The GAA's expressed concern about declining attendances was deepened at the weekend by a further clutch of poor attendances. This was exacerbated by the fact the Munster football championship match, between Limerick and Cork, which went out live turned out a disappointing contest with a dismal attendance.
Viewed in the light of previous attendance figures, however, the news isn't all bad for the GAA. The crowd at the Gaelic Grounds for Limerick-Cork was a miserable 4,242 but this isn't a fixture with an established track record of "pulling them in".
When the counties met three years ago, when Limerick had a famous win, the crowd was 8,138, hardly a staggering figure considering Limerick were on the rise with the bulk of their provincial winning under-21 side available.
Prior to that the counties met just after Limerick had been in the 2000 All-Ireland under-21 final and the attendance in Kilmallock for the visit of Cork was 6,567. A year previously in Cork 5,616 attended.
That's an average of just over 6,000 or less than 2,000 more than attended on Sunday when hopes weren't as high in Limerick because of the loss of dual players to the hurlers and injuries.
The Munster football championship has never been a major draw for spectators and that was demonstrated again on Sunday. In Fitzgerald Stadium, Killarney, the attendance for the Kerry-Tipperary match was 7,543, not great but actually up on the 5,078 who turned up in Thurles last year to watch the same counties.
In Clones, the best crowd of the day was the 22,216 who watched Armagh draw with Fermanagh but again, when compared with the same fixture 12 months ago, attended by 23,107, the decline is minimal.
Leinster's hurling semi-finals spread between Mullingar on Saturday when 6,891 were present for Kilkenny's win over Westmeath and Nowlan Park on Sunday where the attendance for Wexford-Offaly was 15,720 attracted a combined 22,611 - compared with 23,319 last year at the Laois-Wexford and Kilkenny-Offaly Croke Park double bill.
President Nickey Brennan went on the record last week to acknowledge that the Fifa World Cup would present stiff opposition to Gaelic games fixtures over the coming weeks. But there is no real evidence to support that apprehension. In the 16 years and five World Cups since Ireland first qualified in 1990 there has only been one other that didn't feature this country. That was in France in 1998.
Interestingly despite the evidence that shows GAA attendances falling during the June of a World Cup which Ireland are contesting there was no indication eight years ago the soccer tournament had any effect on attendances at championship matches.
Taking the period of the World Cup from early June to the second weekend in July, there were aggregate attendances in 1998 of 444,409 at championship matches. This figure was actually up on the 329,819 that attended over the identical period in 1997.
