CORK GAA is reportedly charging €5,000 per table at its All-Ireland final gala dinner – with match tickets NOT included.
Per The Irish Examiner, this represents a 100 per cent increase on the lowest going rate for a table for 10 before last year’s decider versus Clare.



What’s more, whereas tickets to the 2024 fundraising dinner also ensured you’d receive match tickets to the Croke Park showpiece, that is no longer the case.
Instead, there is a separate charge in order to snag tickets to the match itself.
The Irish Examiner report that an email from Cork GAA’s commercial wing outlines: “A donation of €5,000 will allow you to enjoy a table of 10 with the option to purchase 10 All-Ireland final tickets.”
In spite of this hike in price for lesser reward, the dinner has already sold-out ahead of its July 16 date at Páirc Uí Chaoimh.
All donations are said to go towards the Cork players training fund. Clearly, there is a huge buzz around this particular team owing to their swashbuckling style and their 20-year All-Ireland drought.
The fever around the side is part of the reasoning Pat Ryan shared last week about why he doesn’t name dummy teams.
Scoffing at the notion of keeping such a secret in the county at the moment, he remarked: “You can’t keep anything in Cork anyway! I don’t want to be telling the players, ‘Don’t say this now to anyone.’
“They have to go home and tell their mam and dad are they playing, are they not playing. Your friends, you’re getting texts. I find that’s only putting more pressure on them for the following week.”
In Cork, where the hurling team are under a constant microscope, Ryan reckons keeping secrets from the public would be a futile exercise.
He said: “I’m not going to question any manager who wants to put in dummy teams or doesn’t want to put in dummy teams.
“But realistically, bar probably Limerick, I think everything gets out of every other dressing room.
“If you look at Nickie Quaid this year, nobody knew that was coming. That shows how tight they are and that’s probably a challenge for all of us to be.
“Our training sessions aren’t closed-doors either really – to a degree. We don’t want to invite 25,000 people down.
“We often get a mother coming up with her kids looking for autographs and she’s sitting on the side of the field.
“Look, this isn’t my team. This is the Cork public’s team and it’s the players’ team more than anything. We try and be as straightforward as we can.”