Dubs face ticket famine for Armagh clash

DUBLIN football supporters, who have thronged Croke Park on four occasions this summer, face something of a ticket famine for the September 1 Bank of Ireland football championship semi-final against Armagh.

The allocation to the county board will be considerably below what was available for the weekend quarter-final replay with Donegal and board chief executive, John Costello, confirmed yesterday that there would be no public sale of match tickets.

"It's unfortunate, but, that is the way it is," he said.

Team selector Paul Caffrey, who took charge of the team for the drawn game with Donegal reckoned that they had up to 60,000 supporters out of an attendance of 79,007 in Croke Park on Saturday. "It was a special day for any Dub. We will never see the likes of it again unless we get another single bill. It was something special to experience the noise and the colour and to see so many kids in the stands."

According to John Costello, Dublin sold close to 40,000 tickets for the game.

"We sold 6,000 family tickets at the Canal end, which was incredible. Apart from that a lot of adjoining counties, like Meath, Kildare and Wicklow, would have got tickets and that would have helped meet the needs of people living in the greater Dublin area."

At this stage he is not quite sure what the county's allocation will be for the semi-final, but he is expecting something between 25,000 and 30,000.

"We will not able to have any public sale of tickets. In fact we will not be able to facilitate our own clubs and our own members with tickets.

"Our supporters have come out in huge numbers right through the games against Meath, Kildare and the two with Donegal. The public have really embraced this Dublin team. Their style of play, the manner in which the play the game, is proving very attractive."

Apart from encouraging people to become involved with their local clubs, he pointed out that the only way that members of the public can purchase tickets is by joining the membership scheme they operate for Parnell Park. It enables them to attend Dublin fixtures in Parnell Park and to purchase a ticket for all-ticket games in Croke Park in which Dublin are involved.

Currently, less than 700 people support this scheme.

Meanwhile, midfielder Ciaran Whelan's magnificent midfield display on Saturday was appreciated all the more when it became known that he had spent the week after the drawn game in bed with the flu. Up to a week before the replay he revealed that he considered himself a doubtful starter.

"Luckily I have employers (Allianz, the League sponsors) who gave me the time off to rest," he said.

"Six or seven of us had to up our performance. We under-performed in the drawn game and we knew it. And we know that we are still not the finished article.'' Paul Caffrey agrees. "There are still chinks in our armour. It's an on-going process."

On a sad note, Dublin Under-21 hurler Barry O'Brien was drowned in a swimming accident in the West of Ireland on Saturday. He captained the team in the recent Leinster final against Wexford and he was also a member of the senior team. A minute's silence was observed in his memory at games in Parnell Park on Sunday.

Meanwhile, the GAA has announced that all its 8,500 premium level seats in Croke Park have now been sold. They will not become available again until 2005 when the 10-year seats in the Cusack stand and five-year seats in the Hogan become available for resale. Existing seat holders will be given first option to purchase. A waiting list of potential purchasers of seats that may become available in 2005, because of existing seat holders not availing of these options, is now being recorded.