Inside Track: Croke Park offered the best value for money
Inside Track with Joe Carroll
Which offered real value for money, the World Cup final or that set-to between Mayo and Kerry a few Sundays ago? No contest.
Spectators paid thousands to see Spain beat Argentina in New York and were treated to what some scribes described as the worst-ever World Cup final.
It could have been a great game of course, but wasn’t. The All-Ireland could have been a flop – and might have been had there not been a change in rules. But it wasn’t.
Admission to some of the matches leading up to the World Cup final would give you a nose bleed. Now, you can only imagine what they would be like at the competition’s renewal in four years’ time had Infantino got his way, selling a stake to big investors, some of who, we’re sure, wouldn’t know if a football was blown up or stuffed.
There used be an outcry when there’d be a few quid added to the cost of a ticket for the All-Ireland final. It’s now at €100 – those who were there for the latest iteration can’t say they didn’t get their money’s worth.
Regardless of what the ‘take’ was, none of it went into the players’ pocket. A lot of it will go to their, and the other, counties for the promotion of the game. It’s an amateur game – could the players have given any more if they knew there’d been a fat cheque waiting for them?
Just as there’s always a scramble to All-lreland tickets, people wanting to see the ‘dearer’ events are just as numerous. There were few, if any, empty seats at World Cup games. An example: it was almost €700 to see some of what you could call the lesser teams in the preliminaries.
Come next year’s Ryder Cup at the Adare Manor course in Limerick and the ‘house full’ sign will be up for each of the three days’ play. There’ll be crowds there as well for the practice-day, it, too, a pay-to-watch event.
And the cost of seeing the best golfers in Europe go head-to-head with the Americans? Almost €500 per day.
Seemingly, this is not an off-putter for followers. The place will be full, 40,000 on each of the first two days and 10,000 more for the singles on the Sunday.
Soccer’s best were on view a number of weeks back, and next year the golfers in action will have few peers. There are few better than those playing at Croke Park last Sunday fortnight, and, by comparison, it cost only a pittance to see them.