Ryan’s Kate expectations
Tubs urges Croker bosses to rethink fee & give star ‘homecoming she deserves’
SANDRA MALLON
ryan Tubridy urged Croke park bosses to reconsider their rent fee for a Katie Taylor fight – and give the boxing hero the “homecoming she deserves”.
He backed calls to see the Bray woman, who is the undisputed lightweight champion, fight Amanda Serrano in a rematch in the Dublin GAA venue on May 20.
Katie’s promoter Eddie Hearn claimed the cost of staging the fight would be three times more than Wembley Stadium – a claim that has been denied by Croke Park’s commercial director Peter
Mckenna who said that was untrue. He told how Croker’s proposed rent fee for hosting the fight was €400,000, which he said compared more favourably to Wembley, which would cost in the region of over €300,000.
But Tubridy said that whatever the row about money is, he believes Croke Park should give a “special dispensation” for Katie – saying she deserves respect.
He told the Irish Mirror: “I think they should make a special dispensation in Croke Park, a patriotic dispensation, to bring Katie Taylor home and give her the homecoming that that woman deserves.
“She deserves a lot more than an overpriced hall, that is a beautiful hall, but she needs the respect she deserves and that is a fight in Croke Park.”
Croke Park’s commercial director Mr Mckenna came out yesterday to deny Hearn’s claims the venue’s rental cost scuppered a potential Taylor deal.
He said: “We looked at the risk analysis on the event and we felt the amount of security that you’d need would be at the top level and that is not inexpensive. So I think maybe there’s a worry there they wouldn’t quite get the attendance and also the costs associated with hosting an event at a certain standard, that we would be very proud that we would hold to, has caused a little bit of
jitters.”