‘GET THE DUBS out of Croke Park’
It’s a common call heard in the GAA, why aren’t the Dublin footballers put on the road and made play their Leinster championship games outside of Croke Park?
Here’s the official reason.
Leinster GAA chiefs have an agreement with Croke Park on the use of the stadium that means that at least four of the province’s senior championship games must be played there every year.
There’s 22 senior football and hurling championship matches in Leinster on the agenda for 2015 with six of those penciled in for Croke Park.
Those games which are likely to draw the biggest crowds are thus selected for headquarters.
“This year again we have this clamour to take games out of Croke Park,” outlined Leinster GAA chairman John Horan at their 2015 championship launch in Farmleigh House yesterday.
“In my mind, it makes no sense to move games to a venue which will not be able to accommodate all of those who wish to attend. There will also be implications for concessions in such situations.
“Staging games in Croke Park offers us better opportunities in looking after both our older and younger, and our families, in terms of the concession packages we offer.
“I see no point in potentially locking people out of games while a stadium lies unused elsewhere.”
Dublin boss Jim Gavin admits he was unaware of the agreement.
It’s an interesting observation, I wasn’t aware of that but from the Dublin football team’s perspective, we’ll play and we’ve always played where we’re told to play.
“We’ve had seven games on the road this year, all very enjoyable. We started off in Portarlington, Navan, Newbridge, Cork city, Killarney, Castlebar, Clones…they’re great times, you get to spend a lot of time with the players, more so than just turning up and going to a game in Croke Park.
“So there’s a lot of advantages to playing away but we’ll just play where we’re told to play by the Leinster Council or otherwise.”
