Big crowds needed to keep ladies football finals in Croker

THE Ladies Football Association will give serious consideration to taking their All-Ireland finals out of Croke Park if the attendance at Sunday’s deciders doesn’t reach expectations.

An attendance of 30,000 is required to make the event financially viable, but last year’s crowd fell well below expectations, to 23,358.

Association President Geraldine Giles agrees that the huge interest in the sport, overseas as well as throughout Ireland, is not being reflected in the numbers attending the major games.

“The attendances from our quarter-finals and semi-finals — with the exception of Roscommon (Armagh v Galway) the last day — have been down. And that’s disappointing.

“Then again, a lot was going on around the country with other fixtures on those days. Hopefully on Sunday that will change. We have put in a lot of work around each of the counties — promoting the game and (emphasising) the importance of staging our All-Ireland finals here in Croke Park.

“The reality is that if we don’t get the crowd here this weekend, we may not be able to sustain opening up the stadium for an All-Ireland. And, that would be a serious blow for the whole profile of the game.’’

The sport is continuing to thrive, with over 100,000 participants attached to over a thousand clubs at home and overseas. Nevertheless, she accepts that there will be times when the Association will face challenges in building up the game when things ‘don’t go so well.’ “The games this year and the extra coverage have been great for the profile of the game and hopefully the two finals will live up to that.’’

She agreed that Armagh had made phenomenal progress to contest the senior final after winning the junior title twelve months ago. And, she accepts that Cork are strongly placed to retain their title. “They still have the hunger and the appetite despite their success at under-age level. The reality is that maybe seven or eight of that team up to last year hadn’t actually won a national title.’’

TG4 Sports Editor Ronan Ó Coisdealbha points out that satisfaction with their partnership with Ladies Football is indicated by the ‘live’ coverage of 13 games this year, with a further two to come with the International Rules series next month. And he revealed that the ratings for four consecutive Saturdays of coverage of the quarter and semi-final games were encouraging.

“This sponsorship works very well for us and it works very well for the Ladies Football Association, in that they have a sponsor who is also a broadcaster. We can give them as much coverage as they want. Next Sunday we will be broadcasting the games live on the website, all over the world.”