Crowded house: The ingredients for a packed Páirc Uí Chaoimh opening

On Sunday, Nemo Rangers take on St Finbarr’s in the replay of their county senior football final at the new Páirc Uí Chaoimh.

The game is a curtain-raiser to the county senior hurling final between Blackrock and Imokilly. Leaving aside the question of whether that double-header undermines the status of the county football final, it begs another query: Where are the huge crowds of the ’70s gone and will Sunday herald a return to those crowds as the new stadium comes fully on line?

Those great attendances of 40 years ago were no urban legend. The high water mark was the county final between St Finbarr’s and Glen Rovers in 1977, which pulled 34,151 down to a then-new Páirc Uí Chaoimh (the Barr’s won handily) and remains the record for a club county final anywhere in the country.