THE Kerry County Board has issued an appeal to Kingdom fans to turn out in great numbers and to show their colours in Croke Park on Sunday – but that is proving to be easier said than done.
Furious supporters seeking to buy tickets for the senior and minor semi-finals have lashed out at the treatment they were subjected to as they queued online for several hours only to be left rejected when it was their turn to purchase.
Tickets, priced at a hefty €50 for adults, went on sale at 10.00am on Tuesday and fans went on the official online ticket outlet, tickets.ie, only to face virtual queues with thousands of others before them.
Some supporters waited for several hours but they were left seething when they eventually reached the top of the queue only to be sent straight back to the start of the process and they were eventually told that there were no more tickets available at that particular time.
At 11 o’clock this morning, KillarneyToday.com checked the situation on tickets.ie to learn that there was an estimated wait time of one hour with 2,449 ahead in the queue.
Fans took to social media to vent their fury last night. One Kerry supporter said on Twitter: “I waited more than 2 hours this morning in a queue for GAA tickets on their website. When my turn came, I was not redirected to the website as they had indicated but offered a new place in the queue behind more than 2,000 other people. Disgraceful”.
Another remarked: Have made it to the top of the queue twice for Tyrone v Kerry tickets to be told that my queue number has been rejected and had to go back to the start of the queue”.
Supporters also queued for hours in local SuperValu stores – where just one till was dedicated to match ticket sales – and their frustrations grew as the system kept crashing or access was being prevented.
As SuperValu is an official sponsor of the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship, the retail giant is afforded early access to tickets and fans yesterday queued for close on hours only for many to leave disappointed.
The Kerry GAA Store in Killarney Outlet Centre did not have any tickets for sale yesterday and a staff member said they were waiting on word from Croke Park to discover what allocation, if any, would be received.
Kerry County Board Chairman, Tim Murphy, said he went on to tickets.ie himself this Wednesday morning and he had a similar experience with a wait of over an hour.
“It is frustrating and I don’t know what the issue is,” he told Radio Kerry, adding that the board has been in contact with Croke Park to express concern over the length of time it is taking for supporters to obtain tickets.
Kerry v Tyrone game is not expected to be a sell-out with an estimated attendance of between 55,000 and 60,000 anticipated so, the chairman insisted, there will be “no issue” with fans seeking tickets.
Meanwhile, Kerry supporters lucky enough to have tickets who had been hoping to travel to and from Dublin by train were gutted to learn that Iarnród Éireann will not be running any match day special train.
County board officials have submitted a request to the rail company to increase capacity on the regular early morning train to Dublin on Sunday.
© KillarneyToday.com is the 24/7 online news service provided by O’Mahony Media
Advertise to grow your business: Over 310,000 views every month. Over 21,000 followers on Facebook. Call 087-2229761
