The clubs in Mayo were informed of their ticket allocations for the up coming All Ireland final at last nights County Board meeting in MacHale Park. Outlining how the distribution of the tickets will work, Mayo GAA secretary Vincent Neary opened his remarks by telling the club delegates present that Mayo’s allocation will be “significantly” down on the allocation from 2013.
The fact that the Mayo minors were in the final in 2013 saw an extra allocation of tickets given to the county, while the increase in the number of season ticket holders in Mayo between the Cáirde Mhaigheo and the Croke Park season ticket has almost doubled in the past two years going from around 2,000 three years ago to 3,700 this year. All of those season ticket holders who qualify for a ticket will have their ticket taken out of the county boards overall allocation. Unlike 2013 when there was an extra ticket made available to any Cáirde Mhaigheo who signed up for next year before the final that will not be happening this time.
However he said that the clubs allocation will be the same as 2013 with each senior club getting 50 stand and 50 terrace tickets, intermediate clubs getting 40 stand and 40 terrace tickets and junior clubs getting 30 stand and 30 terrace tickets. However unlike in 2013 when there was a separate eight tickets issued by the county board to the three principal officers and the county board delegate in each club, this allocation will now be taken out of the clubs initial allocation. The news of this didn’t go down well with a large number of the club delegates that were present at the meeting. This change will see junior clubs ending up with 22 stand tickets for their members once the officers and club delegates allocation is taken out of their overall club allocation. The county board did say that if more tickets were to come available the first place they would go would be back to the clubs to fill this new void created.
Clubs do have the opportunity to get another 40 tickets they were told if they can fundraise €2,000 for the board, for each €1,000 they raise they will be able to buy another 20 tickets up to a maximum of two allocations of an extra tickets which will be a mix of stand and terrace tickets. They were told that if they do raise the second €1,000 the split between stand and terrace tickets may not be exactly 50/50. County board treasurer Kevin O’Toole said that clubs could use this as a chance to fundraise for themselves and make some money as the county board will not be doing anything like this themselves. The board executive said they would also be rewarding the top selling clubs of county board tickets with the top four senior and top three intermediate and junior clubs all getting an extra allocation of tickets for the final.
There was some dissent from the floor with the Belmullet delegate Kieran Lavelle saying that “the way this looks to people is that an intermediate club is going to get 72 tickets, but if ye come up with an extra two grand we’ll give ye 40 more. It does not sound good."
Clubs who have players in the senior squad will get an additional 10 tickets per player, while as they did in recent years all past Mayo players who have played in the championship will be given a ticket, which should be applied for by their clubs. The board executive said they had a list from 2013 and there would be a few additions to it and asked that clubs get their names in as soon as possible. There will also be an allocation of tickets made by the county board to those who sit on board sub committees and the referees which will be dealt with by the county board rather than the clubs having to do it.
By the numbers
Clubs
Senior: 50 Stand 50 Terrace
Intermediate: 40 Stand 40 Terrace
Junior: 30 Stand 30 Terrace
All clubs: 10 tickets per member of the Mayo senior panel
Bump up option
20 Tickets for each €1,000 fund raised up to a maximum of 40 tickets.
Season tickets
There is approx 3,700 season ticket holders in Mayo between the Croke Park season ticket and the Cáirde Mhaigheo season ticket.
