Provincial Club Championship - Venues

Colm R

I sat down yesterday to watch the Sars - Clonlara game on TG4. The Munster Club Quater Final was being played in Pairc Ui Chaoimh in front of a crowd you would expect for such a match, however in the setting, the Pairc did look fairly sparse.

But the whole thing got me thinking. Why was the game played in Pairc Ui Chaoimh. Not sure if its case that Sars were entitled to play in their home county but not in their home venue. But when you think about, all across the country, there are some fantastic venues and clubs have gone to considerable expense to build up some fairly impressive infrastructure. And this does not apply to just Senior Clubs, but many Junior clubs have some fairly impressive facilties now. So why do we not make more use of them and bring these games out to the community, rather than locking them away down the Marina. I'm sure many Clonlara supporters travelled to Cork, but if people only had a passing interest in the game, then travelling to far side of Cork City from Clare might not have been very appealing.

There any number of club grounds across North Cork or Limerick which would have been more than adequate to handle such a fixture. And provided a location is chosen which does not clash with any fixture invloving the local club itself, I think the benefit could be huge. And even bringing such matches to Junior clubs who have the facilties to host games like this would do wonders for such communities. Because not only would you get the travelling supporters, you'd get an entire community out to see quality hurling and football and drive on the interest of the game.

So looking at yesterdays scehdule, the following provicial club games were all held at county grounds:

Sarsfield V Clonlara (Pairc Ui Chaoimh)
Cavan Gaels V St Galls (Casement Park)
Eire Og V Kiltegan (Dr. Cullen Park)
Kimacud Crokes V Cellbridge (Parnell Park)
Ballyhale Shamrocks V Rathdowney/Erril (Nowlan Park)

And in fairness to Ulster, they had a game each on in Coalisland and Ballinascreen.

So the question is:

For the provincal club championship, should the GAA encourage the use of appropriate club grounds, and in particular non senior clubs where appropriate?

homerjay2005

you know what, i was thinking exactly the same yesterday. its madness, surely it would add to games to play in some random club venue that can hold 4,000 or 5,000 and create a cracking atmosphere..

however, i think its the "lure" of the county venues and giving players that may never get the chance to play in a big ground, that is the decisions behind this. i remember when i was 16 we had a chance to play a munster final in the gaelic grounds and it made us train that extra bit harder.

joulter

well it could be for tv reasons as much as capacity. easier to use places already setup for tv...