Dublin will play their first championship match outside of Croke Park in 10 years after the Leinster Council voted to fix next summer’s provincial quarter-final against Wicklow or Laois for Nowlan Park in Kilkenny.
The game has been set for Saturday June 4th; by then, it will be 10 years since Dublin last played a provincial championship match outside of Croke Park, when they travelled to Longford, in 2006.
However Laois, should they beat Wicklow, had been hopeful of getting a home getting at O'Moore Park in Portlaoise, although that wasn't deemed a suitable venue. Speaking ahead of the vote on Wednesday night, Leinster Council chief executive Michael Reynolds said that there is "a balancing act counties have to make" when voting on the matter, not just in monetary terms.
“There’s 17,000 seating in Nowlan Park. Portlaoise has 6,000. Tullamore has 7,000. And people want comfort, and that’s proven. Even in Croke Park, the most popular stand is the Hogan Stand, where there are no concessions. People are prepared to pay full price to have their kids in the Hogan Stand. . . So at the moment Nowlan Park (is) the best option.”
The notion the reigning All-Ireland champions will somehow be less difficult to beat outside of Croke Park was something Reynolds never questioned: “As Dublin say, ‘we’ll go where and when told’. And I think it’s a novelty for some people getting out of Dublin.”
When the matter was last vote on, two years ago, only two of the 12 Leinster counties backed the proposal to bring Dublin to a provincial venue.
