Is the GAA a dying sport?

Johnny Utah · 24-08-2014 04:47PM #1

I'm just watching the All Ireland semi final at the moment and it's noticeable that the stadium is nearly half empty.

This is one of the most important games of the year between two of the biggets teams, but the GAA can't even fill Croke Park. 30 years ago, a game like this would have been a full house.

Do you think that interest in the GAA is waning?

Sugar Free · 24-08-2014 04:48PM

Johnny Utah wrote: »

I'm just watching the All Ireland semi final at the moment and it's noticeable that the stadium is nearly half empty.

This is one of the most important games of the year between two of the biggets teams, but the GAA can't even fill Croke Park. 30 years ago, a game like this would have been a full house.

Do you think that interest in the GAA is waning?

The rail strike probably had a significant impact on crowd numbers.

Potential-Monke · 24-08-2014 04:49PM

Football, maybe. Hurling, no.

Howjoe1 · 24-08-2014 04:51PM

I can't remember watching so little personally. All the Sky games I don't bother with and likewise don't bother with the highlights of these games on the Sunday Game.

I have actually turned on the 2nd half of this one on RTE2 and its been cracking.

Axel Lamp · 24-08-2014 04:51PM

No

UCDVet · 24-08-2014 05:06PM

According to this, it's growing.
http://sportforbusiness.com/gaa-attendance-up-5-in-2013/

frostypants · 24-08-2014 05:12PM

Over 52,000 is hardly half empty

iDave · 24-08-2014 05:13PM

52k at it for 2 remote rural counties with a rail strike. Eh no its doing fine

dxhound2005 · 24-08-2014 05:13PM

Johnny Utah wrote: »

I'm just watching the All Ireland semi final at the moment and it's noticeable that the stadium is nearly half empty.

This is one of the most important games of the year between two of the biggets teams, but the GAA can't even fill Croke Park. 30 years ago, a game like this would have been a full house.

Do you think that interest in the GAA is waning?

Kerry supporters always wait for the final.

Red21 · 24-08-2014 05:14PM

Johnny Utah wrote: »

I'm just watching the All Ireland semi final at the moment and it's noticeable that the stadium is nearly half empty.

This is one of the most important games of the year between two of the biggets teams, but the GAA can't even fill Croke Park. 30 years ago, a game like this would have been a full house.

Do you think that interest in the GAA is waning?

The most exciting game all year and this is what you were thinking about at 4:47

Aidric · 24-08-2014 05:15PM

Potential-Monke wrote: »

Football, maybe. Hurling, no.

Agreed. Football is dire. Hurling is slowly getting more competitive again thankfully.

donegal__road · 24-08-2014 05:16PM

train strike and emigration.

* yes, yes... my mistake Egginacup..

.

Egginacup · 24-08-2014 05:20PM

donegal__road wrote: »

train strike and immigration.

Wouldn't immigration boost numbers?

The Peanut · 24-08-2014 05:21PM

Coastal counties on western seaboard have been decimated by marauding jellyfish. Mayo and Kerry agreed in advance to a well-orchestrated draw to allow all ill fans to recover and attend the next day.

Assuming, of course, that suspected cases of Ebola in Killarney, Tralee, Castlebar and Ballina are controlled.

Mully_2011 · 24-08-2014 05:21PM

I've just lost interest this year that said I'm mad to go back playing with the club in the new year great social element.

Dirty Dingus McGee · 24-08-2014 05:28PM

52000 is a very good crowd.2000 higher than the corresponding match between these counties 3 years ago (wich had 2 other counties in the minor match) , a decent bit higher than the attendance at the match between these in 1996 and I would suspect if Kerry and Mayo played in the 80s there would have barely been 30,000 at it.

According to some the GAA has been dying since italia 90 and still it has gone from strength to strength since then

freshpopcorn · 24-08-2014 05:34PM

Capacity is 82,300 standing and 73,500 seated and I think there was over 52,000 people there and seeing that Mayo and Kerry aren't the biggest counties and there's a rail strike. I don't think it's a dying sport.

biko · 24-08-2014 05:55PM

If jumping to conclusions was a sport AH would win gold every day.

c_man · 24-08-2014 05:57PM

Aidric wrote: »

Agreed. Football is dire. Hurling is slowly getting more competitive again thankfully.

Yeah, a Tipp Kilkenny final. Real change there.

Lapin · 24-08-2014 05:58PM

Aidric wrote: »

Hurling is slowly getting more competitive again thankfully.

Who's in the hurling final this year ?

Aidric · 24-08-2014 06:02PM

c_man wrote: »

Yeah, a Tipp Kilkenny final. Real change there.

Lapin wrote: »

Who's in the hurling final this year ?

Point taken. I was alluding to the fact that Limerick and moreso Wexford have come back in to the fray. I'd sooner sit and watch a hurling match than a football tug of war any day of the week.

freshpopcorn · 24-08-2014 06:02PM

Lapin wrote: »

Who's in the hurling final this year ?

Kilkenny and Tipperary!

Mountainlad · 24-08-2014 06:04PM

Lapin wrote: »

Who's in the hurling final this year ?

It's still getting more competitive.

Dirty Dingus McGee · 24-08-2014 06:05PM

Combined population of Kerry and Mayo is less than 300k so 1/6 of the people in those counties went to the match today which is the equivalent of about 160k going to a Dublin match.So 52k is a good crowd

The Backwards Man · 24-08-2014 06:06PM

What's a train?

Is that the things people sit on top of in places like India and Mozambique? Do Kerry people do that too?

thelad95 · 24-08-2014 06:09PM

Johnny Utah wrote: »

I'm just watching the All Ireland semi final at the moment and it's noticeable that the stadium is nearly half empty.

This is one of the most important games of the year between two of the biggets teams, but the GAA can't even fill Croke Park. 30 years ago, a game like this would have been a full house.

Do you think that interest in the GAA is waning?

All-Ireland semi-finals rarely get full houses unless they involve Dublin. Last weeks semi between Cork v Tipp was rare for hurling in that it got 70000. Hurling semis usually attract between 30-40000 at most. Considering the distance both Kerry and Mayo fans have to travel and the rail strike, 52000 is a massive attendance.

The GAA is growing not just on a national level but on an international level. I have cousins in England who never heard of GAA before this year but were glued to the screen this afternoon as they have been all summer.

Berserker · 24-08-2014 06:11PM

Potential-Monke wrote: »

Football, maybe. Hurling, no.

I'd go the other way round. Hurling is limited to such a small number of counties that it's declining. Football seems to be growing. Neither have the popularity of association football though. The PL is a sporting monster, in terms of dominance.

c_man · 24-08-2014 06:14PM

Add in that nowadays, those teams will have played more matches at this stage thanks to the restructure/introduction of the backdoor. Not too long ago, it would have been quite likely that Mayo and Kerry's semi final would have been just the third game that each played in the season. Whereas this was the fifth match for each (I'm pretty sure...) this season. That takes its toll on the pockets for fans.

Also you can be guaranteed that the tv viewing figures for this will blow anything else away.

The GAA is only dying in the minds of some fanatical haters. And has been for years.

Mountainlad · 24-08-2014 06:16PM

thelad95 wrote: »

All-Ireland semi-finals rarely get full houses unless they involve Dublin. Last weeks semi between Cork v Tipp was rare for hurling in that it got 70000. Hurling semis usually attract between 30-40000 at most. Considering the distance both Kerry and Mayo fans have to travel and the rail strike, 52000 is a massive attendance.

The GAA is growing not just on a national level but on an international level. I have cousins in England who never heard of GAA before this year but were glued to the screen this afternoon as they have been all summer.

Don't believe you are correct on that one. Waterford v Kilkenny had 62,000 at it 2009. Both smaller than the football counties today, and when they played the year before there was 23 points in the difference.

diomed · 24-08-2014 06:16PM

Can't kill a bad thing. :P

Kermit.de.frog · 24-08-2014 06:17PM

Berserker wrote: »

I'd go the other way round. Hurling is limited to such a small number of counties that it'association football though.

Dublin have a very good up and coming hurling team. And resources are being piled in to Dublin so I don't see them being kept out much longer.

As for soccer when is the last time any international match in Ireland had 52,000 in attendance?

Is the GAA a dying sport?

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