John Horan has provided some hope that a decent crowd could be allowed into Croke Park this year when championship action resumes.
Under the current roadmap, club games are set to restart on July 31st with inter-county beginning no earlier than October 17th.
In an interview broadcast on his club Na Fianna's Facebook page on Sunday evening, the GAA president said that as long as social distancing measures remain in place, a full crowd cannot fill Croke Park.
However, he said there is a possibility that a crowd of 21,000 could be allowed into the stadium under 2m social distancing rules and 42,000 if that guideline is reduced to 1m.
He added that seats may have to be installed at the Hill 16 end.
"We have already worked it out that if the government allows large crowds over 5,000 to gather we probably could put 21,000 into Croke Park safely," said Horan.
"The operations team in Croke Park have mapped it out. Obviously, that blue mesh that’s used in Croke Park would be used to block off seats.
"It would cause impracticalities in terms of there being an element of lottery for tickets and premium ticket holders would probably have to be accredited the following year.
"Until social distancing is scaled back, we won’t be able to pack Croke Park. It is our intention to get it open and going when we get the inter-county games going and if it goes back to one metre we would probably be able to double the attendance to 42,000.
"There’s an issue over the Hill and whether we would be able to get seating in there because really controlling crowds is always going to be a nightmare going forward."
Photo by Sam Barnes/Sportsfile
