Ulster blame weather for poor attendance

THE Ulster Council have blamed the weather for the poor crowd that turned up in Ballybofey for the Donegal and Antrim clash on Sunday.

Only 7,385 attended the scrappy game played in wintry-like conditions at MacCumhaill Park, while the incessant rain made for a muted atmosphere. Oliver Galligan, PRO for the Ulster Council, said poor weather coupled with the fact the match was live on RTÉ made up the minds of a lot of people.

“We were disappointed with the attendance but it was a really poor day from a weather point of view and people might’ve got up with the intention of going and then decided against it,” he said.

“The game was on television of course which would have made the decision to stay home that little bit easier. They might feel justified as it was a poor game and ‘Baker’ (Antrim manager Liam Bradley) even came out in the papers afterwards and said he wouldn’t like to have paid into the game himself. We thought there would be a larger amount of travelling Antrim supporters but you have to remember their hurlers were playing Laois in the Leinster championship in Portlaoise on Saturday night.”

Despite the fact the Ulster Council’s ticket prices have remained the same for three years, there were dissenting voices on Sunday as a seat in the covered stand was priced at €27, while a wet afternoon on the terrace cost €15.

“On a good day people would have been out in short sleeves and happy to watch from the terraces,” Galligan continued.

“We only had the covered stand ticketed on Sunday but we cannot legislate for the weather. We haven’t touched the ticket prices now for three years.”

Attendances in the north-west continue to fall. Donegal have been drawn at home every year since 2003, although their 2005 fixture against Armagh was moved to Clones to accommodate a large crowd of 26,000, while 22,000 attended the replay at the same venue according to the Ulster Council’s official attendance figures.

Ballybofey has hosted all Donegal’s first championship games since. 11,500 were present for the win over Down in 2006. The year afterwards, MacCumhaill Park was at bursting point with 19,700 patrons witnessing Brendan Devenney’s last-minute winning goal against Armagh. There was another large crowd in 2008 when 17,600 saw Derry knock Donegal out of the Ulster championship. Antrim were the visitors in 2009 and 12,500 gathered. Last June, Down beat Donegal in extra-time and 13,727 were there.

“If you go back to the likes of 2006 we were playing Ulster finals in Croke Park and the likes of Armagh and Tyrone were in the shake-up for the All-Ireland titles and had huge followings,” Galligan added.

“We were on the crest of a wave. Now, though, we do realise that crowds are down but it seems to be the same with other codes.”