'No excuse' - will Galway fans light up Pearse Stadium in 2025?
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A few nights before Christmas, the sky in Salthill shone brightly. Galway completed a successful testing of their new Pearse Stadium floodlights ahead of the highly anticipated league opener against All-Ireland champions Armagh. Having built it, will the crowd come?
It is a live concern. Galway’s last home championship game of 2024, a preliminary quarter-final against Monaghan, had an attendance of just 6,768. The turnout for the hurlers final fixture of the season was 8,087 for a do-or-die clash with Dublin.
Crowd sizes are complex. There are a host of contributing factors: cost-of-living, the number of championship games, a condensed season. But the fact remains that it took an enormous effort to make the lights dream a reality. It was funded through a combination of Sports Capital Grants, Galway City Council and Galway GAA. The county carried out various other recent infrastructure projects including the refurbishment of the stand in Tuam Stadium, drainage in Kenny Park, fencing in Duggan Park and an upgrade to the floodlights on the back pith in the training complex at Loughgeorge. Now they want their supporters to bask in the glow.
“It is still very hard to get over last July,” said Galway chair Paul Bellew at the county convention last month in relation to the All-Ireland SFC defeat.
“There is no two ways of looking at it. It was fantastic year in many ways. They gave us three of the best days we have had in a long time, the finish to the Connacht final in Pearse Stadium was amazing. The victory against Dublin I think put this county into a place I have never seen before. If it could be like that all the time it would be brilliant.
“The four weeks that followed certainly balanced that out. It was a tough pill to swallow. I think it is fair to say the only way we will get over it is if we go all the way. I want to acknowledge what that team is doing, three Connacht titles (in-a-row). They are back at it since Saturday, I think the new rules will suit us. We have the depth of talent, the athleticism, the different type of profile of players, excellent coaches, we look forward to what it will bring.
“It is exciting times on both fronts. We are bringing night-time games to Pearse Stadium. We have no excuse but to get behind our teams. They need support. Sometimes in Galway, I think it is fair to say, we wait for success. By God there is no better bandwagon when it starts. We have to start the bandwagon with the support. We need to get in behind those footballers.”
This was a theme. Outgoing treasurer Mike Burke touched on similar in his address. The hurlers under Micheál Donoghue will face Clare for a Saturday night fixture on February 8. Bellew called for supporters to turn out in force for them as well.
“Why should we not have a full house in Pearse Stadium on the 25th January? Let’s get behind them, it will be the first game with the new rules, we’ve Tipperary the next day. We’ve Clare at 7.30pm on a Saturday evening. There is no excuse. We can’t be talking about traffic anymore and things like that. We need to get behind our teams and support them, because it does make a difference as Mike said.”
It was stressed that maintaining Division 1 status was key for both teams. There is no point in new lights if no one is coming to watch them. The hope is that there is sufficient allure on offer to draw supporters from next month on.
New Gaelic football rules should play a part early on, but they can only do so much. The turnout for provincial championships is long in decline and that is not purely because of the spectacle. One-sided contests have no appeal. On the hurling front, the Leinster championship is far from a gimme for Galway. They haven’t won the Bob O’Keeffe Cup since 2018. They failed to make a final in three of the last six years. Now there is no excuse for anyone to take it for granted.
That is also the golden rule of intercounty support. They can be particularly fickle outside of the diehard minority. Losing teams don’t bring a band. Success is the only proven attraction.