Football fever has gripped Galway during festival season as Padraic Joyce’s men bid for All-Ireland glory on Sunday week – hopes are high the Tribesmen can earn their tenth senior title providing a fireworks finale to the Arts Festival and triumphant start to Race Week.

The uniqueness of the final pairing – Galway and Armagh have never locked horns in a championship decider; the attractiveness of the football both sides play; and the absence of ‘the big two’ football counties Kerry and Dublin, has fuelled demand for tickets.

Chances of swopping All-Ireland Senior Hurling Final tickets for football final tickets are said to be remote as the Cork-Clare clash this weekend could sell out three times over, demand was so high.

Galway GAA Chairperson Paul Bellew confirmed to the Connacht Tribune that the county had received just shy of 17,000 tickets for the final on July 28, on a par with the allocation for the Galway-Kerry decider in 2022.

“We start the distribution of tickets to the clubs, officer corps, committees, referees, and ground stewards over the next 48 hours. Demand is much bigger than two years ago.

“Demand is extremely high, more than expected. We’re going to be under pressure. We will do our very best but it’s going to be a scramble for the next week or so.

“The demand from neutrals is going to be massive. It’s the same with the hurling final – I’ve never seen demand for hurling tickets like for Clare and Cork, from those counties, but also from people in Galway interested in going. I think we are going to have the same situation with football in other counties, which means any dependence on returns from neutral counties is low to none,” said Bellew.

Caption: Oughterard’s Matthew Tierney acknowledges Galway’s supporters on Hill 16 after their epic win over Donegal to secure their place in the All-Ireland Football Final. Pic: Seán Ó Mainnín

Read all of the latest news in the run-up to the All-Ireland Final, in this week’s Connacht Tribune, on sale in shops now, or you can download the digital edition from www.connachttribune.ie. You can also download our Connacht Tribune App from Apple’s App Store or get the Android Version from Google Play.