Ticket famine for controversial Joe McDonagh Cup fixture between Offaly and Kildare

THE vast majority of supporters will be deprived of the opportunity of seeing the Offaly v Kildare Joe McDonagh Cup game on Sunday.

Croke Park controversially and surprisingly aceded to a Kildare request to play the game at their county training grounds in Hawkfield on Wednesday afternoon.

The capacity of the ground has been fixed at just 900 under health and safety regulations. While Kildare have argued that it can host more than this, any additional tickets will be insignificant.

With over 3,000 attending the recent National Hurling League Division 2 final between the counties in Portlaoise, demand will far exceed supply. Following a surprisingly heavy defeat for Kildare by Carlow in the Joe McDonagh Cup last weekend, interest there may not be as big but that will certainly not be the case in Offaly, who had a very good opening win over Joe McDonagh Cup game.

Each county has received an allocation of 300 tickets for general sale while an additional 140 each will be divided among players, team officials and County Board officers and sponsors. Offaly GAA have announced that a small quota will be on sale on Ticketmaster on Friday morning but this will be miniscule and will go in the blink of an eye.

Each club in Offaly is being given the right to purchase seven tickets before they go on general sale. There are 42 clubs in Offaly and this accounts for 294 of the 300 allocation. It is unlikely if any of these will come available for general sale. Some clubs in football strongholds in north Offaly may not take up their allocation but their proximity to Hawkfield, which is just outside Newbridge, means that most are likely to take their seven tickets – there is a traditionally strong hurling support from footballing areas and even if some don't take up their full quota by 9pm this evening, hurling clubs are likely to approach them for any leftovers.

The Offaly GAA County Board made their concerns known about the Hawkfield proposal to Croke Park officials but won't be allowing anything to distract from the team's preparations for a game that is a real banana skin for Offaly. Kildare ran Offaly to the wire when drawing with them in the group stages of the league and losing the final narrowly. They were shocking against Carlow but Offaly are taking this as a freak result and expecting a ferocious battle against them.

With Kildare saying that they won't be attempting to get any home senior football championship game played in Hawkfield, there is a lot of annoyance at grassroots level in Offaly – both at Kildare and Croke Park. The game won't be streamed either and supporters are not happy with Croke Park for caving into Kildare's demands and not ruling that Hawkfield simply isn't suitable for a big intercounty championship senior game.

It is inconceivable that Offaly would attempt to play any senior championship game in their county training ground in Faithful Fields, Kilcormac. Hawkfield is a very good training ground, well capable of hosting county minor and U-20 fixtures, as Faithful Fields has. It is developed to a similar standard as Faithful Fields and most county training grounds, which operate out of a similar blueprint, but it simply can't cope with demand for a senior fixture.

Hawkfield should be a definite advantage to Kildare on Sunday and the venue is a considerable factor in this game.

Offaly GAA have stated that a “limited number of tickets” will be available on Ticketmaster on Friday morning. Unless an additional allocation comes available, this could be very small and whatever is there will be on this link:

am.ticketmaster.com/gaa/23HD1604