GAELIC GAMES NEWS:MONITORING THE exchange rate between the euro and the pound sterling has become the latest scheme for GAA supporters seeking reduced ticket prices for the championship.
Only this time it isn’t exactly intentional.
As all four provinces explore ways of maintaining attendance figures during the economic downturn, the Ulster Council has announced a reduction in tickets priced in euro for their upcoming football quarter-finals – but not enough to offset the price of the weakened pound sterling, which under current exchange rates, offers better value for the money.
Last year, stand and terrace tickets for the Ulster quarter-finals were priced at €27 and €20 respectively, but this year have been set at €25 and €15. Prices in pound sterling, however, are unchanged at £20 and £13 – which roughly equates to €22.50 and €14.50 respectively.
So when Derry play Monaghan in Celtic Park in Derry in the opening quarter-final on Sunday week, the Derry supporters will effectively be paying €22.50 for a stand ticket, while the Monaghan supporters will be paying €25. The difference explained, obviously, by pound sterling still being the currency of the Six Counties.
Yesterday the Ulster Council had a reception to launch their provincial championship – during which they announced final details of their ticket packages. Afterwards, Ulster Council treasurer Martin McAviney explained the unique difficulties they face which can always create some anomaly in their ticket prices.
“The euro is our base currency, in that all our prices are set in euro and all our main transactions are in euro,” said McAviney. “We try to be as fair as we can to both sets of supporters, and recently the euro has got so much stronger against the pound sterling.
“We decided we would reduce prices in euro, compared to last year. But the problem was trying to get the sterling up to match the euro. We just wouldn’t and couldn’t have been able to justify the increase. It would have been too dear, and we wouldn’t have been able to sustain the increase.
“We’d like to think that we’ve got it as right and fair as we could, for now. We’ll look at it again after this match and see if we need to adjust it again either way. But it just wouldn’t have been possible for us to say increase the sterling price to £25. We were always mindful of that.
“We waited as long as we could before agreeing on these prices, and of course all the money is directed back the same way, to the clubs and programmes in the province.”
The Derry-Monaghan game is also an all-ticket affair, which means there won’t be any family tickets available: “That’s principally an accommodation issue,” said McAviney, “in that Celtic Park wouldn’t have the sort of capacity to allow family tickets. But the games that aren’t all-ticket continue to offer free admission to under-16s, which is still unique.”
Like the other provinces, the Ulster Council will keep a close eye on attendance figures over the course of the championship.
“We’re certainly not aloof to what’s happening in our economy. Of course it is an issue. But we don’t have a crystal ball. We think we’ve got the balance right for now. In fact attendances in our recent under-21 football championship was up on recent years, and certainly the appetite for our games still seems to be there.
“But we will always listen to our counties and clubs to see if we do need to make adjustments along the way.”
Meanwhile, the Munster Council have announced another incentive for their supporters to purchase tickets at a reduced price.
For the first time, special combined tickets are being offered to select counties that will allow admission to the opening match in both the football and hurling championship. The charge of €40 will present a €10 saving on purchasing the tickets separately.
The combined ticket will apply to all the Munster counties except Kerry who don’t compete in the All-Ireland hurling championship.
Tickets can be purchased through county boards and through the Munster GAA website munster.gaa.ie
Following are the combined ticket packages:
Clare – 21st June – Clare v Cork/Tipperary (hurling) 7th June – Clare v Tipp/Limerick (football); Cork – 31st May – Cork v Tipperary (hurling) 24th May – Cork v Waterford (football); Limerick – 14th June – Limerick v Waterford (hurling) 24th May – Limerick v Tipperary (football); Waterford – 14th June – Waterford v Limerick (hurling) 24th May – Waterford v Cork (football); Tipperary – 31st May – Tipperary v Cork (hurling) 24th May – Tipperary v Limerick (football).
