The 2024 All Ireland Senior Football Championship (Sam Maguire Cup)

gaffer91

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122275165#Comment_122275165

Surely attendances per game were not up in 2023? I assume because of the cost of running the stadiums, a higher absolute attendance amount doesn't necessarily mean more profit, especially if it is over a large number of games.

dxhound2005

This discussion would have to explain how the GAA runs thousands of games, and only a very small minority could be making a profit on gate receipts. Semple Stadium hosted Tipperary v Armagh Ladies on Sunday. Fitzgerald Stadium was Kerry v Waterford Ladies. Would they have made a profit?

gaffer91

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122275551#Comment_122275551

I don't know the answer. Do you? I would guess it'd break even but I'm not sure.

But the point is that while the GAA on the whole doesn't have to make lots of money, it's very good for the organisation for the inter-county competition to be as profitable as possible so that they can use the excess funds to invest in clubs across the country (and the GAA is excellent at doing that in fairness). This is partly why the collapse in attendances in the Leinster Championship is so worrying- it's bad in and of itself, but also because of the knock-on effects.

dxhound2005

Attendances have been in decline for probably 20 years. Social change like people not going to pubs is hard to reverse. Even if Meath got a bit good again, the Dubs might still stay at home.

https://www.independent.ie/sport/gaelic-games/gaelic-football/revealed-the-attendance-figures-for-the-gaa-football-championships-are-a-cause-for-concern/35145508.html

Martin Breheny Thu 20 Oct 2016

Attendances at the All-Ireland football championships are in sharp decline, having dropped by 28pc over the last decade and by 16pc over the last five years. Excluding replays, the total turnout this season was the lowest since 2000, the year before the qualifiers and quarter-finals were introduced.

dunnerc

Mod Edit

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dunnerc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122275132#Comment_122275132

Same with Munster championship

gaffer91

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dunnerc

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Barlett

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122273943#Comment_122273943

why would the team who effectively ‘won’ complain about the referee?

munster87

I see Gaffer v Dunner has made it’s way onto this one too 🤦‍♂️

jack67

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122276753#Comment_122276753

Well in fairness Gaffer made it on here first , and its quite obvious what he is up to again 😏

irishgeo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122273943#Comment_122273943

Plenty of whining from the dubs on the Facebook page I read.

They were whining about the 45,RODs free and a penalty they should have got. They reckon Mayo got all the decisions to get them ahead.

So pull your head of the sand.

The Golden Miller

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122271031#Comment_122271031

If nothing else, he'd bring motivation, organisation and intensity to Meath. If he even brought that, they could at least build from there.

Meath desperately need a spark, something, anything, to kick life into a dead horse!

The Golden Miller

It's because their was a media witch-hunt against him and Tyrone for ruining football, laced with anti northern sentiment. Kerry couldn't beat Tyrone, and everyone cried in the media.

That Tyrone team, never gets the credit they deserve. This modern Dublin team, never faced anything like them. Harte a great manager.

Edit, it's scandalous how the media got away with alot of the anti northern stuff they did in the mid 00s.

theoneeyedman

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122277012#Comment_122277012

You're right up to a point, but there would be a lot of anti-tyrone/anti-harte stuff among the northerners too.

I couldn't below T the abuse northern supporters would throw at fellow northern teams in Croke part on the noughties, even at the underage teams. Derry/Tyrone seemed the worst, so was surprised to see Mickey go to Derry.

Mickey in particular seems very unlike in RTE circles, and it's reciprocated too. I dunno if it's related to his religious beliefs or what, buy it's strange the low regard in which he's held - like Cavanagh in particular is given free reign every week to just cut Harte to shreds with no rebuke or no balance. Shouldn't be able to live out personal grudges like this IMHO

Neddyusa

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122277236#Comment_122277236

I presume you heard the "Pretty Little Girl from Omagh" skit and fallout:

Harte was totally right to boycott RTE after that. That was real scumbag behaviour, mocking a man for loosing his daughter to an horrific murder!

RTE seemed bitter that he didn't forgive them for that and like you say, have taken full advantage of any chance to throw dirt at him since.

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/rte-accused-of-insulting-michaela-harte-s-memory-1.590684

Charles Babbage

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122275551#Comment_122275551

It is slightly off topic, but I do not understand why the Ladies do not offset their season somewhat. When the men's final was moved to July they just followed, if they had left their final in Sept then they could have had their big games after the crowded part of the season, this would have meant bigger attendances and more media attention.

crusd

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122275551#Comment_122275551

Most of these matches would be manned by almost all volunteers. What would the costs be?

C__MC

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122277883#Comment_122277883

One thing that always surprised me in recent times was the sugre in attendance for ladies final day Re football but camogie never hit the same heights (or at least i think)

theoneeyedman

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122278140#Comment_122278140

There are lots of reasons for the big attendance, central among them is the compolsary buying of tickets by clubs (clubs are forced to block buy tickets/are levied the cost of the tickets whether people attend or not).

Football is just bigger, hurling and by extension comoige is only taken seriously in how many, 6,7,8 counties? Both the LGFA and the Comoige organization are years behind the GAA in terms of development of both players and structures - in my experience there are too many parents involved in LGFA who are only interested in small minded stuff like pushing little Mary on to her team rather than developing the overall game for all girls, but that's might be just my experience.

There are some excellent people and players involved in Ladies Football (have no exposure to comoige) but they are up against it.

GBXI

As someone already mentioned, the biggest factor in attendances is competitive games.

Hurling has figured this out (ironically because they were scared of the success of the football Super 8s system) they now have two groups of 5 teams that are mostly very evenly matched. And to keep the dinosaurs happy they have called them the 'Leinster' and Munster championships, even though Leinster has teams from Ulster and Connacht in it! It has been a resounding success for hurling attendances.

Football should do the same. Have two groups of 5. Put Dublin and Kerry into Connacht to make it Dublin, Kerry, Galway, Mayo, and Roscommon. The other 'group' being the Ulster championship consisting of Donegal, Tyrone, Derry, Armagh, and Monaghan. Home and away games until the semi finals and just watch the attendances soar.

You'd have promotion and relegation, like hurling does, from Tailteann to Maguire championships, so the likes of Monaghan and Ross could be swapped for Cork/Meath/Kildare/Cavan/Down at any given year.

Always_Running

Looking at the preliminary games, last year we got three of the four games that was evenly matched games decided late on Hopefully the same this weekend.

Cork v Louth. Cork win will mean their 3rd All Ireland Quarter final in a row while this is probably Louth's biggest match since the 2010 Leinster final and shame they don't have a home ground big enough to host it.

Mayo v Derry. Only once since 2011 have Mayo not reached the last 8 which was against Kildare the Newbridge or nowhere saga. Derry from back to back Semi final appearances to not reaching the last 8 will be a big slide and probably the end of Mickey Harte after one year.

Galway v Monaghan this time last year Galway after winning Connacht got knocked out at the last 12 stage at home, could history repeat itself? Monaghan semi finalists last year and it will cement a poor year for them if they get knocked out this soon when you add in league relegation for the first time in a decade

Tyrone v Roscommon opportunistic All Ireland won in 2021 since then Tyrone probably ranked about 7th,8th so should win here and probably go no further. Roscommon reached the last 8 for three years in a row 2017,2018,2019 lose this match and they'll likely be seeking another new manager.

tritium

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122275588#Comment_122275588

I think it would be very dangerous to focus on or rely on the Leinster championship as the vehicle to fill the GAAs coffers. The attendances in the Munster football championship for example received heavy criticism over a number of years, as the lack of a meaningful competition there turned fans off of attending, and that has to impact on the GAA coffers. In reality it’s not realistic to rely on filling Croke Park to mask those problems, since essentially you’re relying on Leinster to subsidise the rest rather than fixing the reasons for poor attendance elsewhere, ideally by either restructuring the provincials to be competitive (possibly along the lines what hurling did with counties being co-opted) or doing away with them and recognising that there are clear tiers in terms of where teams sit in the pecking order.

In addition it promotes a lazy view of investing in infrastructure in Leinster, where stadia capacity overall is poor compared to other provinces.

gaffer91

Mod Edit

Warning issued.

gaffer91

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122283484#Comment_122283484

You honestly think they'd get rid of Harte after a year? They've been poor in the Championship, for sure, but winning the League is still respectable and losing to Mayo is also nothing to be ashamed of.

gaffer91

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122283082#Comment_122283082

It's not just competitiveness of games though, is it? Otherwise the NFL would be better attended than the All-Ireland. It's a factor, but not necessarily the biggest one.

Always_Running

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122283898#Comment_122283898

Strong possibility yes. All is not well in that camp regardless what certain Derry players say to the media. Their slide happened with their overseas training trip to Portugal, Harte didn't go on that trip as he was against overseas training when Tyrone manager.

tritium

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122283889#Comment_122283889

Ok it’s Wikipedia as a source, which is also why the breakdowns a little different by province but it’s pretty obvious that attendances elsewhere most certainly aren’t dragging up the average as you claim….

Munster 2023

Total attendance 28158

Average attendance 5632

Highest attendance (final) 12499

Population (2022) 1.373 million

Connacht football championship 2023

Final: 11967

Semi final 16917 and 5667 attendees respectively (the latter involved New York which would understandably would drop numbers)

Population (2022) 591k

Ulster football championship 2023

Total attendance 112615

Average attendance 14077

Highest attendance (final) 29000

Population (2022) 2.195 million

Leinster football championship

Final 40115

Semi finals 30499 

Population (2022); 2.876 million

You don’t need to be a math guru to see that the level of interest in Leinster isn’t the problem there. Though perhaps overly healthy figures in the past been allowed us to gloss over the bigger picture.

gaffer91

Mod Edit

Warning issued.

legendary.xix

Monaghan and Roscommon are coming in under the radar. Both are still capable of causing upsets. Saturday could be an interesting evening.