Expect to see major changes over the next couple of years in the way the GAA distributes and sells tickets for most inter-county games, predicts An Fear Rua…

We will see a shift away from distributing ‘big match’ tickets through county committees and clubs. Instead, more tickets will be sold through non-GAA commercial channels - for example online, through mobile phones and other types of commercial outlets.

It will be the biggest shake-up in way GAA tickets are distributed since the county-by-county allocation for All Ireland tickets was last revised more than twenty years ago.

The changes envisaged would make tickets more available to a wider ‘non traditional’ public, for example, immigrants who have come to live and work here. In a historic first, the GAA placed an advertisement in the Polish language edition of ‘The Evening Herald’ to promote attendance at the recent AIB club finals in Saint Patrick’s Day. Better and more efficient ways of tracking sales electronically could also make it much easier to reward loyal fans who regularly attend lower profile games by giving them priority for All Ireland semi-finals and finals. In his annual report to Congress, the Director General, Liam Mulvihill, says they ‘will have to introduce loyalty schemes and bundled ticket packages to help genuine supporters as distinct from the ‘event’ people’.

Advances in ticketing technology and the introduction of a fully computerised database of GAA members are opening the door to major changes in the way tickets are marketed. For example, if it’s clear a particular game hasn’t yet been sold out, an email could be sent to GAA members in each competing county offering them tickets for sale with a number of ‘easy-to-purchase’ options.

Basically, now that the GAA has spent tens of millions of euros in building and kitting out fantastic stadiums across the country they need to look seriously at ways of getting a bigger financial payback from them by selling more tickets.

However, Liam Mulvihill won’t be too surprised if there isn’t resistance to the idea from some county officials: ‘Obviously, a County Secretary, especially in the counties close to Dublin, is going to be under pressure for a lot of games. You’re talking about the whole summer long, county officials having to deal with pressure related to tickets. And I’m saying, surely in this day and age we could have a better system and a more efficient system of distributing tickets which would allow the county officials to get on with what they were elected to do. There’s too much of their time taken up in dealing with ticket distribution. Now, they may disagree with me and they may see it as a perk and may want to continue doing it, but I certainly think it merits consideration.’

An tUachtarán, Nickey Brennan, enthusiastically supports the case for major change: ‘What Liam is saying is that we have numerous games in Croke Park or around the country that are not full houses. So, if we can open up new avenues where we can maximise the sale of those tickets through various outlets, it’s our duty to do that. We’re not discommoding anybody from the counties, but he’s quite right. County officers are stretched in some cases and this is a suggestion to them that maybe we can take some of the burden off them… It’s a very timely comment from Liam’.

County officials returning tickets too late is a ‘constant bugbear; says Mulvihill: ‘Some county officials holding on expecting that there’s going to be a big late demand and not wanting to send them back to Croke Park. But by the time they come back a game which we had announced as ‘sold out’ on a Tuesday we suddenly find there are five thousand places or whatever and that can be very embarrassing for everyone and obviously there’s a loss of finance involved.’

There will be a major review of the way tickets are allocated for the All Irelands but it won’t be finished in time to change the system for this year’s finals. The current system was drawn up in the 1980s and the Director General concedes it includes ‘some glaring anomalies’. Devising a fairer system – maybe based on club membership rather than the number of clubs affiliated in a county – will be a major task. In the meantime, Liam Mulvihill suggests some consideration be given to allocating a proportion of All Ireland tickets to people who have a very good attendance record at earlier rounds.

So, the days of stalking and hassling your club or county secretary for precious tickets could soon be a thing of the past. And not a day too soon…

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