WITH THE LINE-UPS for both the hurling and football All-Ireland finals now revealed, the hunt for final tickets is well underway in Kilkenny, Galway, Donegal and Mayo – as well as Dublin, Tipperary and Meath who will be represented in the minor clashes.

For those counties with the lucky experience of featuring on a Sunday in September, the search for tickets is an infamously tough one – with plenty of fans sure to be left broken-hearted despite Croke Park’s 82,300 capacity.

So, to try and cast some light on where all the tickets go, we went back to the GAA’s annual reports and dug out the figures for the distribution of All-Ireland tickets.

These figures are last year’s, so they might not be 100 per cent accurate for 2012, but they do help to illustrate the various demands on GAA tickets and where the covered tickets do end up.

All-Ireland ticket breakdown for 2011

Any changes from the 2010 allocation are indicated in brackets.

• County allocations: 58,401 (-604)
• Provinces: 335 (-50)
• Overseas: 470 (-29)
• Central Council and former Presidents: 798 (-107)

• Camogie: 120
• Ladies’ football: 150
• Rounders and handball: 147 (-15)

• Sponsors: 935 (-35)
• Press: 254
• TV and radio: 74

• Schools and educational bodies: 2,229
• 3rd Level: 240 (-38)

• Croke Park residents: 250
• Match officials and national referees’ panel: 103 (-5)
• Irish Sports Council and health bodies: 60 (-10)
• Match day / Vertigo / minor teams: 148 (-52)
• GAA staff and sub-committees: 718 (-93)
• Jubilee teams: 68 (-69)
• Mini-sevens: 244 (-2)

• Term tickets: 4,144 (-11)
• Season tickets: 1,884 (+1,120)

Total available for distribution: 71,772

• Premium and corporate seating*: 10,528

Total capacity (as per planning permission): 82,300

* Premium seats are sold to individuals on a fixed basis of between one and ten years so aren’t available for resale. Tickets for corporate boxes are the responsibility of the owners of those boxes.

Talking Points: Mayo 0-19 Dublin 0-16, All-Ireland SFC semi-final