RTE star Ryan Tubridy has urged Croke Park bosses to reconsider their rent fee and give champion boxer Katie Taylor the “homecoming that she deserves."
Tubs backed calls to see the Bray native, who is the undisputed lightweight champion of the world, fight Amanda Serrano in a rematch in the Dublin GAA venue on May 20 and not the 3Arena as suggested.
Matchroom promoter Eddie Hearn claimed the cost of staging the fight at GAA HQ would be three times more than Wembley Stadium – a claim that has been denied by Croke Park’s commercial director Peter McKenna who said that was simply untrue.
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But Tubridy said that whatever the row about money is, he believes Croke Park should have a “special dispensation” for Katie – saying she deserves respect.
He told us: “I think they should make a special dispensation in Croke Park to bring Katie Taylor home and give her the homecoming that woman deserves.
“She deserves a lot more than an overpriced hall, that is a beautiful hall, but she needs the respect she deserves and that is a fight in Croke Park. I would urge our friends in Croke Park to rethink the rent for one night only because she has served this country and she deserves that fight in that hallowed ground because it is a place in history and she has made history.
“We should respect her and her achievements and her family and her country. Get her to Croke Park,” he said at RTE on Thursday at the launch of the Eurosong contest, which takes place Friday night on the Late Late Show.
Croke Park commercial director Peter McKenna came out yesterday and denied the claims by Hearn that the cost to rent Croke Park scuppered a potential Katie Taylor deal.
He said: “We would love to have the fight here.
“The last time we talked to them properly was before Christmas. Our rent was coming in around €400k. I think the rent for Wembley is about £250k/300k (€280-355k). We are not colossally more expensive than Wembley.
“The real issue here is about security costs, which we felt the promoter should carry. I think the surprise was that our focus on security and attention to detail was far more than they would have expected in a Wembley scenario or Bethnal Green scenario.
He explained: “You’re talking about bringing 60-70,000 people into a stadium for a fight that’s late in the evening with quite a bit of alcohol taken.
“We looked at the risk analysis on the event and we felt that the amount of security that you’d need would be at the top level and that is not inexpensive.
“So I think maybe there’s a worry there they wouldn’t quite get the attendance and also the costs associated with hosting an event at a certain standard, that we would be very proud that we would hold to, has caused a little bit of jitters.
“The costs quoted are far less than we’d normally charge because we would have loved to have had Katie Taylor. The eyes of the world would be on us.”
Love Island winner and Rugby 7s star Greg O’Shea said he was shocked and disappointed that Katie wouldn’t be fighting in Croke Park.
“I’m honestly shocked that Katie Taylor’s homecoming fight won’t be taking place in our biggest stadium Croker.”
“Everything should be done by politicians and the government to make it happen. It’s an iconic event. The 3arena is a good venue but imagine 80,000 fans cheering live!”
“The European Champions Cup Final is on in Aviva on the same day (May 20th) so can’t happen in that stadium. Presumably Leinster will be battling it out there! Will be some day in Dublin especially when they cop on and just move Katie’s fight to Croke Park.”
Hearn revealed to Canadian journalist Ariel Helwani on Wednesday that the cost of hiring Croke Park was too much for the fight to be staged there, but said they could return to talks with the GAA in the future.
He explained: "The cost of hire and everything involved in the event is three times higher nearly than staging it in Wembley Stadium.
"Ultimately Katie Taylor has financial demands for this fight and so does Amanda Serrano and we want to make sure we deliver on that. We're so far out on that possibility on the cost of running that show and we're out of time on delivering that date to the broadcaster.
"Now we'll be in a big arena in Dublin and then hopefully in September we revisit Croke Park.
The promoter added: "I promised Katie Taylor she'd be in Ireland for the next fight and it would be the most sensational atmosphere wherever she is.
"Sooner or later you have to make a decision and make a move and the move is we have to go May 20 and unless we go now it's going to be another moment that we miss a fight for Katie in Ireland and I'm not prepared to do it anymore.
"We keep working towards Croke Park, maybe Taylor-Serrano III in September but for now her next fight is in Ireland. She'll be at the show on Saturday and if Serrano is to win it looks almost certain we'll get that rematch in Ireland."
Elsewhere, Minister of State for Sport Thomas Byrne has rebutted suggestions the government was not willing to engage with all parties to organise Katie's potential homecoming fight at Croke Park.
During Leaders’ Questions in Dáil Éireann, Sinn Féin TD Chris Andrews asked would the government pull out all the stops to ensure Katie Taylor has her fight in Croke Park.
“I absolutely agree it would be wonderful to see Katie Taylor in Croke Park,” Byrne said.
“To that end, the very first meeting I took with anyone outside of the department was with Katie Taylor’s manager, Brian Peters in the early part of January.
“They explained to us there was a funding gap between what the promoters were prepared to pay for the fight and what the fight would actually cost. We said, ‘yes government does support major events.’ Absolutely, but there is a process to go through. What we did immediately after that was raise queries on what the costs would be and other details that would be necessary.
“The department is currently considering the responses to those queries. I would say one of the difficulties is with the date. If you are doing the calculations for cost benefit in terms of tourism which major events have to go through, May 20 is already hosting the Heineken Cup final which is a huge event in European rugby and Dublin tourism would be full that particular night.
“A fight in November which was previously muted last year would be an entirely different calculation. The consideration is still ongoing.
“What Mr. Hearn said on some MMA channel yesterday that the government had not been in touch is simply not the case.
"There has been a range of meetings and correspondents over the last while.”
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