League final figure needs to be put in context

On Gaelic Games:League time draws to a close and halfway between the Division One finals we have seen once again what a curious competition it is. Much given to existential angst, it frequently prompts more agonising over the crowds it draws and the venues at which it's played than over the matches which determine its outcome.

Last Sunday calmed us down a bit. After dire prophecies that the Division Two semi-finals on Saturday evening might out-draw the following day's final the attendance held up reasonably. Admittedly it's hard to calculate the added impact of the Hogan and Croke Cup finals on the triple bill (although the latter didn't impact on the crowd for the football final, as the supporters in the main fled before their sensibilities could be affronted by the sight of a plump football bobbling about) but the day's attendance of 29,433 was fine by historical standards.

The anxiety exhibited in the week before the match was heavy on foreboding and light on facts. Going back 20 years the average attendance at National Football League finals (excluding replays) is 28,970 - throw in two replays, it rises to 29,632 because of the 59,703 at the 1993 replay between Dublin and Donegal.

If you remove the distorting effect of Dublin's presence the figure declines to 25,207. In that context last Sunday was above average. (Hurling has a lower average over the same period, 23,628, but hurling league finals are rarely played in Croke Park and half of the finals in the past 20 years have featured sides both of which border the county of venue. The comparable figure for football is only four.)

It's undoubtedly a problem that since the redevelopment of Croke Park, crowds of around 30,000 look pitiful in the stadium but it remains the headquarters of the association and the spiritual home of football, if not always hurling.

Viewed out of context such crowds aren't hugely impressive but we need to factor in what the league is and what it means to those involved. That attendances at the final haven't shifted much since 20 years ago could be viewed as stagnation but football is on a different planet compared to then. The advent of the calendar year and All-Ireland qualifiers have greatly changed the way teams approach the season, and this impacts on football league finals at Croke Park. Qualifiers have meant counties have a far better chance of playing at Croke Park during the summer. That makes a league final at the venue of particular interest to players and managers but less compelling for supporters.

For example, Mayo have made 14 competitive visits to Croke Park in the past six years, since the qualifiers began. Before that the entire two decades of the 1970 and 1980s yielded just 16.

Since the calendar year was introduced in 2002 there is a clear pre-season leading into the football league and then into championship. There is more of a flow and no sense of a hiatus between spring and summer. And by this stage of the year thoughts have turned to the big time.

Mayo manger John O'Mahony said last week better marketing would push up the crowd for the final. Maybe that's true but it's not the whole story. The floodlights' inauguration in February helped fire the interest in the Dublin-Tyrone match. Some well-judged marketing, Dublin's crowd-pulling ability and the big Tyrone support did the rest. But you can't compare the Dublin-Tyrone fixture, which was known about for a couple of months in advance and could be made the subject of a marketing campaign.

The Donegal-Mayo tie emerged only seven days before it was due to be played. How do you implement a campaign in less than a week with most of your constituency's attention wandering to what's coming in a couple of weeks? GAA director general Liam Mulvihill expressed concern a few months back at the phenomenon whereby the competition starts in a lather of interest, which peters out before the final.

There is a lesson in this. The greatest excitement in the football league comes before the first series of regulation matches and at their very end. There is a real appetite for matches in February and the permutations on the last day of the season create excitement. It could be argued the play-offs and who qualifies for them help generate the end-of-season excitement and that's true. But a solution would be to declare the team at the top of each section the divisional winners. Now that there's a strictly hierarchical structure in the football league the top-placed team in Division One could claim to be the best side in the league and the format would knock a couple of weeks off the intercounty season.

There are also ways to spice things up. Relegation could be extended to three teams in each division. The top three plus the promoted champions of the division immediately below could be guaranteed four home matches for the following season. In that case the annual apprehensions about who's going to come out and watch the play-offs and where they should be played would be obsolete.

Finally, it was interesting to see Croke Park stadium director Peter McKenna pour cold water on the notion the venue has to have 30,000-plus for an event to be financially viable. The original example, floated a few years ago, was that a stand-alone event would need 32,000 people at €20 per head to cover the costs of opening the stadium. This has been used to argue that certain matches shouldn't take place at headquarters unless they can attract that number. McKenna pointed out taken over the course of a season the Croke Park average was comfortably in excess of that figure.

The ground is a resource for the GAA and if they decide that to stage matches there makes promotional sense, that's what it's there for.

Otherwise we should relax and love the league for what it is.