With pretty much every seat among the 82,300 in Croke Park taken up for the All-Ireland final replay on Saturday (there was an official attendance of 82,249), Dublin hosted the biggest sporting event in Europe that day. Quite something, though the American college football season probably put paid to any hopes of being ahead in the global stakes. For example the Tennessee Volunteers defeated the Georgia Bulldogs yesterday at Neyland Stadium, which holds over 100,000 spectators.
Croke Park is the third biggest stadium in Europe after the Nou Camp and Wembley Stadium and with both of those out of action on Saturday there were more people casting their eyes on the activities of forty-odd amateurs than on any two sets of professionals across the continent. The replay attendance outdrew any Bayern vs Koln and any other sporting fare in Europe this weekend.
Spanish sporting rag AS even picked up on the splendour of the game.
Saturday's attendance was a record for an All-Ireland final replay (the previous highest was 66,136 in 1972 for Offaly v Kerry).
