McGuinness: Donegal fans have been through the ringer financially so far

PUT THROUGHT THE RINGER: Donegal fans react as the Ulster final goes to extra time. Pic: ©INPHO/Ben Brady.

For the second time in this championship, Jim McGuinness addressed the cost of going to games for Donegal supporters.

After beating Cavan in April’s Ulster semi-final, Donegal’s third championship game in 21 days, he rejected the idea of the final being played in Croke Park on the grounds of what fans had been paying to follow the team.

On Sunday, as speculation mounts at which neutral venue their crucial final round game against Mayo will be played, he said: "No, we wouldn’t be happy with Croke Park.

“Our supporters have been through the ringer financially up to this point. It’s not easy getting there, it’s expensive to stay there and so on. But there are more important people than me making those decisions."

No team has played more football than Donegal and the knock-on effect for supporters is significant.

Even though more people would have been able to take in their final against Armagh had it been played in Croke Park than sold-out St Tiernach’s Park, McGuinness wasn’t having any of it. The Mayo game will be their seventh match in 10 weeks.

Limerick manager John Kiely hit the nail on the head last Friday when he was asked about the €5 increase in the Munster final ticket.

It wasn’t really the story, he said: the volume of games in such a tight timeframe was. One that Cork's faithful have also faced and that doesn't include their Division 1 final.

“It's the fact that we're coming off the back of four round-robin games, and now we're into a Munster final, and it's all happened in the space of seven weeks," said Kiely.

"It's a lot of expense in a short period of time. People are looking towards summer holidays, kids going away on summer camps, all those types of things.

“If the season was more stretched out, the expense is spread out as well with it, and that's maybe something that needs to be taken into consideration, that it's a big hit for families all at the one time.”

In 2017, the year prior to the Super 8, when all eight All-Ireland SFC quarter-finalists had a two-week lead-up to their fixture, the matches drew a combined 147,746 to Croke Park.

Under the current format introduced in 2023 when half the teams have a one-week turnaround to the quarter-finals, they have drawn accumulated crowds of 139,870 and 97,302.

Notwithstanding the decline in attendances is offset by those taking in the preliminary quarter-finals the previous weekend, last year’s alarming five-figure number was a clear indication supporters simply can’t afford three games in as 13 or 14 days as was the schedule for the preliminary quarter-final winners.

Dublin prices have obviously contributed too but whether it’s too many games or too little time, people have felt the pinch of the championship schedule. They have become more discerning, being mistaken for event junkies only because they can only spend so much.

And yet this year attendances in both the Munster SHC and the All-Ireland SFC are up. The hurling numbers have jumped again despite a second ticket price increase in as many seasons and the poorest competition in the six-year history of the round-robin structure, while the novelty aspect of football’s new rules have undoubtedly bolstered attendances.

To expect both graph’s trajectory to remain north-east would be foolish, though.

It will come as some relief that Donegal will play one less game in Ulster courtesy of a bye and will have at least one less outing in the All-Ireland series before the quarter-finals under the new format if they are good enough.

Their team are repaying their following’s loyalty but are the GAA? The season ticket does not offer as much value as it did previously having been shrinkflated to exclude free entry to a county’s first championship game.

While the All-Ireland SFC three-for-the-price-of-two games package of €50 was an excellent deal, Armagh were the only county of the 16 who sold out their allocation.

Three-for-two doesn’t compare to three-from-four teams qualifying for the knock-out stages. Jeopardy sells but a reasonable schedule does too.

THE COST OF BELIEVING

Limerick Schedule: Saturday’s Munster final will be their fifth championship game in seven weeks.

Total stand ticket cost for two adults and two children (U16): €440 Distance travelled (from Kilmallock): 666km.

Food, parking, sundries: €475 

Total cost: €995

Donegal Schedule: Saturday or Sunday week’s final All-Ireland round game will be their seventh championship game in 10 weeks.

Total stand ticket cost for two adults and two children (U16): €446

Distance travelled (from Letterkenny): 1028km

Food, parking, sundries: €665

Total cost: €1,231.