Talk of €2m profit for Leinster 'off mark'

The 40-year peak attendance of 78,033 at Croke Park on Sunday won't necessarily produce a bumper season for the Leinster Council. Estimates putting the Dublin-Kildare take at €2 million are, according to Leinster chairman Nicky Brennan, way off the mark.

Yet with Dublin set to guarantee a full house at Croke Park for as long as they remain in the championship, the GAA as a whole will benefit from the county's revival.

"We did have two fanatical counties involved on Sunday," said Brennan, "and there's no denying that it was an exceptional attendance. But for some people to say that its worth €2 million to the Leinster Council is a gross exaggeration.

"It's not just a case of taking a figure of 78,000 and multiplying it by say €25. The final figure wouldn't be anything like that. There would be at least 10,000 family tickets given out, where the parents paid the full price but the kids only €5. There would also have been at least 5,000 children who came in for nothing. Plus the Hill holds around 9,500, and there were pensioner tickets too.

"Then there are the substantial costs involved before you get down to your net figure. Croke Park get their percentage of the gate but we have to pay for security, for Gardai, for cleaning, and a host of other services that have to paid on the day and come out of the gate pool.

"I wouldn't have any idea of the costs yet, and I appreciate that the €2 million figure is a good headline, but it really doesn't even begin to consider the costs of a big occasion like that."

Though it was the largest attendance since the 87,106 for the 1963 All-Ireland between Dublin and Galway, Brennan says this season has produced lower average attendance figures for the Leinster championship due to redevelopment work at Croke Park.

"From the start we were at a distinct disadvantage this year by not having Croke Park available until our last three matches. We had to use some provincial venues that we wouldn't have considered before, and like a lot of other provinces we had to compete against the World Cup as well.

"I can say for certain our gates were down considerably before we got to Croke Park. I mean you always get a few thousand more in Croke Park just because it's in Dublin, with a surrounding population of 1.3 million.

"Large audiences come in anyway irrespective of the counties involved, because there are natives of the other 31 counties in Dublin. So by not being at Croke Park for a number of weeks we were at a distinct disadvantage.

"And Meath against Dublin was also a little exceptional (with 65,896). Of course taking those two games in isolation would give people a very exaggerated view of how the year has gone. But our hurling final was down about 8,000 on last year, and our hurling semi-finals were down about 25,000 on last year."

Next year Brennan expects the Leinster Council will again take a hit because of the Special Olympics at Croke Park, ruling out two of the Sundays: "But I don't want to give the impression of being a poor house either. We are delighted at what has happened with the last few matches, and we have put down significant amounts of money to spend in certain areas this year.

"I'm hopeful now that the gate receipts that we'll get this year will mean we're able to fulfil all our obligations to the counties this year in terms of grants and coaching developments and all these areas.

"But the Leinster Council is not about accumulating huge amounts of money. If we get money in then we ultimately get it all out again."