Diarmuid O’Flynn
I was in lovely Dungarvan on Tuesday for the Waterford press evening in advance of this Sunday’s Munster SHC semi-final against Clare and spoke to four players and one member of the management team. There was one common theme.
No, it wasn’t Davy Fitz, former Waterford manager now managing Clare, it was the ticket price. The headline 30 charge for admission to one of the two fine stands in Semple Stadium.
“30 is too much to ask,” reckoned last year’s captain, Stephen Molumphy.
“They could halve that and still make money, by increasing the crowd. People can just stay at home and watch it on television rather than paying out that much money for a ticket. It was fine when the championship was pure knockout but people will probably wait for the big games now, they’re not going to pay that kind of money for a game like this and I don’t blame them.”
Full-back Liam Lawlor agreed: “What’s most disappointing this weekend is the price structure for the game. Kids should be free. I remember the Munster final of ’98 I was sitting with my mother behind the dug-outs and the seniors came out for a few minutes to watch the junior game.
“I asked Seán Cullinane for his autograph and got it. He was full-back that day, I’m full-back on Sunday and he’s the backs coach. Funny how things work out. He was one of my heroes now I’m playing in his old position. But that’s what you want, kids going to games to see their heroes playing and being inspired by them.”
Kevin Moran felt likewise: “Thurles is a super venue, Semple Stadium a great field, and hopefully we’ll get a good crowd but it’s not looking good – the prices are crazy.”
Consider that Kevin is a secondary school teacher, that his subjects are Business and Maths – he knows what he’s talking about. The Ryanair model, that’s what the GAA should be looking at. Fill the stadia by having a sliding scale of prices, starting early with minimal-cost seating for a certain section of the stadium then gradually increasing the price.
The GAA does offer packages but, says Stephen Molumphy, it’s not enough: “There’s no doubt that any Munster championship game is a great day out, but it’s expensive enough for families anyway when you factor in food and travel. The top price should be brought down, for everyone.”
For many of those packages anyway there’s no great advantage. I remember last year getting a call from a very vexed member of my own club, Ballyhea, who had brought a host of youngsters to a Cork game under one of the Munster Council schemes only to find themselves locked into an area out in the open – in the rain – from which their view of the game was both distant and limited. This on a day when there were vast areas of unused seats in the stands.
I don’t want this to be seen as just another anti-GAA rant. I’ve stated before, will state here again now, there isn’t an organisation like it in the world, no organisation that has served its own community in such a meaningful and positive way. But it’s not perfect and this is a flaw.
Fill those seats. In this depression don’t just make small allowances for people — slash the prices. It’s too late for this weekend but an announcement can be made that anyone who has a 30 ticket can bring another person with them free. Announce now a new price structure for the second semi-final and for the final, with major in-built incentives to purchase early.
There’s a lot of money being spent on an advertising campaign telling people that nothing beats being at the game itself, and it’s true, very true; now use a bit of common sense to put bums on seats.
Source: http://feeds.examiner.ie/~r/iesportsblog/~3/amkN4w8wDv8/post.aspx
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