Replay ticket scramble reaches fever pitch

Demand ‘frenzy’ for Saturday’s semi-final

Edwin McGreal

Thousands of Mayo fans who queued at SuperValu stores all over Mayo yesterday (Monday) morning and tried to buy tickets online for Saturday’s All-Ireland Football Championship Semi-Final replay were left disappointed when tickets sold out in record time.
The GAA announced yesterday afternoon that there will be no more tickets on general sale for the game after ‘unprecedented demand’ saw what tickets were released snapped up as fans rushed to get their hands on precious tickets for the eagerly anticipated replay.
The remaining avenue for tickets is through clubs in the competing counties.
Mayo staged a thrilling comeback on Sunday to come from seven points down to draw with favourites Dublin at a sold -out Croke Park.
Castlebar man John Ludden was among those queuing for tickets at SuperValu in Castlebar yesterday. A season ticket holder, and therefore automatically entitled to a ticket himself, he was looking to get some for friends. He was there for two-and-a-half hours.
“It was madness what went on. There were a lot of disappointed people,” Mr Ludden told The Mayo News last night. Mr Ludden said people were hearing that tickets were sold out but were being reassured they would get tickets and a lot of chaos ensued.
He eventually left and drove to Ballyhaunis where he managed to get the last of the tickets from the Connacht Council offices.
“Tickets went on sale online on Sunday night when a lot of Mayo fans were on the way home and had no way of buying them. How were they meant to know? Some tickets are already being sold by touts for €150 online,” said Mr Ludden, a brother of Mayo senior team kitman Liam Ludden.

‘Akin to a final’
The GAA’s Head of Media Relations Alan Milton said he has never seen such demand for an All-Ireland semi-final.
“There has been unprecedented demand for these two games for semi-finals. It is akin to a final. There have been other semi-finals which have been sell outs but not with demand like it is for these games,” he told The Mayo News.
Mr Milton said the GAA does not reveal the number of tickets released to general sale but two batches were released, one on Sunday night and another on Monday morning, through its ticketing partners tickets.ie and also in SuperValu stores. The second batch was sold out in 50 minutes.
Tickets.ie received a staggering 73,240 hits on Sunday night and Monday morning from people looking to purchase tickets for the game. A whopping 72 per cent of these were in the Dublin area. Some supporters expressed annoyance at delays and technical problems with the site, which Mr Milton said was simply due to the ‘sheer volume’ of people using the site at one time.
Mr Milton said the number of Mayo supporters on Sunday was ‘incredible considering the distance they have to travel’ compared to Dublin and added that it looks as if Mayo will be traveling in similar numbers for the replay.
“A replay is usually not as well attended as the drawn game because people might be working on the Saturday or have young kids and they may struggle to go two weekends in a row, but that doesn’t seem to have kicked in this time. Demand is just as strong.
“The thrilling nature of the game is definitely a factor. It may not have been the best game of football ever but the dramatic conclusion has people wanting more,” said Mr Milton.

Club allocation
Mayo GAA Chairman Mike Connelly said he is confident clubs will get a satisfactory number of tickets for Saturday’s replay, in line with what they requested for the drawn game.
“Clubs will get what they got for Sunday. They won’t get any less and they might get maybe five per cent more,” he told The Mayo News last night. “We distributed to clubs 96 per cent of what they requested. We’re hoping we will be able to distribute 100 per cent of what they requested (for the drawn game) this time,” he added.
While he did not have the exact figures to hand, Mr Connelly said this will amount to approximately 6,500 club tickets, while there will be an additional 1,500 to 2,000 tickets for players’ families, sponsors, board officials and others.  
He said the tight timeframe before the replay makes the distribution of tickets difficult and clubs have to have their allocation requests in by tonight (Tuesday).
Mr Connelly said it was ‘a frenzy’ on Monday looking for tickets but that online sales have ‘worked out fine’ generally.
“It is helpful. It takes the pressure off the clubs, which in turn takes the pressure off us for demand. It is easier. Season ticket holders can download their tickets so they are not coming in the door to us either,” he said.
Mayo have approximately 3,500 season -ticket and Cairde Maigheo holders who are all entitled to a ticket each.
Stand tickets are retailing at €30, down from €40 for the first game.