Kerry season ticket holders, David and Seamus Walsh. Photo by Gavin O’Connor.
SOME Kerry season ticket holders have been left dissatisfied with the seats they have been allocated for this Sunday’s Munster SFC Final in Killarney.
Many of the fans, who are seen as the most loyal Kerry supporters, have been left with tickets on the fringes of the main stand in Fitzgerald Stadium.
But the Munster Council point out that the stand capacity in Killarney is limited and they do their best for the season ticket holders.
O’Rahilly’s Villas man, David Walsh, who runs the Kerry fan Facebook page ‘Sam 37′, says he has been inundated with messages from disgruntled Kerry season ticket holders who feel they are being taken for granted.
“I go to every Kerry game without fail. I think the tickets are very poor,” he said. “I’d rather a terrace ticket in the middle of the field, but they won’t swap stand tickets for terrace tickets which is very frustrating.”
“It’s only in Killarney where tickets are bad. In Croke Park, they’re are normally very good. I don’t know who is getting the tickets in the middle of the stand because everyone I’ve been talking to has got a seat from the 21 yard line, down to the goals,” he says.
Traleetoday.ie understands that it is the Munster Council, not the Kerry County Board, who allocates the season ticket holders’ tickets for Sunday’s match and that the allocation has to do with an issue of stand capacity.
The Munster Council points out that the main stand in Fitzgerald Stadium holds just over 8,000 seats and from that total there are almost 2,000 seats to be allocated to season ticket holders.
The 8,000 all seater stand has to accommodate, along with the season ticket holders, the three competing counties, allocations for players families, sponsors and non-competing counties.
Because most of the season ticket holders for the match on Sunday are from Kerry, those tickets have to be taken from Kerry’s overall allocation.
The Munster Council says it does its best to look after season ticket holders and they are getting the best available seats having regard to all the other obligations the Council has to meet to counties and others.
“However, clearly some people are not happy while I’m sure others will recognise the benefits of being guaranteed a stand seat in a stand which provides for very good viewing overall,” say the Munster Council.
They point out that the issue is exclusive to the Killarney venue because of capacity issues, as in Semple Stadium and Croke Park, season ticket holders get much better tickets due to the huge seating capacity in both stadiums.
