Attendances and gate receipts for football and hurling leagues due to be significantly up on last year

ATTENDANCES: Attendances and gate receipts for the Allianz Football and Hurling Leagues are expected to be significantly up on last year, while crowds for the opening round of the Leinster senior football championships are reported to have increased by 40%. Pic: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile

Attendances and gate receipts for the Allianz Football and Hurling Leagues are expected to be significantly up on last year, while crowds for the opening round of the Leinster senior football championships are reported to have increased by 40%.

Crowds had fallen last year from 2023 – in football, total numbers declined by almost 47,000 from 458,773 to 412,536 and in hurling they dropped by over 26,000, from 215,646 to 189,401.

Last year’s football and hurling leagues accrued €4.628 million and €1.989m in gate receipts respectively. The corresponding figures in 2023 were €4.842m and €2.256m.

Despite disappointing final attendances, the curiosity around and impact of the experimental rules in football have bumped numbers. In his match programme notes for the Allianz Football League finals, GAA president Jarlath Burns commented that the number attending matches had risen. “Crowds at matches have been up, and it is important to acknowledge the loyalty of our supporters who use the Allianz Leagues to shorten the winter.” 

The new hurling league structure has also been a winner. Alone, the 21 Division 1A round games attracted more than the entire league last season. For illustration purposes, Cork’s four hurling league games in SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh including the final attracted a combined total of 108,848, an average of 27,212. Last year, their two home matches and the Clare-Kilkenny decider drew an aggregate of 39,203, an average of 13,067.

It is also believed attendances and gate receipts were positively impacted by the move earlier this year to charge €5 for a juvenile (U16) at Division 1 and 2 football and Division 1A and 1B hurling fixtures. Previously, children could attend such games free of charge and wouldn’t be considered in crowd totals where capacity was not challenged.

The decision to reduce the price of an adult stand ticket to €15 from €25 for the opening round of the Leinster senior football championship is also believed to have boosted attendances for this past weekend’s matches.

On RTÉ, it was reported ticket sales had risen by 40% for the Wexford-Laois, Longford-Wicklow and Meath-Carlow matches from the three corresponding games last year.

Aughrim’s Echelon Park is expected to be a 6,500 sell-out for Sunday’s Wicklow-Dublin Leinster SFC quarter-final. Following their extra-time win over Longford on Sunday, Oisín McConville’s side are set to host the county’s first provincial senior quarter-final in four years.

That game against Meath in 2020 was played behind closed doors. The Garden County’s previous last-eight match there was also against Meath in 2013.