Munster Hurling Final Venue Debate

MrJoeSoap

I've spent the evening watching hurling documentaries, finishing up just now with the Passion Plays: History of Munster Hurling 1994-2004. The general consensus reached on this DVD (DJ Carey, Anthony Daly and more), which I have to say is entirely reflective of my own opinion, is that Thurles should be the permanent home of the Munster Hurling Final.

Personally, I don't believe for one moment that Thurles holds any significant advantage for Tipp against any other county in the province, and that token gestures of holding the Waterford v Tipp games in Pairc Ui Chaoimh in the past two years to avoid any home advantage have taken away from the spectacle and the potential attendances and atmospheres at these games. Since 2008 the usually high Munster Final attendance has dropped off somewhat from in or around 50k to just 26k this year, which can no doubt be attributed to the downturn in the economy to a certain extent, but nonetheless it is far lower than acceptable. Even through the "difficult" 1980's it averaged over 40k.

What do people think about the future of the Munster Final, should it be rotated from Semple Stadium to Pairc Ui Chaoimh to the Gaelic Grounds as before, or is permanently staging it in Thurles the way to go?

MJS

premierstone

Agree with your own view Joe, it should absolutely be in Semple Stadium exclusively, I dont think any of the other counties have ever complained that Tipp have a 'hurling' advantage in Thurles, lets be honest they all love the place, and as my late granfather used to tell me regularly, ''if you can't hurl in Thurles, well you can't hurl''

The only resistance and objection to this would be from a financial perspective, so really it should be in Thurles but with the Munster Council running the gig rather that the Tipp county Board, all revenue then is divided equally between the 5 counties, with maybe perhaps a bit extra to hte participating counties.

I'm sure Waterford and Clare would be fully supportive of this as things stand they cant really even hold a Munster Championship match let alone a final, so at least this way they would be loosing out finacially. Frank Murphy and comrades will resist and insist that they will have a super dooper stadium ready by 2014 :rolleyes:, my fcukin knees are still creaking from the Munster Final. Limerick probably wouldnt be overjoyed either as they have spent a lot of money on a stadium that has never been filled and never will by the looks of it.

deisedude

I voted Limerick and Thurles as both are nice stadiums. Pairc Ui Craphole on the other hand should be burned to the ground. The tunnels in the uncovered stand before the Munster final were a serious safety hazard and the blatant disregard shown by the Munster council in picking Cork as the venue despite the obvious safety and health hazards it represented was deplorable. Neither county board or sets of fans wanted the game there either.

I agree totally with premierstone regards the distribution of funds. How are Clare and Waterford supposed to compete long-term with the other counties given the current system?

Syferus

The cries of competitive advantage would start to ring very clear if Thurles was made the permanent home of the final. You only need to look towards Dublin to see the script that course of action will follow.

deisedude

Syferus wrote: »

The cries of competitive advantage would start to ring very clear if Thurles was made the permanent home of the final. You only need to look towards Dublin to see the script that course of action will follow.

Sure you will have a few fools say that but every county plays so many games there anyway that the advantage Tipp get from playing there is minimal if any. If it was such a huge advantage to Dublin playing in Croker surely they wouldn't have had to wait 16 years between All Ireland wins.

ReacherCreature

Seems that Waterford, Kerry, Clare are obviously out of contention. I picked Gaelic Grounds and Thurles on rotation but I agree with holding it in Thurles too. By what I read on Boards, PuC seems a nightmare to be in but haven't been there myself.

Thurles and Gaelic Grounds seem very similar to me and I haven't had a bad time there.

The recent Munster Championship was a bit of a debacle. Dragging Tipp/WD fans down made little sense when Thurles was the ideal option both geographically and in plain 'handy' terms. Moreso the Waterford players were fine with playing there as were Tipperary. What the players want should be a focal point but inter-bureaucratic politicking might have a lot to do with decision making.