Waterford vent fury over Semple tickets
The two organisations were at loggerheads last month in a row over the venue for the decider, but the tensions resurfaced at a meeting on Monday night which was dominated by the topic.
Former Waterford hurling boss Tony Mansfield said many of the tickets were “an absolute disgrace” while Stradbally chairman Pat Fennell said the tickets allocated to his club were so bad that they had sent many of them back.
Paddy Fitzgerald of Dungarvan said that many people who acquired their tickets through the internet on Saturday evening ended up “slap bang” in the middle of the field, while most of the tickets allocated officially to the county board by the Munster Council were “desperate”.
Chairman, Tom Cunningham, told delegates that he and his officials had expressed dissatisfaction about the quality of the match tickets to Munster Council officials in Thurles on Sunday.
He added: “We also made the point that having two teams in the minor and senior finals meant that the county should have been allocated much better tickets.”
County secretary Timmy O’Keeffe claimed that many tickets returned Thursday from non-participating counties were much better than many of those allocated to Waterford.
He vowed: “I can assure delegates that I will fight much harder on this one in future. I will fight tooth and nail to get better than we got for last Sunday’s finals.’’
Pat Flynn, one of Waterford’s two representatives on the Munster Council, said he was surprised with the comments as he had been given an assurance by the Council that the competing counties would get the best tickets.
“I can assure the board and the delegates that I will now take the matter up directly with the Munster Council.”
Mansfield added: “There is no criticism of our own officers in this one. Our crib is with the Munster Council.”
However, Munster PRO Jim Forbes last night rejected the criticism coming from Waterford.
He said: “Both counties got tickets in both stands.
In the covered section of the old stand, Cork received tickets for sections 206 to 210 while Waterford were in 201 to 205. In the uncovered section Cork fans were in 107 to 114 while Waterford were between 101 to 106.
“So from the halfway line, Waterford would have had everything to the right of that down to the end of the stand on the Killinan end. Cork would have all the tickets to the left hand side as you looked from the Ryan Stand across the field. In the Ryan Stand, Cork, would have sections 115 to 120 — across the field from the Cork section in the other stand while Waterford had 122 to 127 which was also across the field from their own fans on the far side.
Regarding the terraces, Waterford were allocated the Killinan end while Cork were allocated the town end.
“In relation to tickets put online late on Friday, these would have been tickets returned to the Munster Council.
“They were put on line then and what were not sold on line were subsequently sold in Thurles on the day of the game. Approximately 1,200 tickets were sold on the day of the game.
“There are good tickets and bad tickets in every stadium, but everyone is treated the same. One county is not getting better tickets than any other.”
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