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04th Jun 2016

Fans stay away as GAA’s Nowlan Park gamble backfires

Mikey Stafford

The GAA’s decision to fix Dublin’s first Championship match outside Croke Park for Kilkenny appears to have backfired with thousands of tickets going unsold in Laois.

Fans from the Midlands county are upset with the choice of venue, feeling Dublin  – whose last summer trip outside Croker resulted in a nervy two-point win over Longford – should have been made to play a proper ‘away’ fixture in O’Moore Park, Portlaoise.

This week one of Mick O’Dwyer’s selectors from his time at Laois, former Laois player Declan O’Loughlin, called for a boycott. While that has not come to pass, it seems only 1,500 tickets have been sold by Laois County Board – one-third of their allocation.

The Leinster Council are hoping plenty of walk-up sales will contribute to a crowd of 20,000 in the 25,000 capacity Nowlan Park for this evening’s Leinster SFC quarter-final.

Besides Laois anger, Dublin fans are also being put off a rare road trip by a shortage of accommodation in the Marble City, where the Cat Laughs comedy festival is also taking place.

The promotional push has been constant on the Leinster GAA Twitter account all week.

However most fans have been unmoved by the marketing campaign.

https://twitter.com/niallerkav/status/737889300822560768

https://twitter.com/Woolberto/status/738288672269819904

https://twitter.com/EbbieQuigley/status/738287213138567168

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