Figures on a par with last year but tomorrow's triple-header could hit Sunday's hurling final. IAN O'RIORDANreports

THE MUNSTER Council have pronounced themselves “happy enough” with this year’s attendance figures to date, yet quietly concede the crowd for Sunday’s Tipperary-Waterford Munster hurling final in Páirc Uí Chaoimh could be hit by the triple-header in Thurles the previous day.

Munster GAA deputy chief executive Enda McGuane is predicting a crowd of around 28,000, which although well below figures for some recent hurling finals, is reflective of attendances overall.

“We have over 18,000 tickets sold in advance, at this stage, and we’d expect the covered stand to be completely sold out by Friday evening,” says McGuane, “so in terms of attendance, what that means, at this stage, is that we’d be forecasting in the region of 27 to 28,000.

“There would be a number of factors impinging on that, including the weather on Sunday. If it’s a good day that will always help draw a bigger crowd. You really have to look at attendances over 50 years to get a longitudinal trend, but we’d be happy enough with where they’re going right now.

“And I would say that last year was the first year in a while that attendances started to stabilise, and I would say that as a whole, our championship attendances of 2012 would so far be on a par with last year, whereas in the previous number of years they would have been in decline.”

Yet last year’s final between the same teams drew 36,654 to Páirc Uí Chaoimh, and when they met in the 2009 final, in Semple Stadium, some 40,330 showed up – suggesting Sunday’s game is proving a more difficult sell.

“Not necessarily,” says McGuane. “If you look back at the Munster hurling final replay two years ago we only had 22,000 (22,763, to be exact), so there has been varying trends in attendances over the last couple of years.

“Part of the reality too is the level at which the teams are at. Right now, in Munster, we have five hurling teams that are very, very close to each other. Tipperary are possibly marginally ahead of the others, having been All-Ireland champions in 2010, but the other four teams, Clare, Limerick, Cork and Waterford, are all coming strong again, under new managers. So it could be argued that Munster hurling is at its most competitive in 10 years.

“The Clare-Waterford match, for example, 10 years ago drew around 8,000, whereas this year we had 14,000, and two years ago when they met it was only around 12,000. But forecasting is far from an exact science. If Clare were to win their hurling qualifier on the Saturday night then they might be more inclined to travel to see the minor final on the Sunday, also at Páirc Uí Chaoimh.”

So, while the Munster Council have already defended the decision not to engage in any financial “sweetener” whereby Waterford might have agreed to play this year’s final at Semple Stadium, it’s no secret they would rather the GAA hadn’t fixed the qualifier triple-header for there on Saturday, with Tipperary against Wexford in the football at 3pm, Wexford against Cork in hurling at 5pm, and Limerick against Clare in hurling at 7pm.

“I’m not going to comment on the reasoning behind a fixture decision like that. I’ll leave it to the people themselves. What I will say is that on any weekend of hurling that we’ve now got you’re appealing to the same hurling counties, in Munster, and also Wexford, and some of the neutrals that may well have gone to our match on the Sunday.

“But we certainly wouldn’t expect these counties to travel to two games in two venues in two days in a row. People will make a decision to attend one game or the other, and the natural choice would be to follow their own team.

“That’s a factor, which regardless of our venue, is going to have an impact on attendances. Because people are very unlikely to go to two matches in the one weekend, and that’s very understandable, in the current climate.

“But you can also talk about trends, or talk about realities. And the reality is that advance sales, not just in matches but concerts and other events, have declined dramatically in the last four years, and what you see now are people making decisions, in many cases, on the morning of the game, on whether to go or not.

“Three or four years ago more people would pay in advance, and commit to the game.”

MUNSTER HURLING FINAL ATTENDANCES

2002 Waterford v Tipperary, Páirc Uí Chaoimh 40,276

2003 Cork v Waterford, Semple Stadium 52,833

2004 Waterford v Cork, Semple Stadium 52,100

2005 Cork v Tipperary, Páirc Uí Chaoimh 43,500

2006 Cork v Tipperary, Semple Stadium 53,500

2007 Waterford v Limerick, Semple Stadium 48,700

2008 Tipperary v Clare, Gaelic Grounds 48,076

2009 Tipperary v Waterford, Semple Stadium 40,330

2010 Waterford v Cork (Draw), Semple Stadium 35,375

Replay Semple Stadium 22,763

2011 Tipperary v Waterford, Páirc Uí Chaoimh 36,654