Real story behind URC final attendance figures at Croke Park will surprise you
There are a variety of people who claim to have coined the phrase 'What if they gave a war and nobody came' and, indeed Pat Boone of Ain't That a Shame fame, had an absolutely awful single of the same name.But it's the URC who are laughing all the to the bank and predicting a 42,000-plus attendance at Croke Park for a match without 'away' fans and for which the tickets only went on sale last Monday.It's a minor victory for that idea that 'destination' finals are not good for sport, that is picking a city at the start of season and which was used by the URC 2015-19.The advantage is the event is on sale for eight months, the disadvantage is you could pick a northern hemisphere venue and get two South African teams and vice-versa.The league's current MO is to allow the side with the highest league position once the finalists are known - and they were not known until last Saturday. Leinster had nominated Croke Park at the beginning of the season as the RDS is being rebuilt and, at the time, the FAI had reserved this weekend at The Aviva.First estimates that the URC Grand final would attract as little as 12,000 were a long way wide of the mark and as evidence that the lower bowl was not enough to cater for the demand emerged on Wednesday, a section of the Upper Cusack was opened.The URC did not have a Grand Final between 2004 and 2009. The next phase, merit-based finals from 2010-14, saw just one passing 20,000, namely Munster vs Leinster in 2011 at Thomond Park.The 2015-19 destination finals, at a time when there were no South African club involved in the league, got past 40,000 on three ocassions on the back of getting it 'right'.
The Aviva hosted Munster vs Scarlets (47,556) in 2017 and Leinster vs Scarlets (46,092) in 2018 before Glasgow hosted Glasgow vs Leinster (47,128) in 2019.The 2020 and 2021 finals were played behind closed doors because of Covid restrictions while, more recently, there was 31,000 in Cape Town for all the all-South African Stormers vs Bulls, a record 53,244 in Cape Town for the All-South African Bulls vs Stormers, and 50,388 in Pretoria for Bulls vs Glasgow.Leinster's average URC attendance is 12,000, while their average for the season which included an 80,000 Munster Croke Park sell-out and the Champions Cup games, is 32,000.Their disappointing semi-final attendance of 15,762 was taken in the light of Ireland playing a soccer match against Senegal the previous Thursday and attracting 32,478. The URC, who are only expecting a small number of UK-based Bulls fans and very few foreign-based neutrals, are privately delighted to be pushing 43,000.Still, lessons are being learned and there is an announcement in the offing that the gap between the semi-finals and the final will be stretched to two week to allow fans more time to plan trips. It's not too late to go to today's match either and tickets are as cheap as €20 for Hill 16.
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