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.”
Excellent analysis of all the pieces of the jigsaw of moves leading to great tries
Great analysis as always. What an atmosphere yesterday. Delighted for Sexton and Healy!!! What a Six Nations send off
@Kenneth O Connor: Healy not getting a run was disappointing and strange
@Noel Lynn: He did… only about 4 minutes but he did play.
Yesterday(and last week) should put to bed any doubt about Conan’s value. Every bit as effective as Doris imo.
@Gary Donlan: doris level ahead
@Gary Donlan: I’m a big, big fan of Conan – he’s an outstanding player – but I’d have to acknowledge that Doris is at the very top of the global tree. And he has so much more to grow, being so young. Arguably a future World Player of the Year nominee, if not winner.
I see lots of people saying how England really used line speed yesterday to get in Irelands face, that’s not what happened at all. England played a soft drift defence, not putting too much pressure on the first carrier / passer, and not committing too many men to the breakdown, opting to be more disruptive and messy rather than look for turnovers. It was an interesting tactic and one that threw a lot of the Irish players off, particularly Furlong who takes the first pivot option quite often. Ireland will need to learn how to adapt to it by World Cup, I can’t imagine South Africa or France would try it, they would trust their line speed, but I wouldn’t be surprised at all if Scotland or even New Zealand thought about using it.
Great analysis there. It shows really how intelligent this group are. Dorris, JVF,, Aki, Sexton, Hansen running subplots and dummies lines and how they build a try 3 phases out. To have so many on the same page is extraordinary and as Farrell said, they will get a lot better over the next few months with more time collectively in camp.
Roll on the WC
It was squeaky bum time for much of the game. England gave it everything. Ireland found a way to win. Work done with decoy runners is magnificent. Enjoy, upwards and onwards to France
That was some offload by Conan for sheehans try.
Sheehan is a pure speed merchant
@Gary Galligan: He’s a 4×4 at full speed.
On the strike plays which Ireland use we have seen a few of these in this 6 nations I believe they have only used a small number of these in this 6 nations and there are many more which they had no need to use and they are been reserved for the later stages of the world Cup.
I would imagine when Farrell and his team review this game they will be a little concerned. Obviously the short term gain here, winning a grand slam, is brilliant. But there was a lot of pressure going into the game and we did not handle it well. Ultimately a red card may have won it for Ireland and whether you agree or disagree with the card the nature of it shows it can how easily happen under current rules. (There was at least 1 red card possibility for us that was missed by the ref and TMO). This team will ultimately be judged on how it performs in the World Cup. When they meet Scotland on the 7th of October it will more than likely be a knock out game. The pressure on them will easily be as intense as yesterday, probably more so. They will need to be a lot better. If we don’t make it out of the group, this Grand Slam will lose a lot of it’s shine. Of course hopefully by the time we meet Scotland SA will have 2 losses so it won’t matter :)
@Pud: OTOH, the experience of yesterday, a real pressure cooker, will stand to them. Plus, those guys played a lot of intense rugby over a short period of time. Some were definitely not at their best, following injuries (Furlong, for example, looked rusty; Henshaw wasn’t fully up to speed; Ringrose in and out). Farrell took some risks, playing guys like Porter, VDF, Keenan, Hansen and others to their limits (Keenan looked tired yesterday, as did others). The player management plan for the RWC needs to cater for the interactive effects of physical endurance and how it affects mental/emotional resilience. I’m pretty confident they’re on top of that. And again, all the players will be better for the experience of this 6N.
@Pud: South Africa then Scotland…followed by France or New Zealand…three massive banana skins….I don’t think if we are stopped before semi final, yesterday’s outstanding achievement will be diminished….cruel world cup draw.
Herring sealed victory over the All Blacks with a similar try in the third test .. hooker is definitely a position we don’t need to worry about… bench again made the difference yesterday
Murray Kinsella, single handedly helping other teams work out Ireland!!