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Action from Saturday's meeting of Penn State and UCF. TheScore.ie
Croke Park Classic

Croke Park in line to host 3 American football college games in next 5 years

Next year’s clash of Penn State and UCF will be a springboard for interest according to Paraic Duffy.

THE GAA ARE confident that a successful staging of next year’s Croke Park Classic will lead to further college football games at the stadium in 2016 and 2018.

Penn State are set to play UCF (University of Central Florida) on 30 August in Croke Park next year. The teams met at Beaver Stadium, the home of Penn State, on Saturday night with UCF winning the game 34-31.

A GAA delegation were present at the game as part of preparations for next year’s tie which Director-General Paraic Duffy believes that can be a springboard for interest from other US college football sides to play in Dublin, a move that was first reported by TheScore.ie in July.

“We’ve more or less set ourselves the aim of doing it in 2014, 2016 and 2018. There have been a lot of difficulties around the first time but we feel if we can master it, it will become easier the second and third time.

“We also believe if this particular game goes well, there will be plenty of interest from other colleges in playing in Dublin.

“We’re very confident about this and that we can make this a long-term revenue source for the GAA. This is as valuable to us as an NFL game. Already we think there’s an interest from other colleges.

“The last time the game was in the Aviva, Navy actually approached to us but they felt at the time, they were afraid to take on Croke Park because they felt they wouldn’t fill the stadium. As it happened that game would have filled Croke Park because it sold out well in advance.”

Duffy explained how the GAA decided what colleges to approach for next year’s game.

“Penn State we felt was a good bet because of the huge support base. We made an approach to them through Patrick Steenberge and it came through.

“Clearly Penn State have such a huge home support, they wouldn’t give up a home game. So it was matter of getting a lesser college they play to sacrifice a home game to come to Croke Park.

“Florida fitted the bill because they have a decent support but nothing to compare to Penn State.”

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Croke Park.  Pic: INPHO/Ryan Byrne

Tickets

Croke Park will have a capacity of 69,000 for the game and the GAA are confident that they will have a full house for the contest.

“A lot will depend on the numbers we attract from the U.S., particularly from Penn State,” admitted Duffy. “Florida won’t bring the same numbers. But I think the initial signs are very good.

“There should be 15,000 to 20,000 coming from Penn State, Florida somewhat smaller but I think we’ll sell a lot of tickets at home. There is a much greater interest in American Football than was there five, 10 years ago.”

The college football game is set to take place on a Saturday afternoon at 1.30pm and an All-Ireland football semi-final will be held at the venue the following day.

Duffy believes the GAA can meet the logistical challenge in getting the Croke Park pitch ready in a short space of time.

“We’ve done that before with rugby and soccer a few years ago. The only issue we have to watch here is the markings.

“The markings are much more severe. We tried that out last year with paint and so on. So we’re quite confident that we can take the markings off.

“One of the advantages is that’s one of the attractions for our visitors to see college football on the Saturday and fit in an All-Ireland semifinal on the Sunday. So we’re using that as a marketing tool.”

Dan Rooney helps launch the 2014 Croke Park Classic in the U.S.

Pics: The second biggest stadium in the USA before game day

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