DERRY fans may have to wait until next week before discovering whether more favourable seating options will become available to them for their All-Ireland semi-final meeting with Galway.
Ahead of the double-header alongside the Tailteann Cup final between Cavan and Westmeath, some 27,000 tickets were sold in just 30 minutes after the online general sale began yesterday at midday.
For Oak Leaf fans, the only method of buying tickets for the game is through Ticketmaster.
However, the same does not apply to Galway, whose fans are able to avail of the traditional method of ordering through their clubs.
This is because their county board opted to do so, whereas Derry’s did not.
It’s understood that for Derry, the absence of full-time administrative staff and the pressure placed on volunteer county board members by the volume of orders around the Ulster final were factors in their decision.
The majority of Derry supporters were notably spread out to the four corners of Croke Park for their win over Clare, a result of buying the early-sale tickets shortly after the draw was made.
A number of centrally-located tickets for the semi-final were released yesterday, the GAA has told The Irish News, but they sold out quickly.
The middle of the lower tier of the Cusack Stand is reserved for season ticket holders, who have until Thursday to take up their option of a ticket.
In the Hogan Stand, much of the central seating is allocated to the competing counties.
Derry will have an allocation built into that, but theirs will go on general sale at some point and could be picked up by supporters from other counties.
A spokesperson for Derry GAA said that “as informed by the GAA ticket office, the general sale tickets available for any county to purchase are the same tickets that are available for people to buy directly online via Ticketmaster. Once season ticket allocations have been taken up, any surplus tickets are returned to the Ticketmaster system.”
