Attendances at hurling championship set to pass 600,000

Attendances for the All-Ireland senior hurling championship will smash the 600,000 mark on Sunday and exceed 700,000 when Limerick face the winners of Clare and Galway in the August 19 All-Ireland final.

Although finalised figures aren’t yet provided, crowds for the 22 matches across the provincial championships attracted total crowds of 421,122. Combining the 125,264 number that attended last Sunday’s All-Ireland semi-finals, the 28,851 that were in Cork and Thurles to witness the All-Ireland quarter-finals and the approximate 9,000 figure that paid into see the preliminary quarter-finals, the current estimated figure stands at 584,237.

With a crowd of over 40,000 expected to watch Clare and Galway lock horns for the second time in a week on Sunday, the 600,000 number will be surpassed and another 82,000 can be added for the final.

The GAA will also record a jump in average attendance for a non-provincial All-Ireland hurling game from last year’s 29,075 figure, which was an increase of 29% from 2016. With over 120,000 to add to the estimated 163,115 that paid into see the six All-Ireland games thus far, the average crowd is set to be over 35,000.

The two replays involving Galway will certainly boost the coffers but Cork’s success in Munster, as well as theirs and Limerick’s pulling power last Sunday, are likely to be cited as positive reasons when the GAA reveal their 2018 accounts early next year.

Irrespective of the replays, the new Championship structure, which augmented the number of games in Munster from five to 11 and a reduction of one in Leinster, has been a verifiable success given the quality of the matches.

The real barometer is average attendances, which was 25,599 in the Munster SHC last year compared to 22,619 this summer, which is an almost negligible drop when the limited capacity of Cusack Park, which staged two matches, and the loss of the knockout format are taken into consideration.

As reported in this newspaper in June, attendances for the football provincial competitions are down from 2017 when they were over 400,000.

The total for the four this year came in around the 340,000 mark, while the Super 8s’ six matches thus far have brought in around 130,000.

Qualifier crowds are expected to be down on the previous two years in part due to Mayo’s third-round exit and that game against Kildare being played in Newbridge.

A potential Dublin-Kerry All-Ireland semi-final tomorrow week would be a Croke Park sell-out but it doesn’t appear that the eight additional matches at the quarter-final stages have triggered either a significant bump in attendances or gate receipts it any at all. Earlier this year, then GAA director of finance now director general Tom Ryan said he was not certain the matches would do so. “I don’t think it is going to be the bonanza that, at first glance, looking at the number of games involved that we might have expected. But it should certainly be positive.”

Cork have named their team for the All-Ireland U21 Hurling semi-final against Wexford tomorrow.

Cork:

Ger Collins(Ballinhassig); Seadnaidh Smyth : (Midleton), Niall O’Leary : (Castlelyons), Ger Millerick : (Fr O’ Neills); Eoghan Murphy (Sarsfields), Mark Coleman: (Blarney), Billy Hennessy (St Finbarrs); David Lowney : (Clonakilty), Darragh Fitzgibbon (Charleville); Robbie O’Flynn (Erins Own), Declan Dalton (Fr O’Neills), Shane Kingston (Douglas (capt)); Liam Healy (Sarsfields), Tim O’Mahony(Newtownshandrum), Jack O’Connor (Sarsfields).