Dwindling attendances must force GAA to seek tourist trade

ONE thing that cannot be ignored is the odd atmosphere and reduced crowds for the weekend’s All-Ireland football semi-f inals.

There was a sense that af ter the f irst year of the new system played itself out, the GA A would need to take a serious review of things, and this is an area they must target.

A crowd of 49,496 attended Tyrone and Monaghan on Sunday and 54,7 16 at Dublin- Galway on Saturday can be seen in no other context than utterly disappointing.

Especially when you consider that in ever y year since 2002 and the re- opening of Croke Park, a semi-f i- nal involving Dublin has attracted over 80,000.

However, the laws of unintended consequences was always going to apply to the Super8s.

Rather than attend a drab semi-f inal win over Galway, how much more attractive was it to Dublin fans to save their money for an overnight stay in Omagh af ter the Tyrone game?

This was Tyrone’s ninth Championship game in 12 weeks, with away games in Carlow, Portlaoise, Croke Park (Roscommon), Meath, Brewster Park (Cavan) and Ballybofey for Donegal.

All in, Tyrone have clocked up 1,449 kilometres on the road this year.

Monaghan is one of the lowest populated counties in Ireland. And their diesel costs have been even more severe as the total kilometres was 1,893 before last weekend due to trips to Omagh (Ulster semi-f inal), Leitrim, Waterford, Laois, Croke Park (Kildare) and Galway.

If the GA A can no longer rely on the traditional support from either county to f ill their stadiums, then it is time for them to f inally engage with the tourism sector and sell Croke Park as something for tourists to tick off the list.

On the shelf here beside me is a book entitled ‘Ireland’s Professional Amateurs’, written by Andy Mendlowitz.

It’s a charming year of Gaelic games as seen through the eyes of somebody who simply happened upon a Clare v Kilkenny hurling game when the American sportsmad dork landed in Dublin during a spell of travelling Europe.

What struck him was that the sports were vir tually hidden from sight. No pamphlets in the guest houses, no billboards in the cit y advertising an upcoming game and ticket availability.

It’s time this was taken in hand by the GA A themselves.

Room for improvement: Empty seats at Saturday’s semi-final