www.uibhfhaili.com

Offaly CLG, have introduced season tickets for Senior Citizens, and General Admission to all matches run by the CLG for the coming year.
Tickets can be purchased in writing, or in person at the Co. Board offices, during opening hours.
Passes cost €100 for Senior Citizens with proof of I. D, including photo. General Admission passes cost €200. This is a welcome initiative, as the OAP concession was suspended during COVID, and match admission was by online ticket sales. The original concession passes were available @€5.00 with proof of identity. The new tickets should be presented at GAA grounds, and will include aQR code.

I note the new age related passes cost €100.00, a big increase on the original price, especially in times of increased fuel and other living costs. I know the costs of providing games and facilities have escalated for Offaly CLG, like the rest of society in very recent times.
What are people’s thoughts on the new arrangements?

I'm with SD on this. For as long as I'm going to matches, Senior Citizens have been afforded free admission to club matches in Offaly on production of appropriate ID. Until last year, when the Board seemingly carried out an analysis and discovered a huge sum of money under the mattress in the shape of admission fees foregone by their generosity afforded to Seniors.

And so the decision was made to charge them. Now, these are the people who built the GAA with their contributions, financial and volunteering, throughout their working lifetime. And were rewarded for their contribution by being allowed free into matches. For many (unless the have ESB, BnM or public service pensions), their only income is the state pension of c€250 per week. Many live alone and their main social outlet is to go to a match. It's not too late, indeed it's never too late, for the Board to reverse this harsh decision.

As an OAP I dont think this is harsh==== I love going to games especially in O'Connor Park. The fiver per game was grand and for those who go to lots of games this will be a discount========

I can see both sides of this. As a societal group, there is a huge amount of wealth in the pension-age cohort of people, and as POTH hinted at, the pensions available to people of that age who worked their full 40 years (or close enough to it) in either the public sector or the big semi-state employers are very generous. The median level of wealth in that generation far exceeds anything that will be enjoyed by those whose retirement will come along in two, three or four decades time. More than most, these people can afford to pay their way.

Having said that, these are passes for club games where there will always be extra capacity, and if there are people on the state pension or with not much more to go along with it, either a small bit of farm income or whatever, then you'd like to see a way that those people can go to games and not feel the pinch as a result of it.

My own thoughts would be as follows:

I'm also a big believer in trust and honesty, so I'd be happy to see two pricing structures for the same pass. One full priced one, same price as it is for an ordinary adult, for the person who is pulling in a pension that is broadly equivalent to the average industrial wage (and there are plenty of those, most retired teachers and civil servants would fall into this bracket, most retired guards would comfortably exceed it) and then one pass for limited incomes, costing a token amount - say €25.

Both are available in person, but also available for online application/in writing, so the relevant person doesn't have to be embarrassed by being seen to buy the cheaper option, if that's an issue for them. And neither requires any verification, other than proof of age. It'll be a small handful of well-off older people who would take advantage by buying the cheaper option if they don't need to, and I'd prefer to see a handful of those get away with it rather than to force any sort of income-verification on the others.

Obviously both passes would look identical, so the ordinary club official manning the gate in Rath, Rhode or Banagher wouldn't know the difference between the two.

I’d agree with most of the above but I think if you tried the two tier OAP pass, almost all will opt for the cheaper option because what’s the incentive not to?

I’m not sure why they decided to charge the OAP’s after years of not doing so (other than to boost their coffers) but if they are going to be charged then a season ticket for €100 seems a very reasonable price, if they were to attend both county finals and a couple of semi’s they’d have almost half of the value of the ticket back alone never mind quarter’s and group games in both codes at all grades and league games too. Secondly and more importantly, it means that OAP’s can now rock up to any game for the year without having to hassle more tech savvy members of their family to buy them one online and be mucking around with barcodes every week etc.

Lastly, should the season ticket not also be available to students if it is for OAP’s? Tickets for the two categories for individual games are always the same price so it seems strange to offer the group who are wealthier the chance to buy a season ticket than the ones who definitely aren’t wealthy.

Sure if you know an OAP isn't it a grand present for them and you are contributing to the GAA? Win win

They're probably not able to drink whiskey and "another fuckin cardigan and slippers!!"

Anonymous1 wrote: ↑Fri Dec 09, 2022 2:54 pm I’d agree with most of the above but I think if you tried the two tier OAP pass, almost all will opt for the cheaper option because what’s the incentive not to?

Just on this, I think if you market it on the basis that we're able to do the discounted ticket because we believe in the honesty of those who can afford to pay, then I think you'd be surprised at how many would go for the more expensive option. I remember when the "honesty water" concept was brought into Dublin airport, people predicted the same - now they get 97% payment, and there were discussions about expanding the concept, because it's actually more profitable than paying the overhead for staff etc.. The same principle applies to the proliferation of "self-checkout" in supermarkets.

I genuinely believe that the majority would pay according to their means, and if a handful of chancers get away with it as a side-effect, I could happily live with that. Obviously if the year one experiment shows that 80% of pensioners take the cheaper option, then of course you could revisit the whole thing.

Is this closed or is there still an option to buy, wasnt too keen at Christmas but would go to a lot of neutral games if the offer was still open.

If closed it would be good to reopen for a week or two before the championship starts.

Buttons wrote: ↑Wed Jul 05, 2023 8:52 pm Is this closed or is there still an option to buy, wasnt too keen at Christmas but would go to a lot of neutral games if the offer was still open.

If closed it would be good to reopen for a week or two before the championship starts.

Still seems to be available on the Offaly GAA website:
https://offaly.gaa.ie/offaly-gaa-club-tickets/

I think you can get them at O'Connor park.
Mind you if you want a ticket for colderry / shinrone
Universe ticketing forgot about the game.
It must be free lol

Superhans75 wrote: ↑Thu Jul 06, 2023 3:26 pm I think you can get them at O'Connor park.
Mind you if you want a ticket for colderry / shinrone
Universe ticketing forgot about the game.
It must be free lol

Tickets for Coolderry versus Shinrone are available through the link in Offaly GAA’s Twitter post.
Just bought mine with no difficulty.