Money-spinning summer for GAA

The €3 million-plus the GAA will pocket from the September 28 replay of yesterday’s All-Ireland hurling final is the cherry on top of a summer of bumper championship attendances for the association.

Croke Park will gross nearly €20m from matches this month alone — starting with the 81,553 fans who paid to see the thrilling All-Ireland SFC semi-final between Dublin and Kerry on September 1.

Yesterday’s final grossed in excess of €5m — excluding corporate tickets — and with the football final on September 22 and the Saturday replay of the hurling to come, it will create a record of four 80,000-plus Croke Park games in the same month.

A sell-out hurling qualifier at Nowlan Park, a bumper Munster hurling final crowd in Limerick, and two attractive All-Ireland hurling semi-finals have provided a huge shot in the arm for championship income.

“We are well ahead on several areas. The new teams involved in the hurling semi-finals not only brought a fresh impetus to the competition, but drove crowd numbers northwards,” said one top GAA source.

81,651 supporters attended yesterday’s drawn hurling decider, with the football final crowd likely to exceed 82,000. Dublin’s ongoing football success and the attractiveness of the Mayo-Donegal All-Ireland quarter-final also meant that August Bank Holiday weekend crowds at headquarters were well ahead of expectations.

The summer’s top 10 crowds: SHC final Cork v Clare (81,651); SFC semi-final Dublin v Kerry (81,553); SFC semi-final Mayo v Tyrone (65,345); SHC semi-final Clare v Limerick (62,962); SHC semi-final Cork v Dublin (62,092); SFC quarter-final Cork v Dublin (70,018); SFC quarter-final Mayo v Donegal (63,466); Leinster SFC Dublin v Meath (54,485); Leinster SFC Dublin v Kildare (53,204); Munster SHC final Cork v Limerick (42,370)