Walsh touts cutting ticket prices

MUNSTER Council chairman Sean Walsh last night revealed that they are set to seriously consider reducing ticket prices for senior championship matches in the province for the coming season.

Ahead of Friday night’s annual convention, the Munster GAA chief admitted that the slashing of admission rates will be discussed as they prepare to release their ticket packages for the 2011 campaign in the coming weeks. The economic difficulties faced by supporters around the province will influence their decisions, according to Walsh, as the council seek to cater for everyone.

“The situation is that we as a council, both the financial and management committee, are seriously going to be considering all options for our championship season coming up. We will be putting proposals to the full council very shortly for all ticket prices. We are very much aware about the economic situation and the current situation that families find themselves in. We will not be found wanting for the coming year.

“We want to make it absolutely certain that anyone who wants to go to our matches, be they families or individuals, that they will be in a position to do so. We must also remember that there are a lot of young unemployed people from mid-20s to mid-30s who are finding it difficult to go to our matches. In relation to that the biggest drop off in attendances for our matches last year were those on the terraces.

“Everything is on the table in relation to what we are going to do for the coming year as regards tickets. The most important thing to remember is that when our prices and packages are released, we believed they will be suitable for everyone and will be very competitive.”

Walsh also echoed GAA president Christy Cooney’s call last week for clubs to apply the brakes to planned infrastructural development if they will be hard-pressed to secure the requisite funds for projects. Walsh believes the southern province is close to ‘saturation point’ in relation to the number of facilities they possess.

“We are aware that there are clubs in the province that are under pressure. The one message I would like to put out there is that clubs will have to look very carefully at any developments that they are doing. I believe there will have to be a curtailing of developments all across the province.

“We are at a situation where we are almost at saturation point in relation to the development of facilities.”

Meanwhile, Walsh believes the decision to stage this season’s Munster U21 football championship on Wednesday nights under floodlights rather than on the traditional Saturday afternoon¸ will pay dividends.

“We saw last year from the final that more people are available to go to matches on a Wednesday night rather than a Saturday afternoon,” he said. “That could be related to the financial constraints at the moment. We’ve found that the games played under lights have bigger crowds and better atmospheres.

“We then decided this year that we would play all the games on Wednesday nights under lights and I believe it will be a great success. Last year’s final was a great advert for that – and for this competition – with the unrivalled joy displayed by the Tipperary players and supporters in Tralee when they won their first title.”