When is a price reduction not a price reduction?
When you drop the price of All-Ireland football final replay tickets from €80 to €60, that’s when.
Early on Monday afternoon the GAA announced that tickets for the October 1st replay between Mayo and Dublin would be be €60 for the stands and €30 for the terraces.
However fans were quick to point out that tickets for the 2014 All-Ireland hurling final replay were reduced from €80 to €50 for the Cusack, Hogan and Davin Stands, with terrace tickets available for €25.
Wexford goalkeeper Anthony Masterson was among those to note the inequality.
miserable shites… Was €50 for hurling replay
— Anthony Masterson (@antomasterson1) September 19, 2016
But he was not alone, with GAA fans around the country furious at the perceived price increase.
@officialgaa why are stand tickets for the replay reduced to €60 not €50 as they were for hurling replay? Asking for 82,000 mates. #GAA
— McBreartysRightPeg (@Chimp1979) September 19, 2016
Tickets for hurling replays were always reduced to €50, football replay stand tickets are €60? I smell many an online rant coming #GAA
— Lauren Guilfoyle (@LaurenGuilfoyle) September 19, 2016
Great to see @officialgaa reduce ticket prices for replay. But why 60 Euro and not 50 like for the hurling replays #gaa
— Cóilín Duffy (@coilinduffy) September 19, 2016
A spokesperson for the GAA defended the decision, telling SportsJOE it represented a 25% reduction on tickets for the drawn match.
“It is still a reduction. It was the decision taken for 2016. It is still a 25% reduction and very competitive when compared to other premium sporting events,” he said.
When still available, tickets for Ireland’s November Internationals against Australia and New Zealand ranged in price from €35 to €95. The Republic of Ireland’s upcoming World Cup qualifier with Georgia at the Aviva is priced from €30 to €80.
The GAA were expected to take in something in the region of €3million from the replay, when calculated at the 2014 hurling final prices.
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