All Ireland Hurling Championship 2022

He should get the ex wife to show them how to use a driver.

Does anybody have the 2019 all Ireland hurling semi final attendances to hand? I’m hazarding a guess it was around 125k.

In 2018 I think Limerick v cork was just 70k and Clare v Galway was just over 50k.

Last weekend the combined total was around 90k which is fairly pitiful in my opinion. You are talking around 30 thousand less than three years ago. The Alarms should be going off in H.Q.

Obviously the cost of living crisis is impacting things and possibly covid too but I’m not sure these reasons are keeping 30k away. I’m sure the gaa will use this as an excuse all the same.

All is not lost as the crowd at the minor game was 26k which must be a record for a standalone underage game? Incredible stuff tbf.

Surely there should be much more of an effort made to sell out these semi finals. You should be aiming for 75k at both of them Imo even if it means slashing the price of the tickets or else you could sell tickets for both games at a knocked down price.

I note a few weren’t happy with 5:30 start either ? I’m not really in favour of Saturday all Ireland semi finals myself but would an earlier start help ? I guess for a lot of people trying to get out of Dublin at 8 o clock on a Saturday evening isn’t ideal. Plus then you’ve the potential of extra time too.

In 2017 (the last full-fat All Ireland Championship) it was 68k for Tipp v Galway and 71k for Waterford v Cork.

In 2019 it was 55k on the Saturday and 61k on the Sunday.

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55k at LK v KK and 62k at WX v TY

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We already had this discussion during the week, I think.

2019 attendances were 61k & 55k so about 115k altogether.

But again, context is important. Limerick-Kilkenny had roughly the same attendance in 2019 as Limerick-Galway did on Sunday. In both instances, Limerick travelled pretty well, opponents not so much.

Tipp-Wexford was a lot higher than Clare-Galway but, again, this was peak Wexford Davy bandwagon. They had just won a Leinster title, had beaten Kilkenny, and were playing a Tipp side who had been hammered in the Munster final.

Clare travelled pretty well on Saturday, but Kilkenny’s showing was quite poor for Leinster champions. Never going to be as high as Wexford but still disappointing.

If Cork had beaten Galway though, there’d have been another 20k there easy, as Cork do travel well. Galway supporters weren’t exactly confident in the build-up.

Great attendance for the minor too, and way better having that packed than having it on before the senior semi-finals.

And apparently people don’t want earlier starts on a Saturday either because people have other things on on Saturday mornings. I think 5.30 is a decent compromise time tbh.

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Thanks for that.

I’m fairly sure the fai done a massive marketing campaign for the fai cup final and there was maybe 30k or so at a couple of them over the last few years.

If the gaa got their finger out and put in some effort you’d have 70k plus easily at both these games. It’s absolutely disgraceful.

There pig ignorant attitude is just let’s fleece everybody for all their worth and then blame something else when it gets pointed out.

It seems the Saturday game is always miles behind the Sunday game anyway from what I’m looking at.

I wouldn’t have a strong opinion on the timing on the Saturday but I’ve noted several people complain about it being too late. It was the same for the Leinster final as well.

Leinster Final shouldn’t have been on in Croke Park full stop. We should be trying to create good atmospheres more than anything.

You also have to remember that when a team is utterly dominant, it affects the attendances of all other counties involved, unless you get a team who wouldn’t normally get that far on a run.

Look at 2010, for example, when Kilkenny were going for 5-in-a-row. Neither semi-final broke 50k that year either, and Tipp actually did break their run. To really get high attendances, you need all four counties to feel like they could win the All-Ireland (2013, both were 62k).

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2013 was class, the perfect storm of shite

I’m not really believing limericks dominance is keeping people away. Post covid events have been packed out.

Punchestown had a few terrible cards this year and they smashed attendance records. Various other events have been booming too since the reopening.

You’d the lowest attendance in 22 years at Leinster final and Kilkenny were far more dominant in the late 00s than they are now.

The gaa are making no effort to market these games or attract crowds.

All they are doing is living up to their nickname as the grab all association as they price most people out of going.

The football semi finals don’t seem to be attracting massive crowds either ? Dublin v Kerry was usually a sell out and actually tricky to get tickets for but they’ll probably only get 75k.

This is the most open championship in years so really I don’t think limericks dominance is playing a large part in keeping people away.

When Cork start winning All Irelands again all will be right in the world.

I think you are thinking about this too much.

Though if you want to do a bit more research, you will notice attendance figures have waxed and waned throughout the history of the GAA and will continue to do so. E.g. there was 62,000 at a Munster Hurling final in 1961, though that is believed to be a huge underestimation.

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I know a man who was at the 1961 Munster final and he said if the crush happened nowadays coming out afterwards 100s would have died but instead people stayed calm and situation resolved itself quickly enough.

The aggregate attendance looked poor at the weekend due to the simple fact that the Kilkenny crowd simply didn’t travel, the same as with the Leinster final.

I don’t know if it is apathy and whether before last weekend that they weren’t capable of winning an A/I or whether their sustained success over the last 20 years has simply dulled the thrill of it for the floating/non die hard kilkenny fan. I would be surprised if there was more than 7.5k of the 40k on Saturday evening were Kilkenny. If they had managed to bring 20k the figures would be trending back towards the mean.

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No surprise the gaa heads are rushing
To defence of the association.

Some people are so far behind in a race they actually think they are winning.

The attendances are falling off a cliff.

Walkovers all over the shop at underage club level.

Absolutely zero buzz or excitement two weeks in a row to two of our biggest weekends of the year.

But of course everything rosy lads it’ll be grand…

People are simply jaded from this round robin nonsense. Myself and @BruidheanChaorthainn will be vindicated on it all.

The hurling championship should have reached a crescendo at the weekend but it didn’t really.

Whether it’s fleecing supporters via a sky sports subscription or a ridiculous amount of games. Screwing fans over money wise seem to be central to gaas policy at the moment.

2016 had the following:
34k at Waterford Kilkenny
54k at Galway Tipp

If the league of Ireland can attract 30k to a cup final the minimum the gaa should be targeting is 70k.

Sell the tickets for 20 euro and allow under 16s for free.