of where they live!

PaudieSull1 (Down) - Posts: 738 - 19/08/2015 10:33:08    1772334

Alot of wheeling and dealing goies on between clubs of different counties too. I know alot of Mayo clubs in 2012 gave their Hurling tickets to Galway clubs and likewise they returned the favour for the football final.

yew_tree (Mayo) - Posts: 11563 - 19/08/2015 10:35:48    1772338

19/08/2015 08:08:16 CroiGorm
Why do you not write across the whole page? Hell of a lot easier to read if you do it?

Ormondebannerman yet again telling people the wrongs and rights of posting a comment. You do realise your posts are the most difficult to read out of anyone's don't you? All bunched together. Space them out a bit. They'd be a 'hell of a lot easier to read if you do it'. How exactly are my posts "all bunched together"?

How exactly are they?

ormondbannerman (Clare) - Posts: 13473 - 19/08/2015 11:01:58    1772369

19/08/2015 08:27:39 arock
I rarely go to All Ireland football finals, I always get offers of tickets and I always pass them to what I feel are genuine fans. But just remember too in freezing feb/March there is not a whole lot of followers of any county. That is when I go. What exactly is a genuine fan? Not going to a lot of league games doesn't mean you are less of a supporter than one who goes to them all
19/08/2015 08:43:13 REDANDBLACK30
Ormond/Carlow man I respectfully have to disagree.As a lot of
people have said, the current system is not fit for purpose.So it
should be replaced.

Too many tickets fall into the hands of the wrong people instead
of more deserving people.It will never mean as much to people
from non competing counties so they should receive tickets
only when everyone from the competing counties have theirs.
The stystem is flawed and needs chsnged. The system is not flawed. How do you determine who is most deserving to get a ticket. How do you propose replacing the current system.
The all Irelands are the centre point of the GAA year and those people who are heavily involved in volunteering throughout the country and throughout the organisation deserve tickets to the finals. There is people who attend the finals every single year from all across the country regardless of who is playing. Why should they be stopped from attending? They support GAA at all levels through the year(years) so why shouldn't they be allowed go to finals?7
19/08/2015 08:56:18 REDANDBLACK30
Arock a couple of seasons back we played Armagh in the Athletic Grounds.We won with a last minute goal from Mark Poland. The weather was so bad that the rain was sheeting accross the pitch.It was freezing that night.There was talk of Down not coming back out for the second half as they were worried about the health of the players. But there were still a lot of people there who braved the conditions.
Its not fair that some of these types of people accross Irelanf have no ticket on the 3rd Sunday in September when fair
weather fans do. What is a fair weather fan? How do you determine exactly who should get tickets. People should not be limited in how they get tickets. If people attend all county games they should have enough connections, friends who also attend those games to be able to get tickets for big finals

ormondbannerman (Clare) - Posts: 13473 - 19/08/2015 11:14:45    1772377

PaudieSaul im not saying that the volunteers shouldnt get tickets or
that their work is not valued, just that they should get a ticket once
every one in the competing counties who has cares about the team
gets theirs.

How could it mean as much to people who have maybe never set
foot in the competing in their lives???

Volunteers should be top of their list when their own counties are
involved, but lower in the list when their not involved.

Yew Tree I respect your opinion and accross other sports that
are professional you would expect (regretably) there to be a
corporate element.But not in the GAA.It is an amateur sport
and the GAA makes loads of money same as other sports,
but does not have to pay players.If the players were getting
paid this corporate element would be more justifiable.Of
course its all hypothetical.The GAA is never going to change
its distribution practices.

REDANDBLACK30 (Down) - Posts: 1702 - 19/08/2015 11:19:02    1772384

I usually get two tickets through my club or another source...donegal v Mayo final was the hardest in recent times I can remember Ive never seen a crowd like it on Jones road before the game and I've been to alot of finals in both codes!

BigJohn.6_8 (Galway) - Posts: 704 - 19/08/2015 11:31:09    1772393

Ormond I have already told you how the tickets should be distributed
35,000 each senior teams,5,000 each minor teams and 2,000+
neutral fans.Those who have been to every All Ireland could be
some of the 2,000 neutrals who get tickets, along with the
volunteers you mentioned.

Ormond the problem is these volunteers are getting too high a
percentage of tickets at present and genuine fans are missing
out???This is especially true for finals with the likes of Mayo
where the demand will be sky high.Clubs will have to raffle
their tickets, people will miss out and those from all over
Ireland will be there when they have no reason/need to be???

REDANDBLACK30 (Down) - Posts: 1702 - 19/08/2015 11:32:07    1772394

Red and Black now I'm sorry but you are suggesting that a man or woman who has promoted hurling in the likes of Carlow or Derry all their lives should not get an all Ireland ticket before a guy who does nothing to promote the game at all but happens to just be from the competing county???

Most of the gobs@ites you will see coming into the game late, falling about in Jury's etc before the game will be sporting the colours of the competing counties but the 'neutrals' you will find will be there for the minor match, certainly on time for the senior game and there to enjoy the full occasion as the occasion itself is special to them, the game is special to them and who is actually playing is the secondary - simple question how many times do you see the 'so called' super fans coming into the game Kate, not bothering to even attend the minor game when their own county etc are playing as the 'lure' of a few pints is more important.

I'll be at the All Ireland final between KK and Galway like many other hurling people from the north and I can assure you that we will cherish the tickets just as much as people from competing counties and a lot more so than the people who simply attend inter county games now and then but do damn all to actually promote and nuture our games.

The clue is in the name ALL IRELAND - it is our show piece occasion and is there to be enjoyed by all those who work all yr round, not just the summer months to promote our games

PaudieSull1 (Down) - Posts: 738 - 19/08/2015 11:37:09    1772397