A TIMELY LIFT
Removal of restrictions to allow modest attendances
AS the nation finds out today how to live with Covid, the GAA will discover how it plays under the cloud of the pandemic.
Expectations have been raised that reduced capacities will be in place for elite sporting events, with reports that up to 5,000 people will be facilitated in major stadiums such as Croke Park and Aviva Stadium.
Croke Park sources yesterday insisted they had not been advised of such a significant relaxation of rules. However, the joint statement they issued along with the FAI and IRFU on Friday confirming that the three biggest sporting organisations had met ‘to discuss a collaborative approach to the development of a submission to Government on a roadmap for the safe return of supporters to stadia’, would suggest that there is substance to the speculation.
As ever, staying true to the evolving nature of the crisis within Government hands, the only certainty is the continuing uncertainty.
In the short term, the GAA club game will receive a boost when the capacity for club games will go from zero to 500 in stadiums with a minimum capacity of 5,000.
That relaxation will come far too late to minimise the financial consequences for county boards up and down the country, many of whom are bracing themselves for losses of close to €500,000 this year.
Nevertheless, it will be timely with the majority of county finals taking place over the next fortnight and will ensure that those showpiece games won’t take place in ghostly empty stadia while also offering some modest gate receipts.
It is likely, in regular club venues, the limit of 200 people inside the ground will be reinstated.
If there is a move, and it is understood that pressure is being applied by some members of the cabinet, to allow for attendances up to 5,000 in the likes of Croke Park and Aviva Stadium, it is believed that, as of last night, details on how that could be achieved had not been finalised.
The reopening of sport, and particularly the GAA, has created simmering discontent with regards to the arbitrary manner in which it was handled, especially the limit of 200 spectators.
Such displeasure was accentuated by the fact that in the North, up to 400 people were allowed to attend games, but, equally, it grated that ground capacities and local infection rates were not taken into account to gauge risk levels.
Today’s announcement will go some way to ironing out that grievance, given that it is based on a five-level national plan that will see to evaluate risk on a localised basis and therefore allow for the imposition of restrictions on a regionalised basis.
Central to the feasibility for the GAA to introduce reduced capacities is that the principle would be extended to provincial GAA stadiums which will facilitate four-figure attendances, with individual capacities based on Covid-19 safety assessments.
The likes of Páirc Uí Chaoimh, Limerick’s Gaelic Grounds, Semple Stadium, MacHale Park, Nowlan Park, Breffni Park and Clones would all expect to be in a position where they would be assessed to hold games that will allow for numbers far greater than 500 to attend inter-county games.
If that were to happen, then it would provide the GAA with a number of regional stadia where they can play the bulk of this winter’s Championship games, ensuring a modest revenue stream from gate receipts as well as a slightly improved atmosphere.
Any move to allow for significant attendances for Croke Park only would signal the continuation of arbitrary restrictions that have undermined trust in how the Government has gone about reopening sport.
And it would also create a headache for Croke Park as the attendances involved would be so small that any revenue generated would be absorbed in the significant costs involved in opening the stadium for a match day.
Neither would it provide an incentive to move major provincial games – such as the headline Donegal-Tyrone clash in the Ulster SFC and a potential Galway-Mayo Connacht SFC final – to headquarters.
Not only would moving those games fail to generate revenue, but it would place additional costs and logistical challenges which would go against the GAA’s decision only to accommodate overnight stays for teams that are travelling a distance of at least 130 miles.
For all those reasons, any relaxation of reduced capacity guidelines would have to extend to provincial venues, otherwise the exclusive reopening of Croke Park for attendances would become more of a headache than it is worth.
Above all, Dublin’s vulnerability to spikes in infection because of its population density – which is likely to mean some restrictions imposed in the coming days – is not going to go away any time soon, which would place further questions on the wisdom of legislating for increased spectators exclusively in Croke Park.
An ever-evolving situation could even allow for a winter All-Ireland final to be played elsewhere.
“Uncertainty remains the only certainty”
“The 200 limit is expected to be reinstated”