Ulster final to be played at Croke Park

History will be made next month when the Ulster football final is brought to Croke Park. This will be for the first time in the modern era and the first time that the event will draw such a crowd, expected to be over 60,000.

Clones, the Ulster Council's main venue, holds less than 40,000 and it was on the basis of capacity that the decision was made, regardless of whether it will be Donegal or Tyrone who face Armagh on July 11th.

"The reason is to accommodate the greatest number of people wishing to attend and we also like to encourage children in attendance," according to Ulster secretary Danny Murphy. "During the Ulster championship, except where a game is all ticketed, we have admitted under-16s free to our games.

"Here in Croke Park we have three times the number of family tickets available in Clones. We believe interest in this game is such that we would substantially exceed the capacity available in Clones."

Murphy and provincial chairperson Michael Greenan were at pains to point out that this was not a precedent, which would mean the Ulster final coming to Dublin on a regular basis.

"We have drawn attention to the fact that this an unprecedented time for Ulster," said Murphy. "The three teams still left in our championship are the last three teams from the final stages of the All-Ireland last year. Each of them has a huge fan base and we believe any permutation would bring a substantial crowd. But this doesn't set a trend that we will be bringing the Ulster final to Croke Park every year.

"There is a huge interest right across Ulster and that is something we can't be oblivious to."

The idea originated in the annual report of GAA director general Liam Mulvihill, who suggested that if the Ulster final were to be a re-run of last year's All-Ireland between Armagh and Tyrone, the provincial council might like to stage the match at Croke Park.

As things have turned out, the three surviving counties are Armagh, Tyrone and Donegal. Last year's All-Ireland was a full house whereas the Armagh-Donegal semi-final attracted 76,000. Mulvihill welcomed the Ulster Council announcement.

"It's a very brave decision on the part of Ulster Council because no province would lightly decide to leave their province. Having it in Croke Park means a greater overall capacity for neutrals, who wouldn't be able to attend the match in Clones. I'm forecasting that there will be at least 10,000 neutrals from outside of Ulster."

He was non-committal about the prospect of this creating a demand in other provinces should they be faced with particularly attractive fixtures that might need the capacity of Croke Park.

"We'll have to wait and see. If that were to happen it would obviously be of benefit to Croke Park. We've made it clear that any of the provinces are welcome to use Croke Park. It's there for all the GAA. I could see certain other combinations that might come here. The Ulster experience is going to make an impact on other provinces."

Mulvihill also spoke on a range of other topics, including the issue of whether the first Test of the International Rules series would be played outside of Dublin, as intimated last month. He said no decision had been taken and said, "Croke Park is still in the reckoning".

Building work on Jones's Road is proceeding satisfactorily. The new hotel, which will eventually belong to the GAA, has fallen about two months behind schedule because the site, formerly a garage, was found to have contaminated soil but the GAA is less concerned about that than the construction of the Northern End, the final phase of the Croke Park redevelopment.

That remains on schedule, to be opened for the All-Ireland semi-finals this summer. Mulvihill was particularly happy with that work. "The Northern End is on schedule. We're very pleased.

"At one stage it was six weeks behind but Banagher Concrete did fantastic work. At one point they had 250 people working on it to get the pre-cast sections ready."