Access to GAA club games to go online
By Shane Brophy
Patrons attending matches in the upcoming Tipperary senior and intermediate club hurling and football championships will have to purchase pre-paid tickets to attend.
Having to adhere to public health guidelines which requires traceability of those that attend matches, as well has the non-handling of cash at the stiles, GAA followers will have to adapt by buying their tickets in advance online.
“All admission to matches will be online,” confirmed Tipperary County Board secretary Tim Floyd.
“There will be no walk-up and paying cash at gates. You will have to have a permit to attend a match.”
These permits can be printed off and scanned at the gate at each venue.
The County Secretary added that any venues that are sold out will be announced through local and social media, but where games aren’t sold out, there will be an option for a walk-up crowd to attend, but they will have to pay by debit/credit card.
“The key thing is traceability,” added Floyd.
“By doing everything online you have traceability of everyone who is at the match, in the event there is the need to check back at who was there. Hopefully, we won’t have that.
“At lot of the games are direct clashes so nobody is going to go to every game. In most cases you might get to one game on a Saturday and one on a Sunday on average.”
The championships begin on weekend 17-19 July with the first round of football where just 200 people can attend, rising to 500 people from July 20th in time for the start of the hurling championships the following weekend. While there are no double-headers, that number of 500 will include players and officials which could reduce the number of tickets available to spectators of around half that number.
Tim Floyd explained: “The problem we have is the 500 comes down to just 250 to sell as of the other 250 you have nearly 100 on the field between players, backroom teams, match officials and stewards. Then you have to add in the amount of passes we have between club plus passes from Croke Park and our own season ticket holders and then club and referees passes so you could be left with just 250 to sell per match, and that includes children.
“We may work with clubs to give them an allocation so we’ll see what way that works with each club given 100 tickets, of which 50 would be for players/backroom team with the remainder going to immediate supporters.”
Online Streaming
The Newport clubman also confirmed that there will be live streaming of club games for the first time in the upcoming championships.
“We are definitely doing it,” Tim Floyd said with live streaming to begin from the first round of the hurling championship on 25-26 July with an aim of showing one live game on a Saturday and Sunday.
The Newport clubman also confirmed that there will be live streaming of club games for the first time in the upcoming championships.
“We are definitely doing it,” Tim Floyd said with live streaming to begin from the first round of the hurling championship on 25-26 July with an aim of showing one live game on a Saturday and Sunday.
Tipperary County Board are still in negotiations with a number of service providers but there will be a cost to those who wish to watch online, likely to be €10 per game, like what is generally charged at the gate.
There is a significant cost involved of live streaming games, approximately €2,000 per match with Floyd confirming they would need around 200 subscriptions per game to cover their costs.
“You’d still want 300 subscriptions per game to make it pay because you are really only covering costs up to 200 subscriptions. It wouldn’t pay to otherwise as we have to hire the camera and the commentators so there are costs involved.
“We are going to thread softly. We are not sure if it will work or not, so we’ll see what kind of take-up there is in the first couple of weeks.
“We’ll start with the hurling and see what is the biggest demand. If it works for hurling, we’ll look at doing it for the closing stages of the football.
For rounds 2 & 3, the County Board will have to schedule the games it wishes to show around the live offering from both TG4 and RTE, even if they are games in another county as their broadcast rights mean you can’t stream a match at the same time TG4 or RTE are showing one live.
TG4 and RTE are unlikely to pick up a Tipperary club game on 25-26 July but both are interested in showing second and third round games in August.
Finance
Live streaming of games opens another potential revenue stream for Tipperary County at a time where apart from merchandise, there has been no income generation for the last three months.
Live streaming of games opens another potential revenue stream for Tipperary County at a time where apart from merchandise, there has been no income generation for the last three months.
“At the moment, cash flow is ok, just about,” Tim Floyd said of the County Board’s financial situation.
“For the rest of the year we could be in trouble once the club games start and the inter-county teams start back. We haven’t had a lot of expense; all our insurances have been paid to Croke Park. We’d be hoping to have a return from the club championships and a return from provincial and national level as well, otherwise we’ll be in dire straights at the end of the year.”