Munster Final for Croke Park?
By Shane Brophy
The Munster Council are open to exploring playing a Munster hurling final outside the province for the first time if social distancing restricts the capacity of venues in the province to small numbers.
Munster Council vice-chairman Ger Ryan confirmed that they are open to the possibility of playing their showpiece final or a big Cork v Kerry football clash at Croke Park if venue capacities prevent big crowds from attending.
As it stands, the likelihood is that the restructured inter-county championships this winter will be restricted to the four biggest venues of Semple Stadium, Pairc Ui Chaoimh, LIT Gaelic Grounds in Limerick, and Fitzgerald Stadium Killarney.
However, with all those venues having only limited seating, they could be restricted to as few as 5,000 people with two metre social distancing in seated sections.
For example, Semple Stadium has approximately 19,000 seats which could reduce the capacity to under 5,000 with two-metre social distancing as terracing is unlikely to be acceptable.
“One of the things we would definitely have to consider is if there is a big disparity between what you could hold in the province and what you could hold in Croke Park, should we go there for a Munster Hurling final or a Cork v Kerry football semi-final,” he said.
“If you could get 20,000 at Croke Park, why hold it in Thurles, Limerick or Cork with 5,000.”