Ticketmaster apologises for Sunday's league tickets issues
The GAA has introduced a full cashless ticketing system this season. Picture: Eóin Noonan/Sportsfile
Ticketmaster has “apologised for any inconvenience caused” after supporters experienced difficulties with the online service at Sunday’s Allianz Hurling League games.
A website fault at international level, which affected other events and organisations across the globe, meant fans were not able to log on to purchase tickets on the GAA website, where the ticketing system is facilitated by Ticketmaster. There were also reports of difficulties at retail outlets.
An alternative website link was provided by a number of counties including Waterford who explained on their official social media accounts that “Ticketmaster has gone down worldwide”.
Ticketmaster told the Irish Examiner: “A technical error unfortunately impacted GAA ticket sales on Sunday — this was fixed by the team as quickly as possible. We apologise for any inconvenience caused.”
After 10 years with tickets.ie, the GAA signed a five-year contract with Ticketmaster in December 2020, which was reported to be worth €10m to the US company owned by Live Nation Entertainment. Ticketmaster has suffered a number of outages in recent months and on “Super Bowl Sunday” would have been experienced a large amount of traffic.
After a soft launch during the pandemic last year, the GAA has introduced a full cashless ticketing system this season. Speaking last week, GAA director general Tom Ryan said its introduction had gone “okay” so far.
Highlighting tickets could also be purchased in Centra and SuperValu stores as well as online, he added that the initiative wasn’t aimed at “alienating people” who might find it difficult to buy digitally, as Age Action recently pointed out. Ryan said: “Progress can pose challenges for some people. I think the idea that the tickets are still available through the shops should mitigate that a little bit. The last two years, we’ve all been trying to buy stuff remotely.”
Meanwhile, Maggie Farrelly will be the first female to referee a men's Allianz Football League game when she takes charge of the Division 4 clash between Leitrim and London in Carrick-on-Shannon this Sunday.
The Cavan woman, who was part of the refereeing team for last Saturday's All-Ireland senior club final between Kilcoo and Kilmacud Crokes in Croke Park, officiated last year's Cavan SFC final replay between Ramor United and Gowna and the game in Avant Money Páirc Seán MacDiarmada is the latest step in her growing career.
Recently, the Laragh United club woman was one of five new referees appointed to the national panel. She also whistled the All-Ireland junior football semi-final between eventual winners Kilmeena and Clonbullogue last month.
In 2015, Farrelly became the first woman to referee a men's senior Gaelic football game, the McKenna Cup match between Fermanagh and St Mary's University in Garvaghey. She also taken charge of several underage games in Ulster.
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