The success of the championship not confined to field of play
While the people of Clare endured two home losses at the weekend, the town of Ennis enjoyed the financial windfall which comes with hosting two high-profile double-headers.
Cusack Park saw 23,353 patrons pass through the turnstiles for the visits of the Kerry footballers and Tipperary hurlers, while Clare’s ladies footballers and minor hurlers were in action beforehand.
The restructuring of the Munster Hurling Championship has opened the door for such bumper weekends, with a first Clare-Tipp championship match in Ennis since 1986 packing in a near-capacity crowd of 18,316.
It wasn’t the only venue close to capacity, as hotels, pubs and restaurants saw plenty of jersey-clad footfall too.
In Michael Moynihan’s GAAconomics book, former Munster Council deputy CEO Enda McGuane said Fáilte Ireland estimated day-trippers spent an average of €40 in the host town.
At that rate, the weekend’s games would’ve generated over €900,000 for the local economy. It’s far from an exact science, but is an indication of serious business going on.
A puck of a ball away from Cusack Park is Ciarán’s Bar. Despite the clash with the Champions League final, 5,037 attended Kerry v Clare (it had been 5,786 in 2017 and 5,938 in 2014).
Many of them raced to the nearest TV screens to catch the second half from Madrid. The pub was full to the door, but there weren’t red or white jerseys to be seen.
“Oh, it was more GAA jerseys,” said Laura Browne, who runs the pub with her father Ciarán. “We wouldn’t really be known as a soccer pub, so it was nearly all GAA people watching the match.”
Their Kerry visitors started filing in the door by 2pm, ahead of the 7pm throw-in, while Tipperary jerseys started showing from early the next morning.
“It was a great weekend, really. The Tipperary lads were in since half 11 in the morning,” she said, laughing.
“They were confident. They came in their droves, but it all went off without a hitch. There was no trouble or problems, it was just a lovely crowd.”
Laura says a match in Ennis can make up for loss-making evenings and keep people in the town centre.
“It means so much. You’re depending on your weekends all the time to keep you going, because midweek is gone so quiet, in Ennis especially. A weekend like this is a big relief. It’ll pay the few bills!
“When something’s happening and it brings people into the town, it makes such a difference. Whereas if there’s nothing happening on a weekend, people tend to head up the coast.
“We’re looking forward to two weeks’ time now, Clare and Cork. That should be another big boost.”
It wasn’t just fans from across Munster attending the weekend’s games either.
Paul Madden, managing director of the Temple Gate Hotel, was hosting some overseas visitors, who got tickets for the games.
“There were some Americans on Saturday who got tickets that night and a couple of English guests went to the hurling match Sunday.
"They thought it was an amazing atmosphere and it was all new to them.”
Even a Tipp win couldn’t convince them to switch colours, though: “We told them we wouldn’t let them back if they turned into Tipp supporters!”
While he sees only a few overnight visitors from such near neighbours, Paul had crowds through his lobby before, during, and after the game.
“Any time there’s a high-profile match in Ennis, it’s fantastic for the town. The fans like coming to Ennis, even though up until Sunday afternoon it was described as a fortress, from a playing point of view!
It’s always great to see the colours up and down the streets. It’s always a carnival-type atmosphere when there is a big crowd, because the pitch is located just off the town centre.
“If Clare had won, there might have been a more celebratory tone to the evening, but still, from a commercial point of view, for the town to have Clare GAA hosting big matches at Cusack Park is only a good thing for us.
“The GAA and the local businesses work very well together. You’d have teams coming in for pre-match meals or post-match meals and all of it adds up.
"It’s pretty much a partnership between the GAA and the town itself when there are big games on.”
The matches are a boost too for Clare GAA, of course. They get a field rent of 15% for the games, some of which goes into hosting, with the surplus reinvested into the stadium and clubs.
“There are swings and roundabouts. Some years you’d host quite a few Munster Championship games, albeit you wouldn’t have that amount of patrons coming and your field rent wouldn’t be as high,” says Clare County Board secretary Pat Fitzgerald.
“But last year, we would have got quite a substantial amount more. What we would’ve done then is invest that in upgrading the facilities.
"That would be the objective all the time, to continue to develop the facilities.
"Until you have that level of activities, it’s very difficult to assess the level of facilities you need and we find we have to upgrade some of the stuff we’d already refurbished.
“The buzz, the excitement, and what we generate for the people around town, it’s great, because clubs are always on to business people looking for sponsorship and it’s a win-win for everybody.”
Derek McGrath and Ger Cunningham review the weekend's hurling with Anthony Daly
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