Munster Council refuses to panic over low attendances

Munster Council chairman Jer O’Sullivan has played down the disappointing 19,715 crowd for Sunday’s Munster SHC semi-final in Thurles.

O’Sullivan pointed out Waterford have traditionally not brought large numbers to Munster games outside of finals. Although it seemed they made up a sizeable proportion of the Thurles attendance on Sunday, Waterford feature in six of the 10 worst attendances in the Munster senior hurling championship since 2010.

Clare and Waterford attracted 19,498 to their drawn Division 1 final and 14,201 to the exciting replay, a figure which had been affected by the GAA’s decision not to reduce ticket prices. Munster officials had anticipated the crowd to have been a few thousand better given the hype generated by the league meetings and the success of each in the game’s secondary competition.