Rebels will ‘consider options’ amid poor football attendances

Taking Cork home games in the Allianz Football League outside of the city is not a catch-all fix for poor attendances, according to the county’s PRO.

The Rebels finished their 2013 campaign with a defeat to Mayo in front of 2,012 people at Páirc Uí Chaoimh on Sunday, with at least half of the attendance made up away fans.

Low crowds are the norm for the footballers, with an average attendance of 4,040 for the three home matches this year, a figure boosted by the gate of 7,278 for the double-header featuring the county’s two sides against Donegal in football and Clare in hurling.

In 2011, Cork’s first home league game after winning the 2010 All-Ireland was against Monaghan and drew just 1,275, while in 2009 a game against Wexford was played before 528, on the same day as the county’s hurlers returned to action with a trip to Clare following their strike.

Cork PRO Tracey Kennedy admits that the low numbers are a worry. She said: “They are (worrying), even from a pragmatic point of view, as league receipts are split among the counties. We’re not the only county suffering so there is a wider issue there. There were mitigating factors on Sunday as Munster were playing but at the same time there is a problem. We feel we do a good job promoting our games and it’s something that we must look at.”

Clonakilty and Mallow boasts fine complexes but Kennedy points out other factors need to be looked at.

“We will consider all options but... I’m not convinced it would solve all the problems, though, I think we need to look at the reasons why crowds are small rather than simply making them look bigger in a smaller stadium.”

John Corcoran, chairman of the Carbery divisional board in West Cork, is an advocate of giving Clonakilty games, even if only in the early-season McGrath Cup competition.

“I brought it up at the county board initially,” he said. “I felt that, with the amount of money invested in the facility in Clonakility, and with the core football support being based in the west, it would be a big boost.

“Clon hosted two of Castlehaven’s games in the Munster club championship last year and they were great successes despite the bad weather, I thought it would make perfect sense to bring a McGrath Cup game there but we got no hearing. Even if you had just a thousand people in Clon, which I’m sure you would, you’d have a better atmosphere than a similar-sized crowd in Páirc Uí Chaoimh. You have to do everything you can to maximise the crowd, it’s a long way to travel from West Cork to the city in winter, especially when the price of fuel is included. We’ll be repeating our call again and hopefully a game or two will be brought out of the city.”