AS THE scramble for All-Ireland final tickets intensifies, supporters of Kerry and Dublin are being forced to think outside the box to secure their place in Croke Park this Sunday.
With prices for the eagerly-anticipated decider enough to make the eyes water – some tickets have been changing hands on the internet for as much as €800 – one avenue fans may wish to explore is a golf classic being hosted by Kerry Supporters’ Club on Friday.
The event, which will help raise finances for the players’ training fund in the Kingdom, is inviting entries for teams of four at €600, but fans have the option of upgrading their package to include a pair of match tickets for an extra €160.
At €760, it might not be considered cheap but – given some of the alternatives – is an absolute steal. And that’s before you take the golf itself into account.
As of yesterday evening, some 20 teams with tickets had yet to be filled.
The online trade in tickets remains brisk, with a pair of premium level seats increasing by over €200 within the space of five minutes on e-Bay yesterday afternoon before eventually going for €1,060.
Despite the prohibitive cost, enough to make most genuine supporters wince, that may even be considered a bargain with similar tickets being sold for €1,600 on needaticket.ie The GAA has warned supporters choosing to part with big money online that they risk being turned away at the gate as the association seeks to crack down on black-market sales.
With many vendors posting images of their tickets on sites such as e-Bay, the GAA is able to track the tickets and may choose to cancel and re-issue them, as the association has done in the past with lost or stolen tickets.
“Any case that has been brought to our attention has been passed on to the ticket department for investigation,” explained GAA spokesman Alan Milton.
“Surprisingly, this year there has been a level of detail on some of the tickets that have been posted up, which we don’t normally get, that would suggest that certain people are engaging in this practice that may not have experience of it in the past.
“Once that level of detail goes up, the ticket department can look and see who that ticket was issued to. Tickets can be cancelled after investigation. There is a chance those tickets will not scan . . . that’s the message that we want to get out there, that people shouldn’t be paying over the odds for tickets and we’re actively examining the practice of selling these tickets on the internet.”
Of the 82,300 tickets available, approximately 59,000 have been distributed among the counties with Dublin (18,000) and Kerry (11,000) naturally receiving the lion’s share.
In any other year, the two finalists could expect to benefit from returns from other county boards but given the huge interest in Sunday’s game, few if any of those 30,000 tickets are filtering back to the GAA.
“In the past there would be returns from neutral counties,” added Milton. “There are not going to be very many this year, the interest from neutral supporters has been phenomenal “
Where the tickets go: 2010 breakdown
(Capacity 82,300)
County Allocations: 59,005
Term Tickets: 4,155
Season Tickets: 764 *
Provinces: 385
Overseas: 499
Ard Chomhairle Iar Uachtarain: 905
Camogie: 120
Women’s Football: 150
Rounders Handball: 162
Sponsors: 970
Press: 254
TV Radio: 74
Schools Ed Bodies: 2,229
3rd Level: 278
Croke Park Residents: 250
Match Officials Referees Panel: 108
Health Bodies Irish Sports Council: 70
Match Day/Vertigo/Minor Teams: 200
Staff and Sub-committees: 811
Jubilee Teams: 137
Mini-Sevens: 246
Number available for distribution: 71,772
Premium and Corporate: 10,528
Total: 82,300
* Season tickets have increased to approximately 2,000 this year
