'Disappointment' as Cork football clubs denied stand tickets for hurlers' Munster final
A Cork football club has expressed disappointment that they and all other football units in the county have been denied stand tickets to the Munster hurling final by the Cork County Board.
Earlier this week, the Cork County Board notified clubs of the ticket allocation breakdown for the provincial decider against Limerick at TUS Gaelic Grounds on June 7th.
Allocations were determined by a club's adult grading, with Premier Senior and Senior A hurling clubs each receiving 10 stand and 50 terrace tickets. Premier Intermediate, Intermediate A, and Premier Junior hurling clubs were given eight stand and 40 terrace tickets, Junior A units afforded six stand and 30 terrace, with Junior B/C clubs receiving two stand and 16 terrace tickets.
While football affiliations were also catered for, no stand tickets were made available to football-only clubs. Senior football clubs received 40 terrace tickets, 30 for all intermediate grades and Premier Junior, 16 for Junior A clubs, and eight for Junior B/C.
St Nick's football club, sister club to Glen Rovers and with whom the Downey brothers, Rob and Eoin, play football, have questioned where Cork's entire stand allocation has gone given not one stand ticket could be spared for a football club.
'We'd just be disappointed with it more than anything else,' said St Nick's chairman Robert Brosnan.
'We just don't think there's any need to distinguish between the codes. There's enough people do that already without any good ground for it. Hurling is obviously No 1 in Cork, it is a sad state of affairs when the county board is backing that up.
'Even for an All-Ireland final, whether your county is involved or not, every club in the country receives two stand tickets. Our county is in the Munster final and we are not getting a stand ticket, not one.'
St Nick's are further puzzled by football clubs being left out in the cold for the round-robin fixture between the counties at the same venue as the Munster final, they were allocated 20 stand tickets, and this for a game where a section of tickets were put up for public sale.
'When Cork and Limerick met in the round-robin, we got 20 stand and 26 terrace tickets. So this club is wondering where all the stand tickets are gone? Because even the hurling clubs aren't getting a big allocation.
'Castlehaven, for whom the Cahalanes play football, have no hurling club attached to them, so they've no access to stand tickets.
'We might get some more tickets if other clubs don't take their full allocation, but given what we've seen so far, you don't see them giving stand tickets to football clubs. If there is a reallocation of tickets, you'd expect them to go to hurling clubs again rather than football clubs.'
Following a query by the Irish Examiner, Cork GAA CEO Kevin O'Donovan said that due to demand, priority had to be given to hurling clubs over their football equivalents.
'Due to a far higher demand for this game than has been experienced previously, and given the broad range of members that the Board has to cater for, priority on this occasion had to be given to hurling clubs over football clubs,' he told the Irish Examiner.
'It is hoped that more terrace tickets may become available to clubs next week.
'Obviously, we are thrilled with the levels of interest that our senior hurlers are generating currently and regret that we simply can't cater for all requests.'
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