The biggest Munster football final crowd in 11 years delivered a 37% increase to the total attendance figure for this year’s provincial championship.
Sunday’s gathering of 32,961 – the largest final attendance since the 2015 Cork-Kerry draw at Fitzgerald Stadium – was just shy of the combined 33,491-figure that watched all five games in the 2025 Munster SFC edition.
Added to last month’s quarter-finals and semis, the total crowd pull for the 2026 championship reached 45,797 – a cumulative figure last hit in 2018.
Following three successive Munster deciders where turnstile numbers struggled to break the 13,000-mark, the crowd for Kerry’s comfortable eight-point win over Cork represented a 150% attendance jump on the 2025 Clare-Kerry final at the same Killarney venue.
Young football fans from Carrigaline GAA club. Picture: Larry Cummins
Sunday’s throwback heave also served to lift the average attendance at a Munster football championship game in 2026 back over 9,000, with last year’s per game average having dropped to a worrying 6,700.
The above numbers show the value of a Cork-Kerry Munster final to provincial coffers, a concluding Sunday pairing that will return to greater frequency when the delayed League-based seeding format takes effect from next year.
Young Kerry fans Isabella Daly and Annabelle Van Vrede. Picture: Larry Cummins
Under that new system, the two highest ranked counties from the National League – Cork and Kerry currently wear Division 1 clothes, with Clare, down in Division 3, closest to them – will be kept apart at the semi-final stage.
“Delighted to see Fitzgerald Stadium almost full and a big Cork crowd. That created a tremendous atmosphere. Sure, listen, it’s great to see Munster Final day with that atmosphere again,” said winning Kerry manager Jack O’Connor post-match.
Waterford v Tipperary (846)
Cork v Limerick (4,709)
Clare v Kerry (5,526)
Tipperary v Cork (1,755)
Kerry v Cork (32,961).