Tickets for the Waterford Senior Hurling home games against Clare and Limerick will only be available through clubs.
Waterford County Board Chairman Paddy Joe Ryan says they have to do this because of the restricted capacity at Walsh Park.
He says the price of playing the game in Walsh Park, which will give Waterford an advantage of qualifying for the knockout stages, is that the tickets will be distributed
by the board through the clubs.
He says there is a very limited allocation and the clubs have to be looked after.
It's expected the tickets will be divided on a pro rata basis of the levies that the clubs will pay for the re-development of Walsh Park. That has not been fully decided on yet but it looks like every club will have to get an allocation and the bigger clubs will get a bigger allocation than the smaller clubs.
Paddy Joe Ryan has asked the clubs to try and look after people who are regulars going to games. He is advising people to put in their names to clubs.
He says maybe Clare will not use their full allocation and there may be more tickets to distribute in Waterford.
Meanwhile the Irish Examiner reports that the popularity and competitiveness of the Munster SHC should strengthen the GAA’s hand when they negotiate their next round of All-Ireland SHC deals, according to market expert John Trainor.
By far the most televised provincial championship last summer and having attracted almost 250,000 to its 11 matches last year, the 2018 Munster competition also accrued €4.054m in gate receipts.
Because of last year’s attractive Munster SHC format and an improving sponsorship environment, Onside Sponsorship chief Trainor feels the GAA will be able to ask for more when agreements with Bord Gáis, Centra, and Littlewoods Ireland elapse. “It’s definitely growing and you could use different metrics to determine how you would inflate the value already assigned to it,” he says.
“There’s a reasonable argument that, if you base it on media value and eyeballs, it could grow by a double-digit percentage in the next deal.
The increase in the number of provincial games from four to 11 provides sponsors with more bang for their buck, In 2018, GAA recorded a jump of over €560,000 in their sponsorship total from 2017, when it was €3.857m. Last year, Munster GAA received commercial revenue totalling €760,000 (€495,000 for media coverage and €265,000 for sponsorship). In comparison, Leinster GAA picked up €497,857 in media coverage and €350,000 of the associate championship sponsor split.
Tickets go on sale for this year’s Munster SHC tomorrow week. Because of restricted capacity at Walsh Park, tickets for the Déise’s games against Clare and Limerick won’t go on public sale and instead will be available through the counties and clubs only.
By John Fogarty GAA Correspondent Irish Examiner
