Walsh’s venue stance attacked
In a letter to the Irish Examiner, Mr Egan, the Horse & Jockey Hotel proprietor, claims the provincial council have lost a minimum of 10,000 patrons by refusing Waterford’s request to have Sunday’s final against Tipperary moved from Páirc Uí Chaoimh to Thurles.
Mr Egan wrote: “I was reading with interest Mr Seán Walsh’s [Munster Council chairman] comments regarding the low attendance at the Munster football final in Limerick.
“It is indeed hard to believe Mr Walsh’s sincerity in these matters when Munster Council has blatantly ignored at least 10,000 more supporters who would attend the Munster hurling final if it was staged in Thurles rather than Cork.
“Everybody knows that the most central venue to hold the Munster hurling final is Semple Stadium because it is surrounded by six hurling counties (Cork, Waterford, Limerick, Clare, Offaly and Kilkenny) plus Tipperary itself and has a first class road and rail system with easy access to the field.”
Mr Egan notes the Munster Council stand to lose out financially from the decision, while he argued more games should be played at the Thurles venue.
“Maybe the Waterford County Board had a point in looking for money. If the match was held in Thurles, the Munster Council would be better off by at least €350,000 and could afford to help the financial problems of the Munster counties.
“In these times one cannot afford to ignore these financial gains as well as the goodwill of giving the supporters what they want.”
