Emmet Moloney writes for the 'The Irish Farmers Journal' and is a former sports columnist with 'The Kerryman'.

With attendances down and the lure of staying at home to watch the matches on TV strong and cheap, the GAA needs to do something to get the fans back. Emmet Moloney writes...

The GAA is in trouble this summer. I suspect they know it, too, but it seems that hardly anyone wants to talk about it. New President Christy Cooney is doing a fine version of the invisible man while Rome is beginning to burn.

We have no-one going to our matches. Attendances have almost halved in the space of twelve months. Before anyone reaches for the statistics, please don’t bother. There is no such thing as an accurate GAA attendance figure. At every match there are hundreds of people left in for nothing and more who shouldn’t but who get in anyway. There is cash taken at the odd terrace and, like it not, we do not get the proper figure.

I strongly suspect that in recent times that figure is being artificially inflated. According ot the official mark, there was 25,000 people at Thurles for Limerick and Waterford’s sleep-inducing draw. If there was 25,000 at that match then the game was a classic. The two stands weren’t even full and the crowds behind the Killinan End was particularly sparse. Last Saturday night the good weather only brought a reported 15,000 to Tullamore for Galway and Kilkenny. And a chunk of Féile kids and adults were brought along.

Something is drastically wrong here.

Of course, prevailing economic circumstances are a factor. But there is also a lack of imagination on the GAA’s part. The tickets, although reasonably pitched from €20 to €30, are still slightly overpriced in the current climate. Imagination could have seen Tipp and Clare doubled up with Limerick and Waterford’s replay. The Cats and Galway were tied into Tullamore so they had to stay there, but a Sunday double-header in the Gaelic Grounds might have threatened the capacity of the stadium. We would have had atmosphere, occasion and packed terraces. Instead, we got two mediocre crowds of around 20,000, probably under that – despite the official soundings.

We must act here before it is too late. There is a real likelihood of the Munster hurling final not being sold out. Dublin and Meath did not fill Croke Park a couple of weeks ago. The GAA needs to get its head out of the sand – and fast. Empty stadia means empty coffers and that seeps down through the organisation. It’s still only June and it looks like HQ are writing off this year.

Television is a problem but we are tied into these contracts and the TV money is going to turn out to be quite valuable in these troubled times. But four matches a weekend on live television means your fair-weather GAA supporter is finding it too easy to take the cheaper option of staying at home. We talk about marketing the GAA properly but it never seems to happen. It needs to happen now. And fairly lively. If we don’t start aggressively selling these games the slump will get worse. People will get used to not going.

It is at times like these that we need new teams challenging for major honours. Some spark, colour or unpredictability would be a great help. Kilkenny are the big boys of hurling and it’s not their fault. They’ve had it put up to them twice in recent weeks and both times they have found that extra gear. We need them there. The team that has greatness stamped all it, but we also need the team out there that could beat them.

Galway could be it. How valuable a 70 minutes was last Saturday for them? We will only find out in August. They should have another crack at the Cats. That will test both sides. Kilkenny have rarely had to beat a really decent team twice in the championship. True, Wexford have met them two times before, but lost all matches and usually rolled over in the second one. Galway should be better come August and maybe a qualifier win over a decent team like Clare, Limerick or Cork under their belts.

Speaking of belts, they certainly gave them out in Tullamore, Nowlan Park, Thurles and Limerick at the weekend. Only Cork were missing the hurling party as eight of the top nine sides battled it out. This is the imagination I am talking about. How about that every two weeks for two months of the summer? This weekend we are starved of hurling.
The fall in attendances means a hell of a lot more that loss of revenue.

By the way, the players’ grant must be kept or we’ll eventually see all our best players in the USA, Australia and further afield because this €3,000 or so they’ll receive has become important to them. They deserve it and we are already throwing public money at boxers, runners, swimmers, etc, and far more than €3,000 each.

Smaller crowds means fewer people. Fewer kids. Less interest. Fewer memories. Less GAA. And by now we should know that less GAA means lesser lives. We can’t have that. Instead of neglecting the GAA during the recession, we should be encouraged to embrace it.
For here is escapism on a grand, countywide scale. Reduce ticket prices, talk up the games, think about decent half-time entertainment. Sell the product, for God’s sake. It’s not as if it can’t be sold. The 70 minutes of commitment we saw in Tullamore far outweighs any other field sport in this regard. This was bodies on the line. Nothing namby-pamby on view.

Serious times call for serious people. C’mon Christy, get your marketing house in order. Look at how other sports manage to get bigger crowds for games that don’t have as much to offer as we do. Some of their tricks are crass and tasteless, but some have merit to them. A half-time show is one. Maybe a celebrity penalty competition at the break? Music? The draws for the next round to be done out on the field? Something that isn’t shown on TV. We should look at them closely.

Let’s start thinking outside the parallelogram.

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