Clare chairman says the distribution of replay tickets is a ‘joke’

Jack O'Toole

Clare county board chairman Joe Cooney has said that the GAA’s decision to distribute tickets through shops and online only for this weekend’s All-Ireland semi-final replay was a ‘joke’.

Tickets went on sale this morning through tickets.ie, the GAA’s ticketing outlet, and at SuperValu and Centra stores.

Queues on both the website and at stores were long with Cooney claiming that the GAA’s decision to distribute tickets exclusively through stores and online, and not in addition to clubs and the county board, stemmed from the relatively short turnaround between games.

“In general there would be a good demand from clubs to the county board for tickets,” said Cooney.

“I suppose the quick turnaround between games to get tickets down for this Sunday and the time it takes to get tickets down to the county boards, to get them printed off, clubs to get the number of tickets that they require, all that takes a bit of time.

“It was a decision made by Croke Park that they would try this on this occasion and see how it works.”

Cooney added that this was the first time during his tenure with the county board that this method of distribution has been trialed by the GAA and that the association distributed tickets through clubs and the county board for Clare’s 2013 All-Ireland final replay with Cork.

“Our last replay in the championship I’d say was back in 2013,” added Cooney.

“That was the All-Ireland final and I don’t recall anything since then. They were done through the clubs that time but I believe there was a three week gap between the drawn match and the replay.

“Really I believe the short time is the reason but supporters are panicking to try and get a hands on tickets for the game on Sunday.

“We really appreciate our supporters and hopefully we get a big crowd down there on Sunday, the same as we had last Saturday in Croke Park and also a coupe of weeks ago down in Páirc Uí Chaoimh.”