GAA crowds buck the trend

THE GAA appears to be standing up to the recession’s buffeting thus far, judging by attendance figures released yesterday and Christy Cooney’s positive utterances about projected income figures for the year.

Combined attendance figures for the hurling and football championships in 2009 amounted to 1,523,000 against the previous 12 month period, an increase of 4,000 on last summer.

Though there are no concrete figures available, those numbers may even represent a record combined attendances for the GAA’s championships, thanks in no small part to the fact that there was an extra round of football qualifiers in 2009.