Croke Park could have sold out final ‘twice over’

The GAA could have sold out Croke Park twice over for Sunday's All-Ireland final between Donegal and Kerry.

After the hurling final saw tickets returned for general sale in what Alan Milton, the GAA's Head of Media Relations, described as "more of an administrative error, which didn't really reflect a major fall-off in interest" the football decider has generated exceptional demand.

“I can’t quantify this precisely in that I haven’t logged every single request for a ticket,” according to Milton, “but my belief is that we could sell out Croke Park twice over for Sunday.

“There are a number of factors: a) it’s a novel pairing b) the semi-finals were of a such a high standard that there’s big neutral interest and c) the numbers from each county who will travel back to Ireland – both Kerry and Donegal have a very strong overseas presence in the United States particularly but also farther afield.

“Kerry haven’t won for five years and haven’t even been in a final for three. Throw in that Donegal come with a level of expectation after beating Dublin and may start as favourites and you can get an idea of the allure created by this fixture.

“It might surprise people that this is on a par with Mayo and Donegal two years ago, which was the highest demand I’d ever seen for an All-Ireland final.”

For the third year running the hurling final will go to a replay.

Such was the reaction to the Kilkenny-Tipperary drawn encounter that the GAA see a real promotional opportunity. Having cut prices from the drawn match and made children’s tickets available in 2012 for the replay between Kilkenny and Galway Croke Park have had to follow suit in the past two years as well.

“It’s not so much that we have to,” says Milton, “but it’s a good idea and fair recognition for supporters who in many cases have spent a lot during the summer following their county.

“We never banked on a replay. The promotion of hurling is the real winner here. We’ve an extra two weeks of hurling in the shop window, which is fantastic for everybody because the gap between the All-Ireland hurling final and the commencement of the pre-season tournaments is so long and the impact of the exposure hurling gets in the lead-up to an All-Ireland final is difficult to over-estimate.

“They’ve also been excellent games over the past three years so the build-up to the replay is in the context of excitement created by the drawn match.”