They seen to have got rid of the bring a friend option on the season tickets too, with no announcement and for no apparent reason.
The season ticket isn’t as good value as it used to be since they hiked the price.
For us this year, you got five league games and the first two championship matches for €150. (Didn’t have a relegation final or league semi final/league final which admittedly would have been extra value. So seven matches for €150 which isn’t great value, even if you attend all seven)
Obviously the more matches you get for it the better. Cork and Waterford fans would get 9 matches for €150 after reaching the league final.
I think the club finals were included too as a perk, which is something.
Obviously the major perk of the ST is being entitled to an AI final ticket if you’ve met the criteria. Takes the heat off straight away.
I’d respectfully disagree with the Dow there on tickets going to club members first for round robin provincial matches. Anyone who is involved in a club would much prefer to have them put up online/in shops and not have the responsibility of getting names, having the draw, chasing payment, lodging the funds, paying the county board, collecting/printing off tickets etc. It’s a nightmare.
Unique circumstances I know but the stress on club executive officers last year for the AI finals was intolerable.
Obvious exception should be for AI final tickets and sell out games where club members should have first dibs.
Did a hurling season ticket not cover the hurling league final this season? There was a bit of messing around with a football season ticket(not Kerry or Mayo) but it did entitle you to a ticket. It wasn’t communicated though so a fair few missed out I’d say
I think anyone with a hurling season ticket had the option of a free ticket for the league final alright, but not 100% on that.
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It was/is available to me for hurling matches that aren’t played in Cusack park Ennis or Walsh park
I’d agree with the last couple of points. Great for the clubs that sales are going online. Pain in the hole for clubs to be ticket distributors and then are often left swinging for the cash.
I got great value for the season ticket this year. 7x15 for the league and 45 euro for the first championship match = 150. Plus the club final so am in profit already. The AI ticket is the big kicker. Massive incentive to have the season ticket.
The hidden benefit of the season ticket is that it makes you go to matches you might otherwise give a skip to. Tullamore, Mullingar, Belfast, night matches in Limerick you make sure you to them, because well you’ve paid for them.
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It did cover it.
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I think the rules changed on the all Ireland final ticket this year but I can’t remember to what exactly. I don’t think your attendance matters anymore
If you don’t buy a ticket for more than one championship match you forfeit the right to an AI ticket.
The attendance thing was a fucking dose. You’d go down to some fucking Kip like Dungarvan and the scanners wouldn’t be working and your attendance wouldn’t be recorded and Crome Park wouldn’t want to know about it.
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They’ve changed the percentage criteria - now you’ve to buy a ticket for each championship match to qualify.
You are allowed one ‘opt out’ so you can decide not to buy a ticket for one championship match but assuming you purchase for every other championship game involving your county you’ll be entitled to an AI final ticket assuming your county get there.
If you don’t purchase for two or more championship matches you don’t qualify for one.
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These useless cunts fucked me so many times on me attendance not being scanned. Even video proof with me driving license beside me ST card getting scanned in Nowlan Park “wasn’t sufficient”.
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I’d agree with you to a point here but one thing I would say is our membership has grown by close to 100% since 2018 solely because of match tickets. If you take away the tickets from the clubs that won’t be long falling again. I’ve had plenty calls this week from genuine supporters who couldn’t get a stand ticket for Cork, but yet the boys in the pub on Monday morning (who have fuck all to do with the club) stumbled across to the local Centra and picked up their handful.
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I saw that Niall O’Connor fella made a point on Twitter which I actually thought was a good one.
That once you registered with your club for the year, they register you with central branch and you are given a registration number. If your county is playing, you input your registration number into the system and given the opportunity to purchase a ticket.
Priority would be:
- Season ticket holders
- Other club members
- The rest
As it stands, there’s not a huge incentive to be a paid-up member of your local club if you aren’t a player. Even if you’re involved as a coach or whatever, there might be a few of them not actually registered. That would at least encourage people to become members.
I’m sure there are issues with that too, but I think it could be worked on as a basis. I think it’s a theoretically good idea, rewards club members while removing the stress for secretaries and the like.
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Would even make sense to have a County Supporters club and offer tickets like that before general public as there are a sizable number of supporters in each county who are not affiliated with a club for whatever reason or living outside the county.
Would be a nice money spinner for each county. There is surely a four figure number of these in each county. Get €50 or €75 a year from them to join the supporters club.
That’s what the likes of Munster Rugby do. Members of their supporters club get first option for big games that are likely to sell out, any which remain unsold go on general release then. I think their clubs get a certain set allocation for bigger matches too.
The only issue with that, if applied to a GAA context, is that you don’t want to undermine club membership, which for most clubs keep the bills paid and lights on throughout the year.
Something like if you’re a member of the county supporters club AND a paid up club member which would entitle you to first refusal for intercounty championship matches would make a lot of sense. Surely must be an easy and practical system to set up and operate.
I think the hierarchy is that 1 -season ticket holders, 2 club members, and then 3 supporters club members get access/preference to buy tickets and after that it is general release.
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Easily worked in Limerick really with the Mackey Draw. I presume most clubs have a sort of points system that they distribute their tickets on. And a draw of course 
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Are these mickey mouse round robin games actually selling out? 
See I’d probably lean towards keeping it to club members tbh. Possibly a bit of snobbery on my part, but I think, just because you’re living outside the county, doesn’t mean that you can’t be a member of your club at home, or the local club in your area.
On the suggestion that was outlined above, I’d allow you to include a county as well as your club. So you could be a member of a club in one county but eligible to buy tickets for Championship matches of another county.
I know this could potentially cause an issue in places like Dublin where presumably the membership outweighs any potential tickets but that’s presumably already the case.
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It all becomes a bit pointless and irrelevant alright when your team are absolutely shit, I can understand your disinterest
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