Munster Council receive turnstile windfall

The Munster Council will easily break the €4m mark in gate receipts as they expect attendance figures to be up by at least 20% on the 2014 figures.

As the council look set to fund much-needed floodlights in Fitzgerald Stadium after chairman Robert Frost admitted it would have been “very hard” to play extra-time there in Saturday’s Munster SFC final replay, an estimated 207,139 attended this year’s senior football and hurling championships.

Even without the benefit of the Kerry-Cork replay which attracted a 32,333 crowd, gate receipts would have been up on last year’s 164,264 attendance number. The hurling championship was down on last year — 117,112 in contrast to 127,765 — but unlike 2014 they were no replays this summer. Subtracting that Cork-Waterford quarter-final replay 13 months ago, this year would have recorded an increase of 11,440 in crowds.

The Munster Council also have Thursday week’s Clare-Limerick U21 final to look forward to in Cusack Park. The game is an all-ticket affair and expected to be a 14,800 sell-out. The Clare County Board hope to increase the capacity to 20,000.

“Attendances are up over 20%,” said Frost. “We had good attendances in the first couple of games in the Munster senior hurling championship this year, nearly 12,000 for the Tipperary-Kerry football semi-final and almost 5,000 for the Clare-Limerick football game in Ennis. It’s good news for the counties because the vast majority of the money will be going back out to them again.” Frost acknowledged the Munster Council were fortunate to avoid extra-time in Killarney last Saturday as two additional periods would have been almost impossible to stage in the fading light.

Floodlights are now on the agenda for Fitzgerald Stadium and Frost is confident there will be no difficulties for the U21 hurling final at Cusack Park, also without floodlights.

“It would have been very hard to play extra-time in Killarney, to be fair, because light was fading so badly. We intend meeting Kerry about floodlights and other matters. We would be mindful Fitzgerald Stadium is likely to host the next one or two Cork and Kerry championship meetings.

“The U21 hurling final in Ennis on Thursday week is starting at 7pm because TG4 are showing it live. The fact it’s only 30 minutes a half should help us.”

Frost believes the structure introduced for this year’s Munster SFC has been a success. Introduced as a compromise after Clare, Limerick, Tipperary and Waterford’s opposition to last year’s seeded draw, Cork and Kerry don’t begin the competition until the semi-final stages but can be drawn against one another.

“I would hope it is now left as it is,” said the Clare native. “We had a great crowd at the Tipperary-Kerry game in Thurles. We hadn’t expected a crowd of over 11,000 to come but there was a lot of factors like Colm Cooper’s return. He was still signing autographs on the pitch long after the game. These people are an attraction in our games.”