While others sold their children for tickets...

johnr1

At about 10 this morning, I was in the lobby of one of Dublin's most upmarket hotels on business. The same business meant that I wouldn't be attending the match.
The crew from a US based airline came in, presumably on stopover. About 10-15 of them approx. Out comes a woman from the hotel with an envelope for each of them, containing a stand ticket for the match. She literally had to explain to them what gaelic football is, and who was playing. I overheard comments like 'well I'm going to bed anyway' as they pondered whether it would be worth going to see or not.

This is very very fcuking wrong imo, and also, what moron thought that it would be a good idea to deny genuine fans of the sport tickets in order to curry favour with sleep deprived americans who clearly didn't give a fcuk.

realweirdo

johnr1 wrote: »

At about 10 this morning, I was in the lobby of one of Dublin's most upmarket hotels on business. The same business meant that I wouldn't be attending the match.
The crew from a US based airline came in, presumably on stopover. About 10-15 of them approx. Out comes a woman from the hotel with an envelope for each of them, containing a stand ticket for the match. She literally had to explain to them what gaelic football is, and who was playing. I overheard comments like 'well I'm going to bed anyway' as they pondered whether it would be worth going to see or not.

This is very very fcuking wrong imo, and also, what moron thought that it would be a good idea to deny genuine fans of the sport tickets in order to curry favour with sleep deprived americans who clearly didn't give a fcuk.

Safely say most people in Croker today were fairweather supporters who only come for All-Ireland final day. Its just another day out on the social calender for some. It's hard to feel any sympathy for those fans when their team loses. You certainly won't see them at the first game in January or even a league game.

W123-80's

If nobody jumped on the bandwagon there would have been approx 3,000 at todays game.
Look at the attendance of the league fixture between the same two sides in McHale Park.

I see your point though.

johnr1

W123-80's wrote: »

If nobody jumped on the bandwagon there would have been approx 3,000 at todays game.
Look at the attendance of the league fixture between the same two sides in McHale Park.

I see your point though.

So because someone doesent have the resources or time to attend all games however meaningless or unimportant then they aren't a genuine fan and are to be regarded as 'fairweather supporters' ??

Despicable attitude.

downonthefarm

who is gonna eat all the prawn sangers

schools rugby

johnr1 wrote: »

So because someone doesent have the resources or time to attend all games however meaningless or unimportant then they aren't a genuine fan and are to be regarded as 'fairweather supporters' ??

Despicable attitude.

The laughable stories iv heard about people not being able to attend any game until quarter final stage of the all ireland. Id go as far as saying about 1/4 of dublins fans havent a clue what the obyrne cup is

Grimebox

I am disgusted by the elitism of people posting here

rebel girl 15

A number of tickets are given out to the sponsors to do what they see fit with them - they got approximately 900 tickets for the final. It happens in every sport that a percentage of the crowd don't know the rules of the sport or anything about the team competing!! Without the support of the sponsors, then things would be much worse. Its one of those things that has to be done unfortunately, just over 1% of the ticket allocation given to sponsors. Are you sure it was stand ticket as opposed to a corporate ticket?

I'd be classed as a fairweather supporter so, since I don't go to many games - in my opinion, fairweather supporters or bandwagon are ones that jump on when the team is doing well, and reach finals. I'd still know nearly all the Cork panels, watch the games when broadcast if I can't get to them, and I'd read the match reports afterwards. If that makes me a fairweather support, since I'm going to the hurling final, then so be it.

realweirdo

I would class a fairweather supporter as one who gets interested in their team when they are in Croke Park or just following the crowd to Croke Park because everyone else is going. I don't want to denigrate them too much and its hard to follow a team who are losing or follow them in the freezing cold in January or February. However if their county was playing in the league on the TV they wouldn't even watch it. They wouldn't watch a provincial championship game or a provincial final. But when their team is in Croke Park and the demand for tickets is huge, they will be the first in the queue. I know I am being elitist but I just wouldn't have much time for them to be honest. In some counties they represent a minority. In other counties they represent the majority.

I wouldn't class you as a fairweather supporter rebel girl, you are more committed than many.

RainyDay

Where would a hotel have gotten 15 match tickets from?

km79

I was sitting in a pretty good seat in the lower hogan yday. The guy beside me was from galway. He cheered for Tyrone in the minor. Refused to clap Mayo minors on their lap of honour. Cheered for Dublin (and I mean CHEERED) in the senior. I can't understand that mentality. To go all the way to Dublin , spend 80 euro on a ticket just to shout against another county. I'm not saying I would cheer on galway(but I also would not shout against them).....I just would not be looking to go and deny a fan from a particpating county a ticket !

rebel girl 15

I got the option to buy two tickets to the hurling, football and hurling replay because of the position I'm in at the moment - normally wouldn't go at all, but gave my tickets to the hurling and the football away to two friends of mine. I'm home for the weekend, so definitely going since I have the tickets and the fact that I'm going to the ladies finals on the Saturday!

A lot of neutrals go to the games - I can't understand the shouting for a different county like that, did he have Dub connections at all, or was it a case of anyone by Mayo??

TommiesTank

OP, did people really sell their children for tickets? No wonder some families have 10 or more kids.

km79

rebel girl 15 wrote: »

I got the option to buy two tickets to the hurling, football and hurling replay because of the position I'm in at the moment - normally wouldn't go at all, but gave my tickets to the hurling and the football away to two friends of mine. I'm home for the weekend, so definitely going since I have the tickets and the fact that I'm going to the ladies finals on the Saturday!

A lot of neutrals go to the games - I can't understand the shouting for a different county like that, did he have Dub connections at all, or was it a case of anyone by Mayo??

No he explained his reasoning to the dub beside him........"sure if Kildare or Meath were playing I'd expect you to be shouting against them "....and that's everyone's own decision to make I suppose.

W123-80's

johnr1 wrote: »

So because someone doesent have the resources or time to attend all games however meaningless or unimportant then they aren't a genuine fan and are to be regarded as 'fairweather supporters' ??

Despicable attitude.

Since when is a league match between Mayo and Dublin meaningless and unimportant?

prospect

How about the Men and Women who can't attend all the seasons games because they are committed to training or supporting club and underage teams?

stooge

It would be interesting to see the attendance of Dublin supporters if Croke park was not in Dublin i.e in Galway, Cork or Limerick. I wonder would they be as comitted to travelling as some of the other counties.

Stabshauptmann

johnr1 wrote: »

So because someone doesent have the resources or time to attend all games however meaningless or unimportant then they aren't a genuine fan and are to be regarded as 'fairweather supporters' ??

Despicable attitude.

However meaningless or unimportant?

tbh anyone who doesnt go to the first match of the championship is a fair weather supporter imo.

imo if you dont go to *any* league matches you're not a true fan.

And I am sick of listening to Dubs whinge about how they are true blue. The stats just dont match up.

McHale Park. Capacity 38000+.

Attendance at the Connacht final ~21000.

There are fair weather fans in every county.

elefant

Deleted User wrote: »

McHale Park. Capacity 38000+.

Attendance at the Connacht final ~21000.

There are fair weather fans in every county.

Maybe slightly skewed by one team facing an 850 mile round trip to the game :P There was probably a bigger crowd at the first round game against Galway.

Speaking of which, I don't personally know of any Galway man who wasn't rooting for Mayo yesterday. Strange about that anecdote about the guy in the crowd shouting for Tyrone/Dublin!

ThunbergsAreGo

schools rugby wrote: »

The laughable stories iv heard about people not being able to attend any game until quarter final stage of the all ireland. Id go as far as saying about 1/4 of dublins fans havent a clue what the obyrne cup is

This annoyed me. Not just Dublin fans, its all counties.

Anyone who couldnt get a ticket for yesterday, buy a season ticket. Its brilliant!

keeponhurling

W123-80's wrote: »

Since when is a league match between Mayo and Dublin meaningless and unimportant?

I used to attend quite a lot of Clare's league games in the hurling, however I went to enough games where neither team involved looked like they gave a sh!t.

Training on the morning of the games, not wanting to "show their hand" etc.
Post match interviews, win lose or draw, always begin with "sure it's only the league....."

Sometimes league and championship does almost seem as though you're watching a different sport

Ace2007

RainyDay wrote: »

Where would a hotel have gotten 15 match tickets from?

Money can buy you anything you want.

elefant

elefant wrote: »

Maybe slightly skewed by one team facing an 850 mile round trip to the game :P There was probably a bigger crowd at the first round game against Galway.

Speaking of which, I don't personally know of any Galway man who wasn't rooting for Mayo yesterday. Strange about that anecdote about the guy in the crowd shouting for Tyrone/Dublin!

LOL I know. Probably not fair. And I know Mayo fans who travel everywhere for a match, but I know Dublin fans who are the same, league games, hurling, club matches.

But Dublin and Dublin fans get a bad rep from the rest of the country and it's undeserved. Driving past my local club in the middle of winter, floodlights on, teams training every evening. Yeah, they're all gurriers. The guys I know who drive down the country to watch Dublin play in a hurling match, gurriers too. The Dublin players who went around visiting the schools with Sam in 2011, gurriers.

I've sat in a Mayo pub when Dublin was playing and the vitriolic hatred spewed against them was pure gurrier behaviour. "The effin see you next Tuesdays from Dublin". Dublin is too large a population and too mixed to have the feel of the county wide support you get in other counties, but in the Dublin GAA scene there are very loyal Dublin fans.

RainyDay

Ace2007 wrote: »

Money can buy you anything you want.

Can you really see a hard-nosed business like a hotel paying top-dollar for such tickets, and then pi$$ing them away by handing them over to people who aren't really that interested and probably aren't the real decision makers that will bring future business to the hotel?

Seems rather unlikely to me.

Ace2007

RainyDay wrote: »

Can you really see a hard-nosed business like a hotel paying top-dollar for such tickets, and then pi$$ing them away by handing them over to people who aren't really that interested and probably aren't the real decision makers that will bring future business to the hotel?

Seems rather unlikely to me.

I'm sure they could claim then as expenses for tax reasons, or they could own a number of premium seats or a box in croke park -

Godge

W123-80's wrote: »

If nobody jumped on the bandwagon there would have been approx 3,000 at todays game.
Look at the attendance of the league fixture between the same two sides in McHale Park.

I see your point though.

http://www.gaa.ie/fixtures-and-results/national-fixtures/allianz-football-league/roinn-1/

It was a Saturday evening in March in Croke Park, not McHale Park.

Think there were a few more than 3,000 there.

Godge

Stabshauptmann wrote: »

However meaningless or unimportant?

tbh anyone who doesnt go to the first match of the championship is a fair weather supporter imo.

imo if you dont go to *any* league matches you're not a true fan.

And I am sick of listening to Dubs whinge about how they are true blue. The stats just dont match up.

As a Dub in Killarney last February, it looked like there were more Dubs than Kerrymen at the match.

The place was completely unprepared for the number of Dublin season ticket holders that travelled down.

RainyDay

Ace2007 wrote: »

I'm sure they could claim then as expenses for tax reasons, or they could own a number of premium seats or a box in croke park -

No, on the expenses question;

http://www.revenue.ie/en/business/running/allowable-expenses.html

What expenses can’t I claim for?

The general rule is that you cannot claim for any private expenses i.e.

Any expense, not wholly and exclusively paid for the purposes of the trade or profession
Any private or domestic expenditure e.g. your own wages, food, clothing (except protective clothing), income tax etc.
Business entertainment expenditure i.e. the provision of accommodation, food, drink or any other form of hospitality.

Yeah, they could possibly have season tickets, but again, that would be a huge cost, thousands of euro per seat. Can a hotel really sustain those costs, x ten or fifteen?

Darkglasses

I imagine they got the tickets due to sponsorship, and receive an allocation because of this. They then dish them out to important clients where possible.

8k2q1gfcz9s5d4

km79 wrote: »

No he explained his reasoning to the dub beside him........"sure if Kildare or Meath were playing I'd expect you to be shouting against them "....and that's everyone's own decision to make I suppose.

lol I used to be like that, when I was around 12 years old.
As a roscommon man, I was shouting for Mayo yesterday. Same in the hurling, im always shouting for Galway.

Warper

People can shout for whoever they want, its a free country. Fascists

Ash.J.Williams

johnr1 wrote: »

At about 10 this morning, I was in the lobby of one of Dublin's most upmarket hotels on business. The same business meant that I wouldn't be attending the match.
The crew from a US based airline came in, presumably on stopover. About 10-15 of them approx. Out comes a woman from the hotel with an envelope for each of them, containing a stand ticket for the match. She literally had to explain to them what gaelic football is, and who was playing. I overheard comments like 'well I'm going to bed anyway' as they pondered whether it would be worth going to see or not.

This is very very fcuking wrong imo, and also, what moron thought that it would be a good idea to deny genuine fans of the sport tickets in order to curry favour with sleep deprived americans who clearly didn't give a fcuk.

There are thousands of tickets earmarked as "corporate" and are purely for business. I grew up in GAA head quarters and absolutely understand the value of AI tickets, and also coincidently worked for a major sponsor later in life and would have to restrain myself from vomiting when the tickets arrive and bandied about to a bunch of no interest wan%ers!!
It's no different to any other big stadium.

Ash.J.Williams

stooge wrote: »

It would be interesting to see the attendance of Dublin supporters if Croke park was not in Dublin i.e in Galway, Cork or Limerick. I wonder would they be as comitted to travelling as some of the other counties.

Dubs travel quite well actually, although always late...

Jimoslimos

johnr1 wrote: »

The crew from a US based airline came in, presumably on stopover. About 10-15 of them approx. Out comes a woman from the hotel with an envelope for each of them, containing a stand ticket for the match. She literally had to explain to them what gaelic football is, and who was playing. I overheard comments like 'well I'm going to bed anyway' as they pondered whether it would be worth going to see or not.

Just as well it wasn't the hurling, can't imagine Etihad would be too pleased :pac:

Tickets given out as corporate freebies are nothing new and as distasteful as many find them they probably play a small but important role in the marketing of GAA and good business relationships with sponsors (both current and potential). Companies then use these freebies in a similar fashion, as goodwill gestures towards staff and business partners - and so the tickets trickle down into the most unlikely of places.

As for fairweather/bandwagon supporters, again nothing new and applicable in all sports, countries and counties. The target isn't to alienate those people (remember they bring in a sizeable amount of money on match-day), but to concentrate on converting a certain percentage of them from 1-2 big matches to regular attendees throughout the year.

Past30Now

Godge wrote: »

http://www.gaa.ie/fixtures-and-results/national-fixtures/allianz-football-league/roinn-1/

It was a Saturday evening in March in Croke Park, not McHale Park.

Think there were a few more than 3,000 there.

There were a lot more than 3,000 in attendance, but a lot fewer than were looking for tickets for this weekend. I have a recollection of it being freezing that evening. I think there was less than 20,000 in attendance.

For the league semi final, when you could argue there was more at stake, there was less than 25,000 in attendance. I'm not giving out about Mayo fans, as I didn't attend either of the league matches in Donegal or Kerry this year, but I do criticise Dublin fans who have been moaning and griping about not getting a ticket, who weren't arsed attending league matches.

There are a tonne of "bandwagon" merchants out there, but the season ticket takes care of those who attend most matches regularly.

johnr1

RainyDay wrote: »

Can you really see a hard-nosed business like a hotel paying top-dollar for such tickets, and then pi$$ing them away by handing them over to people who aren't really that interested and probably aren't the real decision makers that will bring future business to the hotel?

Seems rather unlikely to me.

Yeah, of course I'm lying. A Kerryman who couldn't give a fcuk if both teams lost yesterday is bothered enough to make that all up.:rolleyes:

I started this thread as I felt bad for fans on both sides who couldn't get tickets.

Judging by the elitist sh1t spouted here about "fair weather supporters" they'd be better giving the tickets to the Delta Crew.

I really dont know why I bothered.

KwackerJack

So we have an Airline crew who were very tired and most likely flying early the next morning.

They got tickets off the hotel and being professionals who carry 200+ the taught that sleeping may be a better option?

Well now......how dare they not put passengers live's at risk and keep the GAA brigade happy by taking free tickets that they didn't ask for :rolleyes: