Munster Council exploring ideas to pull in crowds

MUNSTER Council chairman Sean Walsh says council chiefs are working on plans to entice families to attend their games next year.

With the economic downturn, there are concerns that attendances will suffer in 2011 and while individual ticket prices are set centrally, provincial councils are given power to offer value packages.

Walsh said: “We are always looking at what we can do to help people coming to our games, particularly families, on a continuous basis. In relation to that, we have family packages, and as an executive we met for over two hours on Tuesday to discuss the options regarding packages for the coming year. We are very conscious of looking after families that want to go to our matches and to make it cost-effective to do so.”

Walsh has welcomed the decrease in the number of championship ties shown live on television which he believes will see an increase in numbers filing through the turnstiles.

“I believe that the change is good. I think that we had reached a saturation point. People were turning into couch potatoes watching our games all over the weekend. Now, they will be watching choice games rather than all games.”

Walsh made his comments at the launch of the Munster Council’s Club Child Development Programme. He believes that after expenditure on bricks and mortar during the Celtic Tiger, now is the time to invest in the development and growth of games and players.

“There were opportunities there for us over the last 10 or 15 years to bring our facilities to a level that was acceptable to our patrons and to our players. I believe that this is done and it’s time to move on to looking after the clubs in relation to coaching, games development, investing in our youth and having people on the ground.

“We’ve invested heavily in coaches all across the province over the last 12 months and that will be on a continuous basis and they will roll out programmes in relation to the promotion of games.”

This new programme, to be run on a pilot basis in approximately 40 clubs for 2011, will seek to lay down structures in the running of underage sections.

Meanwhile, Waterford’s Michael ‘Brick’ Walsh has been named Hurler of the Year by the Munster Council after playing a key role in the county’s provincial championship success earlier this season. Kerry’s Colm ‘Gooch’ Cooper is to collect the football equivalent while Waterford boss Davy Fitzgerald is the province’s Manager of the Year.

The Bord Gáis Energy Munster GAA Awards will be presented on Saturday night at a gala dinner in the Malton Hotel in Killarney where over 30 players, officials, referees and legends will receive accolades.