GAA president John Horan reveals spike in season ticket sales
Wednesday 30 January 2019 14:02, UK
GAA president John Horan revealed that the association's sales of season tickets have risen for 2019.
Horan was addressing Seanad Éireann, and the issue of ticket prices was raised after increases were announced earlier this month.
"Last Thursday, before the start of our National League, we sold over 3,000 more season tickets than we did the previous year," he explained. "This was during the height of the criticism of our price increases. Attendances at our national league games last Sunday marginally increased to 87,000 from the previous figure of 86,000.
"People may want to criticise us but the decision made at the Central Council was unanimous because we made the case to the people that we were raising prices to do something with the money for our membership and the community that exists within this country. We will not apologise for doing good work on the ground. In relative terms, regarding the actual attention we received, I looked at it as being a case of the glass being half full rather than half empty."
All-Ireland tickets have risen from €80 to €90, while there were €5 jumps for football qualifiers, All-Ireland semi-finals, and National League prices also went up. Horan admitted it was a difficult few weeks, given the backlash: "The only heartening thing I got from the events of last week was how relevant we are as an organisation. Every television and radio show and newspaper went on about the fact that the GAA had increased the price of its tickets."
The GAA president underlined the commitment to redevelop a number of stadia, referencing Newbridge, Navan and Waterford. He also made it clear that the extra revenue will be going back to grassroots:
"I will point out a few facts. A lot of [Seanad] members said today that the GAA clubs in their communities were very important. When we decided to raise the price of our tickets, we put in place a programme of spending for the increased revenue. As an association, we have decided to increase our grants to clubs throughout the country from €2 million to €4 million in the space of four years. Funds must be obtained to do that. The grants for those clubs will increase employment locally through investment in infrastructure projects. That is where we are putting €500,000 of the extra revenue."
