All-Ireland football final capacity to remain at 40,000 despite two-week delay

Supporters in the Hogan Stand during last week's All-Ireland SFC semi-final between Dublin and Mayo. Picture: Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile

The capacity for the All-Ireland senior football final will remain at 40,000 despite being pushed back by two weeks.

As GAA stadium and commercial director Peter McKenna revealed in today’s Irish Examiner, “there has not been a single case of a transmission” from the 160,000 supporters who have attended games in Croke Park so far this summer.

However, the restricted capacity for the game between Mayo and Kerry or Tyrone on September 11 won’t be eased, while 24,000 will be the maximum permitted to attend tomorrow week’s All-Ireland semi-final involving Kerry and Tyrone.

In response to a query from the Irish Examiner, the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sports and Media stated: “The current series of pilot test events for outdoor sports has developed incrementally and carefully over the past couple of months under the group’s guidance and events have grown from having a few hundred spectators to 40,000 for the forthcoming All Ireland Finals.

“The regulations governing such events are made by the Minister for Health under the Health Act 1947 following a decision of Government. This approach was set out in the Guidelines for Reopening Sports Grounds published earlier this year.”

It continued: “The learnings from this current phase of pilot sports events, including nearly 50% capacity crowds in Croke Park, will be a vital input to a longer term approach to the safe return of supporters to sports grounds across the country. It is important to stress that attendance capacity at future events will continue to be informed by the prevailing public health advice and Covid-19 epidemiological situation on the ground.”

It appears unlikely the capacity for Sunday week’s 2020 Cork Premier SFC final between Castlehaven and Nemo Rangers in Páirc Uí Chaoimh will be increased from 500.

It has yet to be designated as a pilot event and would also require the support of Croke Park, as the department have explained: “Pilot events are subject to public health advice, the schedule of events for August has been set as of the end of July. All future events will require careful consideration in light of the epidemiological situation at the time.

“The relevant National Governing Body of Sport must sponsor the pilot event in question which is outside the standard provisions of 200/500 for attendances. The venue is then assessed by external safety experts taking the mitigating measures set out above to determine the safe capacity of the event.”