Get last top seats at Croker

ONE year after the opening of the new £35 million Cusack Stand in Croke Park, the GAA has not yet sold all of the 2,800 "premium" seats it contains. When play begins at Sunday's Leinster Senior Football Final between Dublin and Meath, around 200 of the bums on the premium seats will belong to ordinary fans.

The game is the first major all ticket clash at Croke Park this season. Tickets for the unsold premium seats were sold through the usual channels.

As well as the 200 unsold seats, another 300 have been sold under a scheme whereby, in return for half the price, buyers got the seats for half the originally projected 10 year time period.

Despite the 200 seats remaining to be sold, the GAA is "very, very pleased" with how the development is progressing, according to Mr Dermot Power, marketing manager for the new development. The Cusack Stand represents phase one of the ongoing development of the ground.

There will be no premium seating in phase two of the development, planned for the Canal End. However the GAA is looking at the type of schemes operating in the US and Britain, where fans can buy a licence which gives them first options on seats.

The premium seats in the Cusack Stand were originally offered for £5,000 each. The purchaser got use of the seat for every GAA match played in the ground for 10 years. Over 2,300 of the seats were sold in this way.

A further 300 seats were sold for £2,500 each, with the purchaser getting access to the seats for all GAA games at Croke Park for five years. This scheme was launched in May this year, the seats contained in the scheme are at either end of the stand rather than towards the centre making them less attractive to spectators. In total the organisation has gained £12.25 million from its sale of premium seats, out of a hoped for £14 million.

The new stand also contains 46 boxes, or suites. Eleven double boxes were sold and 24 single, with the doubles selling for £250,000 and the singles for £150,000.

A double comes with 30 seats and a single with 12 seats the bulk of the boxes were bought by Irish companies and a few were bought by multinationals. The buyer gets the boxes and seats for 10 years, and is entitled to put the company name on the outside of the box.

The buyer gets tickets for all events at Croke Park, including concerts such as those by Neil Diamond and Tina Turner this year. The boxes have netted the GAA £6.35 million.

With both the premium seating and the boxes visitors get access to the Premium Level of the stand, which contains restaurants, bars, a lounge area and a shop.

"We have not signed up yet for the number of boxes in phase two," says Mr Power. Some companies have already expressed an interest. But Mr Power feels the level of interest in the corporate market will not be the same as it was for phase one. There are a limited number of companies who can afford such a purchase.

"But we will have boxes again in phase three which is the Hogan stand. We will haven roughly the same number of boxes, but there is also the question of accommodating the pre 55, radio and television.

At the moment the GAA is concentrating on designing a mix of facilities and special deals which will maximise income from the next stages of the development.

"We have not signed on yet on the design for phase two," said Mr Power. "I am not convinced yet it will be the same product."

The new stand, the biggest single construction project undertaken in Dublin in recent times, was built without borrowing. However, it is clear there will be "significant borrowing" for phase two, Mr Power said.

"We are testing the marketplace at the moment in relation to phase two, looking at the configuration of facilities, the level of comfort and of luxury, and the size of boxes."

Another option being examined by the GAA is the debenture scheme, similar to that used at Twickenham and Murrayfield, where the buyer purchases first call on tickets for a particular seat.

It is most likely that a combination of such ideas will eventually be decided on.

The GAA is confident that work on phase two will begin in the next 12 months. An ongoing dispute with the Dublin Corporation planning authorities, over whether work on upgrading Hill 16 should begin prior to the building of phase two is however, complicating matters.