I travelled from south kerry the morning of kerry/mayo game..took me 2hrs 45 mins to get to gaelic grounds..certainly didnt feel like any advantage to me. Game was there for Mayo to win in both games and when teams have narrow losses they always come up with some excuse.

No Kerry havent played in gaelic grounds very often at all..i dont have the stats and may be wrong but id be surprised if we played there more then 2 or 3 times the last 10 years. Certainly didnt hear many fans from Mayo or Kerry complaining about the venue in the hour or two before the game started in Limerick.

OK i wont mention Dublin in croke park if it makes you feel better.

KY4SAM2015 (Kerry) - Posts: 898 - 01/08/2015 21:54:36    1762219

I think beaten provinal finalists should at least be rewarded with home advantage in qualifers, would be a bonus for counties that are after playing 3 games in province before they even play provincal final(donegal and westmeath). Would seem unfair for counties that only played one match to reach provincal final (cork and sligo ) but overall would have given some reward to teams that made final. That would have meant qualifers were in cork, sligo, donegal and mullingar.

madbull (Westmeath) - Posts: 195 - 02/08/2015 10:21:48    1762265

The attendance yesterday proved all these posts correct and the GAA wrong, the 2 qualifiers shouldn't have been played in Croke Park but wait until next weekend the attendance won't be much better, it's wrong to expect Tyrone and Donegal supporters to make the long trek to Dublin 2 Saturdays in a row, with the 2nd game down for 6pm Mayo won't have a massive crowd with them either, the season ticket holders will be there as well as the diehard fans but with the late time arriving home (some won't be home until 1 or 2am) means a lot won't travel, another great idea by the GAA, why don't they agree on times and venues and then throw that idea away as they haven't a clue, not 1 time in the past 10-20 years have they got something right. Why didn't they have the games down for 2pm and 4pm and out the junior final down for the weekend after and never mind Sky and their TV schedules

riverboys (Mayo) - Posts: 1389 - 02/08/2015 12:27:47    1762348

GAA need 3 or 4 state of the art 30000 seater stadiums with one in Dublin and that's where most of these matches should be played. Croke Park has little to no atmosphere if there is less than 60000.

tyroneed (Tyrone) - Posts: 753 - 02/08/2015 13:12:06    1762371

riverboys
County: Mayo
Posts: 416

1762348
The attendance yesterday proved all these posts correct and the GAA wrong, the 2 qualifiers shouldn't have been played in Croke Park but wait until next weekend the attendance won't be much better, it's wrong to expect Tyrone and Donegal supporters to make the long trek to Dublin 2 Saturdays in a row, with the 2nd game down for 6pm Mayo won't have a massive crowd with them either,

I don't agree with you about next weekend riverboys.

The 4 teams involved, Mayo, Donegal, Tyrone & Monaghan, are all well supported & I would expect a crowd of at least 60,000.

The interest in Donegal is huge & Monaghan are on a real roll. Tyrone people will fancy their chances against Monaghan & I can't see the Mayo folk sending their men out into Croke Park to face a huge Ulster crowd alone.

MuckrossHead (Donegal) - Posts: 5028 - 02/08/2015 13:43:15    1762381

Tyroneed I agree. A 50,000 seated stadium in somewhere like Athlone would be perfect. Would work for quarter and semi finals. Enough is enough of this crap of playing games in an empty 80,000 seated stadium.
What's everyone's predictions for the attendance today? You would have to think there will be at least 60k, but the problem will be there will only be 20k at the first game.This shows where there needs to be a 40,000 state of the art stadium somewhere south in the country and I think Clones does the job for the north

PoppinPoints (Meath) - Posts: 225 - 02/08/2015 13:45:06    1762382

3 teams from Nortwest travelled to Dublin yesterday, Sligo, Donegal and Tyrone, and Galway from the West. It doesn't make sense to drag supporters across Ireland for 2 games. Why not play those matches in Castlebar for Donegal v Galway, and Cavan for Tyrone vSligo, less travel for supporters.
Who decided on Croke Park for 2 qualifiers, unless it's for money?. The attendance hardly justified the decision.

thelongridge (Offaly) - Posts: 1757 - 02/08/2015 15:05:04    1762419

Ridiculous decision to play yesterday's qualifiers in Croke Park. Dragging Sligo, Tyrone, Donegal and Galway all the way to play in a half empty Croke Park.

Sligo - Tyrone could have been in Enniskillen and Donegal - Galway in Carick on Shannon. Surely better to have the qualifiers played out in the provinical grounds in front of packed stadiums and a better atmosphere.

men_of_49 (Meath) - Posts: 1996 - 02/08/2015 17:27:55    1762530