Despite expressions of concern from Munster chair Jimmy O'Gorman, other provincial councils are happy with attendances at this year's championship matches to date.

With a capacity Dublin v Meath replay to come next weekend, Leinster Council is predictably happy with current projections, but according to provincial chair Liam O'Neill it's not the just the major box-office events that are proving attractive.

"Even the fringe matches have been satisfactory," he says. "There were around 10,000 at Laois v Longford, which was good for a first round played on a Saturday night. We were also happy enough with Longford v Westmeath (8,250) and Wicklow v Louth was as much as we could have hoped and nearly as much as the crowd could take in Parnell Park.

"We could have played Carlow v Offaly last week, but decided to make it part of a double bill. It's actual policy for us to try and encourage big crowds."

Leinster was probably due a break on Dublin this season, as 12 months ago the council agreed to forego a big gate by allowing Longford home advantage in their opening fixture with the champions. With a venue capacity of 13,500 in Pearse Park, the council was taking a sizeable hit, but, according to O'Neill, willingly.

"Most fair-minded people reckoned that we had done the right thing. Longford had been beaten out the door in 2005 and they needed that break. When you look at what Longford have achieved since the benefit of that can be appreciated.

"They competed with Kerry and beat Derry last year, which I couldn't have seen happening had they not gained the confidence of the Dublin game. As I said at convention it might have cost us a few thousand but it saved a county."

In Connacht, provincial secretary John Prenty was also content despite the draw having used up the province's big championship fixture - Galway v Mayo - in the first round. "I think our two semi-finals (Leitrim v Galway and Sligo v Roscommon) will have bigger attendances than last year. If the final ends up as Galway v Roscommon we'll have the same attendance as last year, which means we're up overall."

Ulster weren't going to be in a position to play this year's final at Croke Park because of the way the other provincial final dates have fallen.

"Clearly it would have an impact," said provincial chair Tom Daly. "At the same time whether we use Croke Park depends entirely on who comes through in the final. But I'd have to say that there's a real buzz to this championship and the crowds are coming out.

"Things like the reopening of Páirc Esler in Newry have helped and the very reason that the strongest teams are on one side of the draw means that counties on the other side see a good chance of making an Ulster final."

Daly mentioned that the two Cavan v Down matches played this year had been considerably up on last year's meeting between the counties in Casement Park, which drew just over 12,000 whereas this year's draw and replay totalled just under 34,000.

Earlier, Munster chair Jimmy O'Gorman had expressed grave concern at the poor attendances registered at this summer's provincial SFC matches and also undertook to set up a committee to take a serious look at football in the province.

The average attendance at the four Munster senior football ties played so far is 3,427 with a 40,000 sellout anticipated for the Kerry v Cork final at Fitzgerald Stadium on July 1st.

"We hope that the final will rescue the situation, but having a crowd at one game isn't good enough," said O'Gorman. "We've had desperately poor attendances so far and that's indicative of the standard of the championship."

He was speaking in the aftermath of the weekend's poorly attended semi-finals. Aggregate figures for this year's four Munster football championship matches pre-final are 13,711.

Last year's equivalent was 15,811, but the directly comparable fixtures - Cork v Limerick and Waterford v Kerry - actually showed a cumulative increase this year of over 3,000.