Nickey Brennan: Leinster Council must 'cut its cloth' if poor attendances continue

Former GAA president Nickey Brennan says the Leinster Council has “some big thinking to do” if they are to arrest dwindling crowds at their Leinster SHC round-robin games.

Brennan described as “disappointing” and “worrying” how the combined attendance at Saturday’s three first-round Leinster hurling games - 18,411 - was less than the 20,778-sell-out that watched the Clare-Cork Munster opener in Ennis the following afternoon.

The “paltry crowd” of 8,243 at UPMC Nowlan Park for Galway-Kilkenny represented the fifth year-on-year attendance fall for this fixture. From a high of 18,775 in the first year of the round-robin format in 2018, Saturday’s attendance amounted to a 56% drop-off for the supposed marquee hurling fixture in the province.

Offaly’s first Leinster SHC outing in seven years, away to Dublin, drew only 5,394 to Parnell Park, while Wexford-Antrim at Wexford Park didn't even break the 5,000-barrier.

“The 4,774 for Wexford-Antrim was the smallest attendance of the three, and very disappointing,” Brennan, a former Leinster chair, remarked.

“Offaly do travel. They have travelled in abundance to follow their minor and U20 teams, so why aren't they travelling to support their senior team?

“At Nowlan Park, there wasn't a big following from Galway, and Kilkenny supporters are just not coming out, bar All-Ireland semi-finals and the like. We just haven't got the level of support that was once there. Whether we like it or not, that is the reality. The same fall in crowds is happening at national level. The Munster championship is an outlier.

“From the media side, Munster hurling gets significantly more attention than Leinster hurling. You could say that is in keeping with the interest in and quality of games, and that's not an unfair argument, but Leinster hurling, on Monday and Tuesday of this week, you'd struggle to find anything worthwhile in the national media about those Leinster hurling games played on Saturday. That's just where we are at at the moment. The only people that can solve it are the people in Leinster, and I include Antrim and Galway in that. Hopefully things will pick up, but we are certainly flagging well, well behind Munster.”

Where Munster increased their ticket prices for the 2025 round-robin just thrown-in to €35 for stand and €30 for terrace, the second successive year it hiked admission fees, Leinster has had no option but to hold firm with their 2024 pricing of €25 for stand and €15 for terrace.

But such was the minute footfall last Saturday, those “reasonable” prices may have to be looked at and revised downward.

Already this year, Leinster GAA cut the prices for their three first-round football games by 40% in an effort to entice supporters through the turnstiles. Entry to the first-round games, played earlier this month, was €15, down from €25.

“A €15 terrace ticket is exceptionally good value for a provincial hurling championship match. I’d imagine council officers will be disappointed with the attendance numbers given what they’ve set the pricing at.”

The significantly cheaper offering than Munster, the reduced football ticket prices, and the decision to take this weekend’s Leinster football semi-finals out of Croke Park for the first time since 1995 is evidence, Brennan continued, that Leinster officials are endeavouring to make match-going as attractive as possible for supporters.

But if those actions fail to arrest falling crowd sizes, Brennan warned that Leinster will have to run its business off a reduced budget.

“Leinster is the biggest employer of coaching and games development people in the country. It significantly funds those. It is significantly funding infrastructure projects. There will be funding from other areas and other bodies such as Croke Park, but by and large it is the gate money that is going to determine how well a council can run its affairs in a province on any given year.

“And bear in mind that before you ever start talking about reduced crowds, it already lost around €100k at the beginning of the year with the scrapping of the O'Byrne Cup and Walsh Cup. They have some big thinking to do if their gates continue at this level.

“To be fair to Derek Kent (chairman) and his colleagues, they have bent over backwards to try and facilitate. They have been listening to people around the province.”

With neighbours Offaly and Galway clashing this weekend, as well as Wexford travelling to Dublin, Brennan is hopeful the combined attendance for the three Round 2 games can climb to 25,000.

“It is a worrying trend. Leinster Council made an effort this year to address that trend in terms of its pricing and where matches are staged. I am not sure it can do much more. And if patrons don't respond, Leinster Council will have to cut its cloth and run its business on the finances that are available.”

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