AS THE NEW season commences, Munster are focused on drawing bigger crowds to Thomond Park, despite what CEO Garrett Fitzgerald admits is a slowly-recovering local economy.
Attendance figures have dipped at the Limerick venue in recent years, although season ticket sales for the upcoming 2014/15 campaign are “on par” with those for last season.
Munster have announced a series of improvements to facilities at Thomond Park as the stadium prepares to host the province’s opening six games of the season, an unusual occurrence caused by the ongoing redevelopment of Musgrave Park.
Work on the Cork ground is expected to be complete in January of 2015, but Munster are hopeful of luring big crowds to Limerick in the coming months.
Among the changes at Thomond Park are an impressively refurbished Dug Out Bar in the East Stand, an upgraded and relocated museum next door, a range of new catering options, self-managed bars throughout the stadium, as well as a ‘Fan Zone Plaza’ outside the East Stand and a ‘Family Fun Zone’ near the North Terrace.
“I think that the supporter of today demands a different product than they demanded six to eight years ago,” explains Fitzgerald. “The first challenge we have is that over 80 per cent of our supporters will be travelling quite a distance to all games.
“It’s a challenge for us, where maybe if you compare it to the RDS where 80 per cent of the people can walk up – it’s a big difference for us. The timing of the fixtures is out of our control, so when people come we want to make the experience better for them, make it more enjoyable, more family friendly.”
The bottom line is that Munster need more people in the 26,200-capacity Thomond Park on match days, and not just for the biggest clashes in the Champions Cup. More people through the turnstiles means more precious income for the province.
Yes, we want to try and get more people here,” says Fitzgerald. “Gate income is a large portion of our income so it’s a big variable to have on your books if you don’t know what’s going to happen from week to week.
“We’re lucky that we have a good season ticket supporter base, but, at the end of the day, we want people to go away from the event having enjoyed themselves. The best way is to have good facilities and hopefully we have a good result on match day.”
Fitzgerald says season ticket sales for ‘14/15 have been equal to those of last season, in the 9,000 to 10,000 bracket and including a range of ticketing categories.
“Our season tickets are based around slightly different packages and the fact that we have two venues,” outlines Fitzgerald when quizzed on the issue. “I think the economic recovery in this part of the country, outside Dublin, isn’t anything like what’s going on in Dublin and the change is a lot slower; the growth in the economy is slower.
“To answer your question, they [season ticket sales] are on par with last year and hopefully they’ll rise. Last year, the ticket office did make up a lot of ground in individual match day sales.”
The latest developments at Thomond Park will not create any new full-time jobs for Limerick residents, but Stadium Director John Cantwell confirms there will be an increase in part-time positions.
Elsewhere, Munster’s new training facility in the University of Limerick – which will finally end the oft-criticised situation of having two training bases – is ready to move into the next stage.
“Enabling work” begins this month, while the building phase will start in January of 2015, with a 13-month time frame expected to see the project completed.
“The training base in UL in the last two weeks has been granted full planning permission,” says Fitzgerald.
“We delayed it due to future-proofing it, and changing the size of it, putting in a bigger footprint. It’s now been granted full planning permission with a view to being ready for occupation in January 2016.”
Friday night games…the glut of them scheduled for this season is a disaster for attracting fans. Not all Munster fans live in Limerick!
First thing Munster could do is cut out d awful opera music
Stand Up & Fight is a critical Munster tradition you fool. What they need to cut out is the rest of crap they have before games
Are the prematch drummers faking it ? Whats coming out of the speakers doesn’t seem to match the actions they are performing.
I enjoy the all the pageantry that goes on before the game, wish there was more
Munster cant’t expect big crowds when they are putting out 2nd string teams every second week. At least the new qualifying changes in the league mean they will be forced to play a stronger team more often.
Don’t agree tiger. Based on our league position last season, seems the teams sent out did just fine.
Munster have finished in the top 4 in eight out of that last ten years and would still have qualified for Europe under the new rules in the other 2 years. They (like the other provinces) play weakened teams because they are forced to by IRFU player welfare rules, not through choice. They also won 9 of their 11 home games last season. So I think we can dispel with the myth that crowds aren’t coming due to the teams that are put out.
If you want people to come from the little backwater Munster towns, like Cork and Waterford, you need to look at free or subsidised buses for supporters and letting all kids in free. Get the place filled up and generate an atmosphere that keeps people coming back.
I would consider having more games outside of Thomond. Musgrave is good but why not in Waterford in the RSC or Kerry if we can get Fitz stadium opened? It would allow the opportunity for people who’ve never been to a game to go to one and maybe entice them to go to a European game. Also what’s not reported is the season ticket s are aligned with the supporters club to be eligible for tickets. In previous years you had to buy a season ticket for the Rabo, this is more than likely the same case. I’m a proud Munster man who travelled 6/7 hour round trips from West Cork to see the lads play but I do think they should take into account the larger population for the smaller games.
The games will remain in musgrave and thomond as they are owned by munster. I agree with leaving kids into certain game free though. Categorise all non interpro and european games as cat b games, reduce all tickets by 5 euro for these and let u12s into terrace for free accompanied by an adult. A parent paying 15 euro for him/herself and the kids is more likely to attend than when paying 20 euro plus a 5er for each kid. The kids will pay their way in the shops no worries!
The ability to get up and down from Dublin via bus or train at a reasonable price would also be welcome.
Ops. Apologies for the double post.
Unless Munster are winning trophies, “da best fans in de wurld” wouldn’t get off their arse to support their team. Financially they’re crippled because of this and haven’t turned a profit in half a decade. Copying the Leinster match day model and arguing that Leinster fans can “walk” to the stadium (insinuation all Leinster fans are from around D4, what an idiot) whilst blaming distance for Munsters attendance goes to show just how out of his depth Fitzgerald is. Munsters average attendance last season was c. 12,000. Leinster have more season ticket holders than that – and not all from D4 believe it or not!!
You do realise that Greater Dublin on it’s own has a population of 1.2m people, while the entire province of Munster has a pop of only 1m??!
Just to put things in context here
Success equals increased attendances. It is no coincidence that a decline in the team’s fortunes has seen a decline in attendances. Was down in Thomond a couple months ago and it’s a really nice stadium but unless it’s fairly full, it seems a bit lifeless. Probably too big for most Celtic League games.
Or the ability to get up and down to dublin on the train would be a good one.