Dublin are not the only ones benefiting from the winning streak
It was a guaranteed pay-day.
Everywhere they went, they sold-out arenas with fans desperately trying to catch a glimpse of a once in a generation team - and a once in a lifetime player.
The beneficial economic effect of their visit to cities all across the US has been the subject of many published studies, much like LeBron and his Cleveland Cavaliers are having in today’s league.
It’s the same when Manchester United come to your town in the FA Cup. Lower division outfits are hoping against hope to draw one of the game’s superpowers in the third round because they know it will have huge financial repercussions for their team and local economy.
It’s a phenomenon not too dissimilar to what Dublin are generating in Division One of the Allianz Football League.
They opened their campaign against Cavan in Kingspan Breffni Park and drew 16,331 paying customers through the turnstiles, over 1000 more people than showed up to watch their Ulster championship tussle with Armagh the previous year.
Kerry and Mayo in Tralee brought in a crowd of 8,891, the Dublin game will see that number rise to around 12,000. That’s a lot more beers, beds and breakfasts sold thanks to the visit of the city-slickers.
Take the Donegal game as another example, Kerry travelled north for the opening league tie of the calendar year and battled hard for the two points in front of a crowd of 6,320 spectators.
The Dubs came calling to Ballybofey a couple of weeks later, and that number swelled to over 10,000.
The League and All-Ireland champions are without question the biggest ticket in Gaelic games today.
They’re the Bulls of the 90s, the team everybody wants to watch. People come to see what makes them so special.
What makes them tick?
How can they sustain playing at such a high level for so long? Kerry are next to get the opportunity to stop their streak.
When the fundraising tentacles of the Kerry county board went cap-in-hand calling on the businesses of Tralee in the last number of years to help part-fund the redevelopment and refurbishment of Austin Stack Park, they were not to be found wanting.
Already this season, those same hotels, bars, and other businesses have benefited from the visit of a strong travelling Mayo contingent who took over the town in early February, but that was only the entree to next weekend’s main dish.
Dublin bring their 33-game league and championship unbeaten run to Kerry’s capital town for a match-up between a pair of the GAA’s traditional powerhouses and two of the modern-day triumvirate of top teams in the country.
10,500 tickets were snatched up nearly a month out from Saturday night’s throw-in.
Following a further health and safety inspection, over 1000 golden tickets became available before disappearing in the near blink of an eye.
That demand reflects a significant rise from the 7,109 fans that paid their way into Fitzgerald Stadium the last time these two met on Kerry soil back in 2015.
Every year I’d field calls from friends looking for a dig-out with tickets for the big games, normally though, those calls come in August or September. March madness is a new experience.
I have some people coming down from up the country for the game and they asked me to pick up a ‘few good stand tickets’…
If you want a good seat I told them, or any seat for that matter, you better be at Austin Stack Park whenever Vince Linnane and his crew decide to open the gates about two hours before the game. If not, it’ll be standing-room only.
Looking at the graph of both team’s recent form, with it being Cheltenham week, there is only one horse you’d be backing.
Notwithstanding a couple of draws, Dublin still look like a side packed full of dynamic footballers and despite missing several of their established crew against Mayo, (the same Mayo that made Kerry look so anaemic a few weeks ago) they tore them asunder and strolled to a 12 point win in Croke Park.
That felt like a statement win against one of their biggest challengers; ‘if any of you want to close the gap and catch us, you better start climbing up, because we won’t be dropping down’.
Is this Kerry team capable of ‘climbing up’ next Saturday night?
I think they are... It’s just hard to imagine they will.
Kerry’s primary objective will obviously be to get the two points on offer in their own backyard.
Being the one’s to bring a halt to the most impressive win streak since Kerry did something similar in the 1930’s would be an added bonus.
Poor performances and consecutive home losses to Mayo and Monaghan have increased the need to deliver next weekend.
As well as the result itself, most of interest from the home crowd on the terraces will focus on the newer elements to the team; Ronan Shanahan, Jack Barry, Kevin McCarthy and Jack Savage have all exceeded expectations to this point, but this will be a seismic step up in quality from anything they’ve seen in their fledgling senior inter-county careers.
A good performance against the top dogs will see them cement their position on the panel, and it’ll give their manager a truer indication of their usefulness come championship time.
Big games against your fiercest rival tend to bring out your best effort.
But we’ve learned by now, effort alone isn’t enough to topple Dublin.
They aren’t for dropping down, and they’ve developed the stubborn relentlessness of a group operating at the peak of their confidence.
Their hunger and standards don’t appear to wane, and if Kerry are to get the win and stop the streak, they must produce something special to ‘climb up’ to the altitude of the champions.
Maybe not quite Everest, but still, there is rarefied air up where they are operating, even for March.
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