'Lights are part and parcel of winter hurling': Galway chair defends decision to change senior final to floodlit venue

Galway county board moved both the senior football and hurling semi-finals and finals into the floodlit Salthill venue on four successive Saturday evenings across October and the beginning of November

Moycullen supporters celebrate under the lights at Pearse Stadium after the football final. Pic: Tyler Miller/Sportsfile

Galway chairman Paul Bellew has defended the decision to stage this Saturday’s county senior hurling final under lights - a first for Galway’s showpiece hurling fixture.

In this the maiden year of floodlights being operational at Pearse Stadium, the county board moved both the senior football and hurling semi-finals and finals into the floodlit Salthill venue on four successive Saturday evenings across October and the beginning of November.

In spite of the “criticism”, "negativity”, and “exceptionalism” that has greeted the decision to play the concluding stages of the club championship under lights, Bellew pointed out that attendances at the county football final and hurling semi-final double-header over the past two weekends were significantly up on last year’s corresponding fixtures, both of which had afternoon throw-ins at Tuam and Athenry respectively.

A crowd of 6,500 watched last Saturday evening’s county football decider between Moycullen and Salthill-Knocknacarra, an increase of 45% on the Corofin-Moycullen 2024 final played on a Sunday afternoon at Tuam Stadium.

The year-on-year crowd increase was 15% for the previous weekend’s hurling semi-final double-header that saw St Thomas’ overcome Craughwell and Loughrea beat Turloughmore. The 4,500-attendance bettered the 3,800 figure that watched the daytime double-header at Kenny Park, Athenry, 12 months previous.

Last year’s hurling final was also played at Athenry, on account of Pearse Stadium being out of commission at the time, and in moving the final back to the county ground this weekend, Bellew said the new lights were the deciding factor in fixing St Thomas’-Loughrea for 6pm on Saturday, as opposed to the following afternoon.

Galway GAA chairman Paul Bellew. Pic: Ben Brady/Inpho

“As a leading GAA county in modern times, lights are part and parcel of winter hurling, as we saw in Dublin, Cork, and Tipperary over the last number of weeks. I think Limerick have played four of their last six finals under lights, so it's part of the sporting landscape now, whether we like it or not,” the Galway chairman told the Examiner.

“We have to look at the silent majority here as well. The facts are that 15% more people went into the hurling semi-finals under lights in Pearse Stadium than went to Athenry last year. Now, that comes as a shock to a lot of people, including myself. We didn't expect it.

“But despite all the negativity and some of the nonsense out there, we had the guts of 700 more people went to Pearse Stadium in the wind and the rain than went to Athenry the previous year. 

"Some people mightn't like to hear that, but those are the facts. There is an appetite for this among the greater hurling public.

“There seems to be a strange form of Galway exceptionalism in some quarters to floodlit finals. But as I said, Dublin, Cork, and Tipperary all played finals under lights this year at different grades. That's just something we have to get used to.” 

Former Galway hurler Andy Coen, speaking on Galway Bay FM last week, said floodlights did not create the right environment for hurling. He also remarked that introducing floodlit games at the semi-final stage was “a bit late” in the championship.

Bellew said earlier round floodlit games were not practical, given the group phase is run off in August and September, adding that playing no county championship game under lights was to send the Galway winners into the All-Ireland club series “blind”.

“Loughrea played Na Fianna under lights in Thurles last year, so our county winning teams were going in on matchday blind. St Thomas’ had a famous win under lights against Ballygunner, in Portlaoise, the December previous.

“Galway teams are going to be playing under lights in All-Ireland fixtures, so this is part and parcel of us getting used to it. They've also been training under lights for the last while.

“Will it [the county hurling final under lights] be a permanent fixture? It won't. It will be year by year. Chances are we'll be back in Athenry, hopefully, for a semi-final double-header next year. It can always chop and change.

“There was a bit of talk about moving out of Athenry for the semi-finals, you'd swear a 140-year tradition had been broken. Last year was the first time the double-header semi-finals were in Athenry since 2019.” 

The Galway chairman confirmed neither St Thomas’ nor reigning champions Loughrea expressed opposition to Saturday’s 6pm throw-in time. Loughrea are chasing a fourth crown, their six-in-a-row predecessors are going after an eighth since 2016.