Hard work pays off as GAA attendances hold up in recession

The GAA realised when the recession hit that it would face a significant challenge to maintain attendance figures. According its director general Páraic Duffy, crowds have steadied and the association is also seeing the benefit of having to reassess its promotional and marketing strategies.

“We have worked really hard at this in recent years. The onset of the recession was challenging for us. One of our core support bases, young followers of the games, was emigrating in significant numbers. We had to re-evaluate what we were doing. I’d say looking back that attendance figures have held up pretty well during that time.”

For this championship the projections are for a small rise in the underlying attendance figures (replays aren’t counted and the All-Ireland hurling final draws of recent years have boosted attendance figures).

Global figure

With just three scheduled matches left in the 2015 All-Irelands, the global figure is expected to come in at 1,345,544.

The total is in line with recent years and although a long way from the heyday of championship attendances when the redeveloped Croke Park had just opened and the economy was booming – between 2003 and ’05, figures touched two million – it represents a steady performance.

That has had to be worked for, according to Duffy.

“Every year the four provinces come to Croke Park to talk about marketing the provincial championships and what initiatives they intend taking to build up attendances.”

Ulster have been particularly successful and have recorded a fifth successive yearly increase this year and Munster was also up, whereas there were slight falls in Leinster and Connacht.

It can be difficult to compare totals year on year, as the annual draw and the pairings it throws up can have a huge impact on the appeal of fixtures. The emergence of new contenders, like Clare in hurling two years ago, can stimulate growth in attendances.

The GAA has a number of advantages when selling its games. Apart from for the very big matches, there is nearly always spare capacity at venues, whereas developments such as online sales and high-street outlets have made tickets more accessible than ever before.

Increasingly the GAA has designed discount packages in order to maximise attendances even at the cost of reduced revenue. Emma Tormey of the Croke Park ticket office runs through the sort of offers that are usually available.

Juvenile group

“Juveniles can attend up to the All-Ireland semi-finals for €5,” she says, “and throughout the league and some early championship fixtures there is often no charge at all for them. If a club wants to organise 15 people or up to 50, they can attend games for €10. A juvenile group can attend for €3 each and for every 10 children one adult can accompany them for free.

"This Sunday there will be about 10,000 who have availed of a package. Two weeks ago for the hurling semi-final between Tipperary and Galway, 12,000 made use of the club promotional package."

Centra and SuperValu are among the six sponsors of the football and hurling championships and their retail presence has provided a good fit for the distribution of match tickets.

It has been so successful that Gillon McLachlan, CEO of the AFL, has expressed interest in looking at the model for Australian Rules.

Tormey says that demand for Sunday’s match has been huge even by the standards of Dublin’s big matches

“We had to pull tickets off public sale two weeks ago because the demand from the counties was so high. That’s the first time this year that’s happened. We have sold out the last couple of Dublin All-Ireland semi-finals but never as quickly.”

Tickets for All-Ireland semi-finals are cheaper now than in 2008 and at €40 compare favourably with other sports. You’d pay the same amount, for instance, to watch tomorrow’s Ireland-Wales World Cup warm-up match from a seat with restricted viewing. In the past three years the All-Ireland hurling finals have ended in draws and tickets for the replays have been reduced from €80 to €50, with a number of children’s tickets available for €10.

The emphasis on attracting spectators has become policy in the GAA, as Duffy explains.

Strategy

“Absolutely. It’s a strategy based on research in the US, which showed that the habit of attending matches is formed when people are very young. That’s why there are so many offers for children and families. This isn’t something we just picked up anecdotally but it’s what research data is telling us.

“Television is brilliant for marketing a sport but the better the quality of the coverage, the bigger the challenge to get people to leave their houses and attend venues.”

GAA Attendances

2013

Provincial 587,154

All-Ireland 787,517

Total 1,374,671

2014

Provincial 593,303

All-Ireland 733,263

Total 1,326,566

2015

Provincial 620,797

All-Ireland 724,747 *

Total 1,345,544 *

* Projected on basis of full houses for three remaining scheduled matches: Sunday’s Dublin-Mayo football semi-final, which is already sold out and next month’s All-Ireland finals. Replays not included in figures.