Munster football championship attendance figure up significantly after bumper crowd at final

Friends from Rathmore Community School......Kara Keane, Elaine McCarthy, Kate Rahilly, Rebecca Knee, Saoibhe Rahilly, Caoimhe Corkery and Eimear Rahilly at the double header of games at Fitzgerald Stadium, Killarney.  Picture: Larry Cummins

The biggest Munster football final crowd in 11 years delivered a 37% increase to the total attendance figure for this year’s provincial championship.

Sunday’s gathering of 32,961 - the largest final attendance since the 2015 Cork-Kerry draw at Fitzgerald Stadium - was just shy of the combined 33,491-figure that watched all five games in the 2025 Munster SFC edition.

Added to last month’s quarter-finals and semis, the total crowd pull for the 2026 championship reached 45,797 - a cumulative figure last hit in 2018.

Following three successive Munster deciders where turnstile numbers struggled to break the 13,000-mark, the crowd for Kerry’s comfortable eight-point win over Cork represented a 150% attendance jump on the 2025 Clare-Kerry final at the same Killarney venue.

Young football fans from Carrigaline GAA club. Picture: Larry Cummins

Sunday’s throwback heave also served to lift the average attendance at a Munster football championship game in 2026 back over 9,000, with last year’s per game average having dropped to a worrying 6,700.

The above numbers show the value of a Cork-Kerry Munster final to provincial coffers, a concluding Sunday pairing that will return to greater frequency when the delayed League-based seeding format takes effect from next year.

Young Kerry fans Isabella Daly and Annabelle Van Vrede. Picture: Larry Cummins

Under that new system, the two highest ranked counties from the National League - Cork and Kerry currently wear Division 1 clothes, with Clare, down in Division 3, closest to them - will be kept apart at the semi-final stage.

“Delighted to see Fitzgerald Stadium almost full and a big Cork crowd. That created a tremendous atmosphere. Sure, listen, it’s great to see Munster Final day with that atmosphere again,” said winning Kerry manager Jack O’Connor post-match.

2026 Munster SFC attendances

Waterford v Tipperary (846)

Cork v Limerick (4,709)

Clare v Kerry (5,526)

Tipperary v Cork (1,755)

Kerry v Cork (32,961).