Offaly GAA expect ticket demand to be met for big hurling fixture

AFTER the usual initial panicking and scare-mongering when tickets went on sale to the general public on Tuesday, Offaly GAA expect to have enough supply to meet demand for Sunday week's eagerly awaited All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship quarter-final against Cork in Thurles.

An allocation of 15,000 tickets were put up for sale to the general public by Ticketmaster on Tuesday afternoon and these were snapped up quickly by Cork and Offaly supporters. As people tried unsuccessfully to get tickets, there was an initial sense of panic and frustration among tickets with rumours that the fixture was sold out.

It was, however, only the initial 15,000 that were sold and the pressure has alleviated substantially in Offaly on Wednesday as tickets were made available to clubs.

In a new departure, clubs didn't directly handle tickets themselves and were instead given a link that they supplied to people to purchase them through. 4,000 tickets were sold in the first couple of hours to the exclusive Offaly link and there has been a steady flow on them throughout the afternoon.

A decent percentage of Offaly people will have got tickets in the initial sale and it is estimated that there will be somewhere between 10,000 to 15,000 Offaly people in Thurles. Cork will bring north of 20,000 and could go close to 30,000. Thurles is a favoured, easily accessible venue for them but their attendance may be affected by a couple of factors – Cork are red hot favourites and some supporters may be content to wait for an All-Ireland semi-final while their footballers could be out that Saturday, and cost of living issues will come into play with some people if that happens.

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Offaly GAA people have become accustomed to ticket crisis’s during the U20 hurlers' great run in 2023 and 2024 but at the end of the day, there were very few supporters who truly wanted tickets and couldn't get their hands on one.

It is likely to be no different with this fixture and at the time of writing, there is ample tickets available for Offaly fans. Clubs were looking after their members first but once they are satisfied, they will be able to get tickets for supporters in their areas who haven't joined – there is a significant number of Offaly supporters who are not club members but clubs have been facilitating this on Wednesday afternoon.

Offaly GAA Operations Manager John Hackett urged other people looking for tickets to contact their local club and get looked after early.

Cork's allocation of club tickets will be going on sale on Thursday and any unsold ones will be put back on open sale by Ticketmaster, possibly some time on Friday evening.

Semple Stadium has a capacity of 44,000 and the expectation is that the attendance will fall short of that.

A crowd is excess of 10,000 is a very big one for Offaly and is significant as there are few truly anticipating a shock result against the beaten Munster finalists. It is, however, a fully merited reward for a squad of players and management who have worked so hard in recent years to turn the tide for Offaly hurling.

They have made steady, incremental progress each year this decade and have taken a decisive step forward by qualifying from the Leinster championship in third place

“There is genuine interest among supporters,” Mr Hackett remarked.