San Sebastian just the ticket for Munster fans

THE huge Munster travelling support may still be accommodated at the Heineken Cup clash with Biarritz on April 3.

Negotiations between the clubs have taken a step forward after Munster indicated they required 10,000 tickets for the quarter-final, pushing Biarritz to move the game to a bigger venue in San Sebastian.

The French club’s president, Marcel Martin, has expressed a willingness to move, if possible, from the 12,667-capacity Parc des Sports Aguilera to Real Sociedad’s Paseo de Anoeta stadium, which holds 33,000.

The main problem facing Biarritz is that Real Sociedad have a home La Liga game the same afternoon, but the good news, according to president Martin, is that opponents Osasuna, who are based a mere 70 kilometres away from San Sebastian, may be amenable to a switch.

“We have had initial discussions with the football club but we need to know how many fans Munster might bring,” said Martin. “Certainly to progress with a plan to move out of Biarritz we would want to make it financially viable. We would need a commitment from Munster to sell between 5,000 and 8,000 tickets.”

Martin needn’t worry, as initial forecasts, based on inquiries to the Munster Branch and its supporters club, indicate that at least 10,000 tickets would be snapped up if made available.

Maria Aylward of the Munster Branch said yesterday: “We have been inundated with inquiries from people at home, in Britain and beyond. Some people have tried to order up to ten tickets on the basis that they have already made travel arrangements from parts of Britain and Europe but there is nothing we can do until we know exactly what is happening.”

Ms Aylward revealed that because the game is fixed for the end of the Easter holidays, many people are looking to tie in the game with a short holiday and added that some fans based in England said they would be also travelling to Toulouse to take in the Toulouse-Northampton game on Friday, April 1, before travelling on to the Biarritz area on Sunday.

Before this season’s competition began, the Munster branch had advised that if they were to secure a home quarter-final the game would be played at Lansdowne Road.

The branch recognised that the 13,000 places available in Thomond Park would not suffice and now they expect the same to apply in relation to this away game. All things being equal, it appears that Biarritz would be quite happy to move down the road to San Sebastian.

“We will honestly try to look at what is best for our club and what is best for Munster supporters,” said Marcel Martin. “We have to think whether it is necessary to change and I doubt, for instance, that we would be willing to move outside of our area to Bordeaux which is 200 kilometres away from our fan base.”

That was before Munster gave any positive indication of how many tickets they might be able to sell.

The Munster Branch hopes there will be further positive news of a move to San Sebastian by Tuesday at the latest. Tourism interests in the area could yet play a significant role in the decision.