COUNTING COST OF COVID
Attendance limits will make grim reading in end-of-year accounts
SOME of the numbers in the fallout from this week’s decision to restrict attendance at GAA games for the next four weeks will be counted more easily than others.
Clubs have been advised to use a counter to track how many are coming through their gates ahead of tonight’s opening for competitive fixtures, the first time games will be played in five months.
Some, like Wexford, whose senior hurling championship throws in tonight, hadn’t factored in that an early start would see them restricted to an attendance of 200. The majority held off until next weekend when that number was supposed to be 500.
Now it turns out everyone is starting from the same point, with the 200 restriction in place until at least August 10. Most are likely to find that instead of needing a counting machine to keep track of spectators, the fingers on their hands might do the job.
‘The impact this decision will have is huge. Clubs would actually be better off playing behind closed doors than the current situation of letting just 200 people inside their gates,’ Tipperary chairman John Devane told
Sportsmail yesterday. When the playing quads, backroom teams, club officials, match officials, stewards and media are all taken out of the 200 allowed, there will be precious room left in stands and grassy banks to watch as the action unfolds.
‘We have estimated that when you take all those who are actively involved out of it, there could as few as 30 tickets each for sale to get into a game,’ added Devane.
When it comes to the club game, access has never been an issue. The idea that a gate could be slammed in the face of the public used to be beyond comprehension but is now almost a reality.
The Tipperary senior hurling championship starts next weekend and right from the start date, there are games that will tease public interest — such as the meeting of Thurles Sarsfields and Kulruane MacDonaghs in Holy Cross, two of the front-runners for the county title.
With the throw-in times spread out to ensure minimal overlap, Devane, by way of a rough mental calculation, reckons in normal circumstances there would be 800plus people inside the gates.
‘Straight away you are cutting out 600 people and that’s something that we are not used to as an association,’ he said.
‘That is going to be very difficult for people who love going to see their club and, in many ways, it goes against everything we stand for, especially that link between community and their clubs.
‘From a morale and mental health point of view, I think it is very important that people have something to look forward to and if this is taken away now, it can be very, very difficult for them.’
The GAA’s hope is that, especially with the likelihood of infection rates climbing in the weeks ahead, the Government will take a more nuanced approach rather than policing outside gatherings with an arbitrary figure.
This week, Wexford’s appeal for capacities to be dictated by circumstances, such as the infection rate in the locality and the ability to cater for a pod-based system that would allow increased numbers in larger venues, fell on deaf ears. It made sense to many in the GAA.
‘We are using Semple Stadium next weekend for four games at four different times. They are not double-headers; they are twohour gaps between games and there will be no dressing rooms in operation which I think would be a great idea because that removes a lot of the pressure points.
‘It is a 50,000 capacity stadium. You could easily spread out people so we could comfortably distance spectators. But then there are only so many games we can play there as well.
‘There is a lot of merit in what Wexford were proposing, especially in counties with lower infection rates and it would make a big difference.
‘If we were even allowed 500 for next weekend, we could have coped up to a point but just allowing for 200 is effectively playing games behind closed doors and no one wants to see that,’ says Devane.
There are other numbers that are harder to get a grip on, such as the date the restrictions will be relaxed, or just what percentage of a restricted capacity will be acceptable in larger stadiums and, of course, what will be the ugly bottom line on the end-ofyear accounts.
And it is not just counties that are looking nervously at that, so is Croke Park. The GAA recently revised downwards president John Horan’s suggestion earlier this summer that Croke Park could accommodate 21,000 under the two-metre rule and 42,000 under the one-metre rule.
The GAA’s commercial director and stadium manager Peter McKenna was more measured in his numbers yesterday.
‘At two metres distancing we are probably at around 7,000 capacity within the stadium. That is very, very small really.
‘At one metre we are probably at around 22,000 and if we are allowed a degree of brush off — by which I mean people walking by each other in the same row — we
“Impact of these limits will be huge for clubs”
could probably get up to 28,000. You’d be hopeful that come October we might be allowed 30 per cent or 40 per cent capacity in the stadium. But it is very much dependent on where NPHET sees our progress as a nation,’ McKenna told RTÉ radio’s Today with Sarah McInerney.
And it could well be that, should the crisis deepen in winter, there may be no need to count at all.
‘The preference would be to not have the Championship behind closed doors, but we will if necessary. It would be the last resort,’ added McKenna.
Already, though, the sums are being calculated at county board level and Devane is not looking forward to receiving the answer.
‘We are facing, as is the GAA as a whole, a disastrous year in terms of our finances.
‘In a regular year, we would take in something over €400,000, up to €500,000. I would say that if we take €100,000 this year we will be doing very well. It could be even half that.’
And the consequences of that will last longer than the counting.