by Eamonn Fitzgerald

This week I am returning to an issue I have highlighted previously in this column. The biblical story of “no room at the inn” sprang to my mind prior to the colleges final at Lewis Road on Saturday afternoon last.

As usual for matches in the stadium, the stewarding was excellent, but some supporters did not gain entry. Oh yes, there was plenty of room inside in the stadium, both in the stand and on the terraces. My estimate was an attendance of about 2,000, but it could - and should - have been more.

Some people arrived at the gates with their tenners but were refused entry. I met many of these disgruntled patrons, all great supporters of the GAA over their lifetimes. Entry to the game was by pre-paid ticket only. The GAA is moving very much to the cashless norm of all-ticket games only, especially intercounty and also big club games. This colleges game was also cashless.

I can see some logic to this relatively new departure by the GAA. One can buy a match ticket online. All you need then is your mobile phone to book a ticket, which can be scanned from your phone at the turnstiles.

Scan yes, so easy, but while it isn’t a scam, some genuine supporters are being denied access. And most of these are older people, who may not be tech-savvy. They have not embraced the digital age and are uncomfortable with modern technology. They are unable, or afraid, to press the correct button.

There are still people who do not have a credit card and even if they do, they are very reluctant to give out their account details when the message comes up to ‘proceed to buy’.

In the case of last Saturday’s game, the Munster PPS council, the organisers of the fixture, did not get the message out early enough and clearly enough that it was an all-ticket game. Social media is not frequented by the cohort of supporters who turned up with their OAP rate of a fiver (great value by Munster PPC). Everyone does not log on to Facebook. How were they to know that admission had to be pre-paid?

Imagine the grandparents arriving at Lewis Road to cheer on their grandchildren on this big colleges final day. Will the youngsters make the Kerry minors?

It would have been a very easy thing to do on Saturday last to have a ticket van parked outside the grounds where people could give cash for a ticket and then proceed into the game.

That is done for the intercounty and big club matches. The facility to purchase match tickets from local retail outlets gives some people the opportunity to buy one, but we need only look at the experience in the week before the Kerry v Dublin game for clarification. The tickets went online on the Monday, but by lunchtime the online tickets and the availability to purchase in a local supermarket ceased to exist. The match was an early sell-out.

I met too many disgruntled people outside the Fitzgerald Stadium on Saturday last. Genuine GAA supporters deserve better. Technology is not infallible. In December 2020, the GAA nationally paid out a reported €10 million to Ticketmaster, the USA company owned by Live Nation Entertainment, to provide a five-year service contract.

On Sunday last the system broke down, causing pandemonium for people who wished to attend the National League hurling games.

Get back to the system of allocating the tickets through the clubs. The genuine supporter will then be rewarded for attending club games and supporting the club’s lotto.