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National Hurling League 2026

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Replying To WanPintWin:  "I know this is a league thread, but Limerick would be my favourites for the All-Ireland regardless of Currid being back. They're still the most established team at the moment and have a panel full of top quality players, who can play the game whichever way you want.
Provided they haven't gotten old overnight as it appeared against Dublin, I'd have them ahead of any team on a given day. I think Cork are the team who could give them the most trouble, depending on which Cork turns up of course.
Tipp of course are champions and will always have a serious scoring threat. I think Waterford will be more competitive in Munster, and it could be last chance saloon for a few of Clare's star players.
Kilkenny will be competitive, but they're down a few key players from last year.
Dubs and Wexford looking to build. Hard to know what to expect from either, and as for Galway...... we'll leave it there. ;)"
Clare won the 2024 allireland, so they don't need to be visiting any saloons for a last chance. They can ride into the sunset with that title.

Pope_Benedict (Galway) - Posts: 4528 - 25/01/2026 11:30:27    2653029

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Replying To Doylerwex:  "An active underage coach having to pay for kids to go to games is like charging the cast to see the film in the cinema. Under 16s were always free. It's an outrage they've changed it. Cutting off their nose to spite their face as usual."
U16s and the youth are the games future. They should be free , families with 3/4 and more children going to games is what it's all about.

Saynothing (Tyrone) - Posts: 2549 - 25/01/2026 12:02:40    2653039

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Replying To Claretandblue:  "Your local cinema must live to see you coming with your kids!!! Arguing that they should get in for free"
The cinema is a place where all involved are being paid. As Doylerwex and Barney said the GAA is an organisation relying on free labour and people giving freely of their time.
I'm not wanting a free All-Ireland final ticket. But every empty seat in January is not promoting our games in counties where the game needs oxygen badly.
Never cut the hand that feeds you. That child is a future hurler, club supporter, fundraiser, administrator.

ExiledInWex (Dublin) - Posts: 1538 - 25/01/2026 21:38:30    2653196

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Replying To ExiledInWex:  "The cinema is a place where all involved are being paid. As Doylerwex and Barney said the GAA is an organisation relying on free labour and people giving freely of their time.
I'm not wanting a free All-Ireland final ticket. But every empty seat in January is not promoting our games in counties where the game needs oxygen badly.
Never cut the hand that feeds you. That child is a future hurler, club supporter, fundraiser, administrator."
Under 16s are free entry for Nat league matches? They were in Mullingar yesterday and while that's Div 3 it shouldn't be a factor? 17-18 year olds paying a fiver is fine.

Claretandblue (Westmeath) - Posts: 2558 - 26/01/2026 01:38:55    2653240

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Replying To ExiledInWex:  "The cinema is a place where all involved are being paid. As Doylerwex and Barney said the GAA is an organisation relying on free labour and people giving freely of their time.
I'm not wanting a free All-Ireland final ticket. But every empty seat in January is not promoting our games in counties where the game needs oxygen badly.
Never cut the hand that feeds you. That child is a future hurler, club supporter, fundraiser, administrator."
Absolutely. Unfortunately its "penny wise pound foolish" carry on of the worst kind. Unfortunately sone of the administrators who make these kind of decisions are only interested in how good at their jobs they look now, how much immediate revenue they can generate, and how far up the ladder they can get. They know they likely won't be around, or won't be in the job they currently are in, in 20 years time.
Others must be just thick and/or short sighted.
What other reasons could there be for the decision to charge kids into 3/4 empty stadia?

Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 18167 - 26/01/2026 08:12:14    2653245

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Replying To Claretandblue:  "Under 16s are free entry for Nat league matches? They were in Mullingar yesterday and while that's Div 3 it shouldn't be a factor? 17-18 year olds paying a fiver is fine."
U16s a fiver in div 1a and div 1b. And div1 and div2 NFL.

Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 18167 - 26/01/2026 10:13:43    2653262

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Replying To Claretandblue:  "Under 16s are free entry for Nat league matches? They were in Mullingar yesterday and while that's Div 3 it shouldn't be a factor? 17-18 year olds paying a fiver is fine."
They're a fiver in the top 2 divisions

Doylerwex (Wexford) - Posts: 4184 - 26/01/2026 11:17:41    2653275

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Replying To Claretandblue:  "Under 16s are free entry for Nat league matches? They were in Mullingar yesterday and while that's Div 3 it shouldn't be a factor? 17-18 year olds paying a fiver is fine."
For context, the cost for my family to attend the hurling is 65 quid. The wife and I, 17 y/o daughter (adult ticket) and under 16 son.

We attend all games. It's now costing us 25 more per game than it did two years ago. That adds up over the course of a season.

Doylerwex (Wexford) - Posts: 4184 - 26/01/2026 11:22:31    2653278

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That's an error on administration part. Any child under 16 should be free. I've no issue with 17-18 year olds being charged

Claretandblue (Westmeath) - Posts: 2558 - 26/01/2026 11:45:17    2653288

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Replying To Doylerwex:  "For context, the cost for my family to attend the hurling is 65 quid. The wife and I, 17 y/o daughter (adult ticket) and under 16 son.

We attend all games. It's now costing us 25 more per game than it did two years ago. That adds up over the course of a season."
There are lots of people in your situation. For all their obsession with making money out of our facilities, they don't get the concept that if you boost the attendance of paying adults by allowing free entry for children then it acts as what marketing people used to call a "loss leader."

Not only get in more paying adults but enhance the atmosphere and most importantly introduce and retain the future generation as others have said.

That is a cultural not an accountancy issue so hardly surprising it doesn't top the agenda any more.

BarneyGrant (Dublin) - Posts: 3968 - 26/01/2026 12:00:34    2653292

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Replying To BarneyGrant:  "There are lots of people in your situation. For all their obsession with making money out of our facilities, they don't get the concept that if you boost the attendance of paying adults by allowing free entry for children then it acts as what marketing people used to call a "loss leader."

Not only get in more paying adults but enhance the atmosphere and most importantly introduce and retain the future generation as others have said.

That is a cultural not an accountancy issue so hardly surprising it doesn't top the agenda any more."
They are still called loss leaders in marketing speak Barney! Good for supermarkets, but not the modern GAA seemingly.

Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 18167 - 26/01/2026 12:40:01    2653308

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I strongly feel this thing of charging a fiver for U16s for League matches is an awful thing to do.

The main "justification" for it seems to be crowd management - e.g. if a venue has a capacity of 10,000 and 7,000 adult tickets are sold, no way of knowing without child tickets if those 7,000 adults are going to bring 2,000 children (which you could manage) or 4,000 children (which would give you all sorts of problems).

But those issues are rare for the League - never an issue in Wexford Park anyway! - and you could achieve the same thing by charging even a nominal €1 for a child's ticket.

Other issue is when there's assigned seating, e.g. in Croke Park, but again, you could solve that by just charging €1 per child.

Pikeman96 (Wexford) - Posts: 3333 - 26/01/2026 15:00:10    2653359

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Replying To Doylerwex:  "For context, the cost for my family to attend the hurling is 65 quid. The wife and I, 17 y/o daughter (adult ticket) and under 16 son.

We attend all games. It's now costing us 25 more per game than it did two years ago. That adds up over the course of a season."
This is my point too Doylerwex.
My wife never really went to league matches so its me and up to 3 kids.
For me, its gone from €20 for the 4 of us to €35 now. I don't think €20 is good value for a league match but I very very much don't believe the other €15 is money well spent on a league match in January.
The point here is if they went in to the schools, even put a free ticket in every child's hand for the match, some of them will be used. "Can we go to the match", "All my friends are going", pester power etc.
And then an exciting finish like the Wexford match on Saturday "Can we go to the next game"?
Instead, children might know the game is on. They might not though.
I keep my money for the championship games and bringing the children to The Nell or KK depending on the fixture.
I said already, 100% of an empty seat equals €0.
A financial and promotional own goal by the GAA.

ExiledInWex (Dublin) - Posts: 1538 - 26/01/2026 15:21:38    2653367

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Replying To Pikeman96:  "I strongly feel this thing of charging a fiver for U16s for League matches is an awful thing to do.

The main "justification" for it seems to be crowd management - e.g. if a venue has a capacity of 10,000 and 7,000 adult tickets are sold, no way of knowing without child tickets if those 7,000 adults are going to bring 2,000 children (which you could manage) or 4,000 children (which would give you all sorts of problems).

But those issues are rare for the League - never an issue in Wexford Park anyway! - and you could achieve the same thing by charging even a nominal €1 for a child's ticket.

Other issue is when there's assigned seating, e.g. in Croke Park, but again, you could solve that by just charging €1 per child."
To be fair you wouldn't even need to charge to achieve that. You can have children's tickets priced at zero and add them to an adult ticket.

If it were anything to do with crowd control they'd have done it for the lower divisions as well

Doylerwex (Wexford) - Posts: 4184 - 26/01/2026 21:18:43    2653446

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Replying To Doylerwex:  "To be fair you wouldn't even need to charge to achieve that. You can have children's tickets priced at zero and add them to an adult ticket.

If it were anything to do with crowd control they'd have done it for the lower divisions as well"
Thing is, if there was no charge to reserve a child's place, and with human nature being what it is, many people would likely add two, three or more child tickets to their own adult ticket, because "sure it doesn't cost anything extra and then I have the option of bringing the kids and maybe one of their friends if they want to go".

And then if it was a rare case of a smaller ground likely to fill up (say capacity 10,000) -
- 4,000 people buy adult tickets and add a couple of free child tickets each, until all 10,000 spots are taken.
- Person 4,001 and everybody else is now told "sold out" when they try to buy a ticket for themselves.
- Then 1,000 or more of these free child places aren't used at all. Person 4,001 and everybody else is annoyed that there would have been room in the ground for them after all.

You know, maybe €1 isn't even enough to safeguard against this sort of thing. People would obviously think twice as hard at spending €2 for a ticket that might or might not be used. And thinking harder again for the €5 that actually is charged.

But I'm not arguing that there should be a charge after all! I remain opposed to it because it's so rare these things are an issue at all. Am just saying how things would operate differently if child tickets could be reserved for free, rather than having to be paid for.

Pikeman96 (Wexford) - Posts: 3333 - 27/01/2026 10:08:46    2653486

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If capacity were an issue for a league game I would totally get what you are saying but the reality is it is not.
Our games are crying out for promotion and coverage and oxygen particularly across the board in Leinster and for a chap to go for a few taps at half time, instead they are at home not even able to see the games. No teenager is going to listen to the match on the radio. They'll find something better to do.
A disastrous own goal and far from getting more in the gate I would hazard a guess it is hampering attendances.

ExiledInWex (Dublin) - Posts: 1538 - 29/01/2026 15:34:20    2653931

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