Iâd imagine what will ultimately determine whether All Ireland Finals on the same day as the British Open golf is to continue will be attendances throughout the championship. This year will probably be a good year attendance wise after two years of Covid but who knows after that.
The GAA championship always fitted in nicely across the summer and early Autumn months where there wasnât a huge amount else going on.
The Super 8âs in football were a disaster from Day 1 and after the initial excitement of Round Robin in 2018, the 2019 Round Robin in Munster was an appalling spectacle.
I always felt that The Championship structure in hurling from 2002-17 despite the somewhat haphazard way it came about, wasnât too as at all. It gave practically all counties minimum of 3 games,
Thereâs a major decision within that split season then with some county boards persisting with hurling first/football second format which can leave single code clubs sitting around for the months of June/July while the other code is played out in full.
The All-Ireland finals this year are on July 17th and 24th.
Inter-county championships start in April. It means basically the entire provincial championship timeframe clashes with the end of the association football season (and rugby season) and itâs not hard to see who will come off worst there.
Then every second year you have a World Cup or Euros in addition in to the annual summer attractions like Wimbledon, British Open golf etc.
The reason August and September are priceless is because the general sporting landscape usually offers no real counter attractions in those months bar the Olympics every four years.
The Euro 2024 final is on Sunday July 14th, a day which will also see the Wimbledon final. Under the new GAA Championship scheduling system, that will probably be the date for the All-Ireland hurling final.
The 2026 World Cup final will be on either Sunday the 12th or 19th of July. You could even have a clash between the World Cup final and the All-Ireland football final, which I donât think would be a clever move at all on the GAAâs part.
Donât think Wimbledon would dent interest in GAA. Very much a niche sport in Ireland anyway. British open would have a major interest if Lowry or Mcllroy were going strong, otherwise i am not so sure. 1 major soccer tournament in next 4 years so not a great impact there. You are conveniently forgetting premier league starts early August where they have been some big games clashing with GAA.
The powers that be in Croke Park have taken the decision to run their blue riband events head to head against the business end of the English Premier League/L soccer season/rugby season, European Championships/World Cup and the likes of The Open in golf and The Championship in tennis.
They must be very confident that attendances and revenue wonât suffer. If they donât, itâll remain that way, if attendances do take a battering, itâll be back to August and September.
All bar one of the major soccer tournament finals since Brazil-Germany in 2002 have been late evening/night time kick-offs which havenât clashed with inter-county GAA action at all. The exception was France v Croatia in 2018 which was on simultaneously to Kerry v Galway in the super 8âs in Croker. I remember my father being very keen to see the Sunday Game highlights after the Louth v Meath Leinster final in 2010 and being bemused as to why it was starting late due to the World Cup final going to ET.
The fact they have got rid of replays says they are prepared to take a hit on finances to do this. Itâs what club players have wanted and they have gone with it, I donât see any turning back.
In a choice between an early season Premier League game and a plum knockout championship game in August or September, the GAA wins every time.
In a choice between a key late season Premier League game or a Champions League final and a provincial championship game, association football wins every time.
Itâs about the general media interest, not just the crowds, although the crowds are a function of the general media interest.
If you have major competing attractions it means there is less time for the media to devote to the GAA.
Even having the All-Ireland semi-finals on one weekend has spread out the focus more thinly. In 2018, which was the first year of having the two semi-finals on one weekend, Dublin drew just 54k for their semi-final against Galway - the first time a semi-final involving Dublin had not sold out in many years. In 2019, Dublin v Mayo drew all the attention and Kerry v Tyrone was a complete afterthought which drew something like 31k.
I need not elaborate on how GAA attendances suffered in years in which Ireland reached major association football finals tournaments. Attendances were blitzed.
2018 saw a clash between the Champions League final involving Liverpool and Real Madrid and the Leinster Round Robin hurling aristocrats of Wexford and Offaly. It left many Wexford based Liverpool fans in a conundrum.
I would expect most World Cup finals going forward to be played in the afternoon our time because it suits the most amount of time zones worldwide.
Even a 7pm/8pm kick off for a major World Cup match can be awkward if you want to attend a GAA match that afternoon, especially if the match is taking place a good distance away from where you live.
World cup finals often clashed with Munster hurling finals, 2002 for example. Euro 2004 final was evening of 2004 Munster hurling final. Normal occurrence.
September is the All Ireland final slot, there is nothing (fuck all) else on in the sporting calendar and it is optimum time to generate wider interest and get people involved in the wider GAA. Itâs the showpiece occasion in Gaelic Games. Moving it out of this slot is is one of the greatest acts of stupidity I have seen a sporting organisation commit on itself.
I agree with the split season, but put the clubs first. Tell county boards that they have to have their county finals completed by mid June and have the AI club final played on or by the 24th of July. Give club players the respect they deserve and donât play the pinnacle of the club championship in a baltic Croke Park in February/March. Play it at the height of summer. It will build in nicely to the Start the Intercounty Championship that should start on the August Bank Holiday weekend. Have the AI football or hurling final on the Halloween bank holiday weekend. Halloween is a festival that came from our ancestors, tie it in with that, get schools involved again, Build excitement up. Make the pinnacle of the sport, which is intercounty, an Autumn event, that it already kind of is or was. This way there is top class hurling/football from probably late March/early April until the last weekend in October. A time of the year when the games are supposed to be played. To me itâs so blatantly obvious.
No hurling or football in November/December. Burnout becomes much less of an issue. Third level back to February. Move minor back to u18 or to u19. u17 is putrid to watch in comparison and the u20 championship has been poor as well. Moving the finals to August didnât feel right, moving it to July of all months is an act of hari kari imo.
Great idea but the egos that are county managers wonât release players to play with their clubs. Clubs out of championship in April/May would mean empty Gaa clubs for rest of the year. Is that a good promotional tool? I remember when i was young, the club could be knocked out by June. It was a total sickener. No training to watch for rest of the year which lots of young lads still do in rural areas.
To an extent Wimbledon is niche, but is it really? Every year when Wimbledon was on in my childhood it provoked a flurry of tennis matches on our road using the tar lines in the concrete as the court. Weâd head down to Ballyer or even Bushy Park to play in the local tennis leagues they used to run on the courts during the summer. Every kid in Dublin seemed to be at them.
In more recent times, the final when Federer almost beat Djokovic in 2019, along with the Cricket World Cup final, which is definitely a niche event in Ireland, completely blitzed Kerry v Mayo in Killarney on the best Sunday of the entire summer for weather.
Itâs some organisation for obsessing over change, structures and constantly tinkering with stuff that actually works well. Minor at U18 and U21 Championships were grand and just worked fine. U17 and U20 is a load of nonsense.
Championships in hurling and football has now effectively been transferred into a largely league based tournament. Do you really need the National League and all these January (now late December as well) pre-season tournaments as well. If this is the way they are going, should be 2 and not 3 inter-county tournaments.