It has been 19 years since Cork last claimed an All-Ireland senior hurling title, and fans of the Rebel County are hungrier than ever to be in Croke Park to potentially see their team lift the Liam MacCarthy Cup.
There will be plenty of prayers ahead of Sunday’s clash with Clare, but Michael Hegarty, chairman of Fr O’Neills in Ladysbridge, home to Cork players Declan Dalton and Ger Millerick, said a “loaves and fishes job” would be needed to satisfy the demand from fans on the back of the allocation from GAA headquarters.
“I’ve never seen anything like the demand for tickets this time and there is no way as a club we will be able to satisfy everyone,” he said. “The allocation of tickets to Cork with its population and clubs is ludicrous.”
Under the Cork County Board ticket allocation scheme for the county’s 259 clubs, senior clubs get 26 stand tickets and 16 for the terraces, intermediate and premier junior clubs get 22 stand and 12 terrace tickets while junior clubs can get up to 16 stand and 10 terrace tickets.
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Mick Finn, a former lord mayor of Cork and member of St Finbarr’s National Hurling & Football Club, said he had never seen interest so high ahead of a Cork game. He said “any club with players on the panel get 20 tickets extra per player, but the demand is far outstripping supply for us and we just don’t have enough for all the club members”.
“They are saying Cork people are so resourceful in sourcing tickets and that they will go all over the country and all over the world, but they are just not coming back this time as freely as they would have before. Calls to Kilkenny and Limerick are not yielding tickets the way they used to,” he said.
Mr Finn said one possible factor behind the increased demand is the fact there is a younger cohort of Cork fans going to games now who have never seen Cork win an All-Ireland hurling title.
“A real bond was forged between the fans and this team when they beat Limerick in Páirc Uí Chaoimh in June in such dramatic fashion, and thousands spilled on to the pitch after the game and the players stayed with them for an hour and that’s showing in the demand for tickets.”
Cork GAA, working with Cork City Council, came up with the idea of creating a fanzone in Páirc Uí Chaoimh for fans who cannot get tickets Croke Park, but the 15,000 passes for the stadium were snapped up in just 45 minutes.
Ger Coughlan, chairman of Blackrock, whose Alan Connolly has been in scintillating form for the county team, said the clamour for tickets has been “phenomenal” as it seeks to cater for members hoping to see Cork bridge the 19-year gap.
“I’ve never seen anything like this. In previous years when Cork reached an All-Ireland, we would usually have about 300 requests for tickets, this year we’ve had 600. I have no doubt Cork fans would fill Croke Park on their own if they could get the tickets.”
In Blarney, which has Mark Coleman, Shane Barrett and Padraig Power on the county panel, club stalwart David Coleman has been thinking outside the box in an attempt to get tickets for the game.
“I’ve been on to the States because I lived and worked in Boston for years, but tickets are like gold dust over there too. I’ve never seen this level of demand before, but I’ve always managed to get tickets before so I’m still hopeful,” he said.
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