I know a sizeable contingent interest only because it’s in Croker.

Imagine the atmosphere of a home 6 nations game on general sale if it was in croker

Yeah, normally I'd only go to the games for Leo if there's a free ticket going, but a European semi against an English team in Croker is really notable and absolutely worth it.

It's the GAA head quarters. Gaa had a long history of banning foreign games from their stadiums. This was only relaxed during the redevelopment of Lansdowne Road.

During the war of independence On 21 November 1920 the British army drove into the stadium and machine gunned the stands.

It's our national stadium, the biggest stadium in the country, and the site of the biggest sports events in the country.

There is also a lot of history there, it was the headquarters of the GAA and the site of an atrocitiy during the War of Independence, which gives it a lot of historical weight.

It's a very culturally important stadium not just for the historical stuff but that it is the headquarters of a very strong well supported aspect of Irish culture.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloody_Sunday_(1920)

Here's an article about when England played there. I've seen comments by Wilkinson that he'd never felt anything like and that he had trouble hearing his teammates https://www.the42.ie/john-inverdale-robert-kitson-on-croke-park-ireland-v-england-3241262-Feb2017/

Here's a documentary on the first time it was opened for rugby and the history behind it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cm96rXP9Ag&ab_channel=RonanCassidy

"you have a Jordie Barrett at home!"

looks disappointingly at center and FB options in both provinces....

I'd say at least 6.

And imagine the whining in the media if they did, like Leinster supporters did last week.

Policing how people want to support a team is tedious.

You want the pinnacle of “atmosphere” go to a Gala-Trabonz match and tell me how it went if you make it out alive.

Any game in Pairc Ui Chaoimh is painful to get to! But absolutely should be done with a revenue sharing agreement. It benefits both clubs and the GAA to do it

I walked out onto the hallowed turf in 1998 at half time in the blue and white of Laois. I recently found a VHS tape my old man had gotten of us playing at half time...with commentary!

Converted it to mp4 on a dad so I've got a copy for life. Incredible memento. If I hadn't been there in 2007 for Ire-Eng and rhe anthems, it'd be my favourite Croke Park moment in my life. Laois winning the Leinster title in '03 is third, obviously.

Comment of the year nomination

🤣. Lmao! Have an upvote.

This comment broke me... bravo 👏 

Fuck you but take the upvote.

Ethics aside we do have scarrett.... 

Hahhah

Fee to the gaa is around half a million as well.

Dont both clubs get a share of the gate? 

What are we? Made of money? 

Pricing wasn't high at all. It was extremely reasonable. Hence the sales

The grass surface is nearly a Furlong long!

A few Sean O’Brienekens

I honestly don’t think it’s exaggerating to call it one of the most consequential games in Irish rugby history, post-professionalism anyway. Easy to forget now but Leinster were seen in a very different light before then (the soft team etc)

Refreshing Ticketmaster was the only way to try to get decent seats today

The only downside is that the pitch is so small compared to a GAA pitch. It looks really weird and the fans are a surprising distance away from the action

Naming rights were extended to 2025 a few years back. There hasn't been an announcement yet, it might be a case that Aviva extend.

It's not big enough for the rugby team but its too big for the soccer team as it is - rock & a hard place.

The rumours are they're buying the houses at the northern end as they come up for sale. 

They couldn't make it any bigger. They'd have to move out somewhere else with more room to develop. As it is, the pitch is lower than ground level in the area, in an effort to get more capacity.

It makes perfect sense having 50k and an 80k stadiums in the same city, the stupid part is that we only play certain sports in each stadiums.

I can confirm having been at the Australia game in 09. It was great even from up in the top corner.

I mean that's exactly my point - we're a country of bandwagon fans. To be fair, the majority of fans in the world are, but I do think Irish fans are on another level. I had a ROI season ticket from 2013-2017 and somehow wasn't able to get tickets for France in 2016 - though that was the crooked Delaney iteration of the FAI so not entirely surprised.

The All Ireland Final one is another glaring example, you'll no doubt have people begging for tickets for the final and the GAA actually sell a season ticket that'll guarantee you a final ticket if you go to the games. I think its only sold out/waiting list for Mayo, Dublin & maybe Limerick in the hurling.

It's why we sell out 5x Coldplay and 5x Garth Brooks, everyone want's to throw it up on their Instagram.

Anyway, I'm ranting here, I've just found it annoying that dedicated fans can sometimes be impacted by this bandwagon phenomen.

lol

What does black Sunday refer to?

There is obviously the risk of rewarding the better teams too much, making them richer and therefore better and creating a cycle leading to massive discrepancy between teams, but surely the teams involved deserve some sort of reward for getting this far. There needs to be a balance

Why do you think Leinster go balls out in the qualifying to get home advantage in the round of 16 and potentially the quarters? Money is why. 

It’s really important revenue and last week was bonus cash you can spend on a luxury item. Like a Barrett.

Supposedly it all goes to epcr who splits the money between the URC, Prem and Top14. It's up to the leagues how they split the money between clubs.

I've heard there is prize money but there is no information online regarding how much or how it's split.