All-Ireland tickets fetching over €1,000

SCARCE tickets for Sunday’s All-Ireland football final are already fetching well over €1,000 and are expected to reach €1,500 by the weekend.

Desperate fans are willing to pay way over the top to get inside the gates of Croke Park for what is being billed as a thriller between Kerry and Tyrone.

On the website www.ebay.ie last evening, bidding for one Hogan Stand ticket, with a retail value of €60, had reached €1,185, while there was a bid of €1,275 for two tickets.

Tickets being sold by touts on the streets in Dublin on Sunday morning are expected to be on offer for several hundred euro.

GAA chiefs, however, are urging fans to buy tickets through GAA channels only, warning that bogus tickets could be on sale on the black market.

Kerry has received an allocation of 12,000 tickets from Croke Park, but county board chairman Sean Walsh said they could sell twice as many if they were available.

He also said demand for tickets was much more intense than for last year’s final against Mayo.

“Maybe it’s because we’re playing Tyrone,” he suggested. “This is a more high profile All-Ireland and everyone wants to attend. The demand for tickets is absolutely huge.”

Kerry has about 2,000 fewer tickets than last year because the county’s minors are not in the final.

Most of Kerry’s quota is being distributed through the 80 clubs in the county, which generally hold draws for the tickets among their members.

But clubs everywhere have waiting lists and Sean Walsh said that if a second allocation comes before the weekend, the tickets will go to the clubs.

Meanwhile, other bids on eBay ranged from €370 for one ticket to €681 for two tickets.

On a positive note for Kerry fans, there should be more space than usual on big match trains during the weekend.

With Tyrone being a northern side, there is far less demand for additional trains and Iarnrod Éireann is running seven extra trains out of Kerry.