Walsh Park in Waterford will host its first Munster SHC game in 23 years on May 12, the provincial council has confirmed.
At a meeting of the Munster CCC last night the dates, times and ticket arrangements for the 2019 Munster SHC were confirmed.
The first round of fixtures will take place on Sunday, May 12. Walsh Park will be the venue for the opener with Clare the visitors at 2pm while at 4pm defending Munster champions Cork take on old rivals Tipperary in Páirc Ui Chaoimh. The MHC games between the same counties will serve as the curtain-raiser to both fixtures.
Due to the restricted capacity at Walsh Park Waterford, tickets for both games scheduled for the venue will not go on public sale and will be made available via the participating counties and clubs only.
The 2019 championship will be run over a six-week period rather than five weeks as was the case in 2018. This will eliminate the scenario of counties playing on four consecutive weekends. While two counties (Limerick and Clare) will play on three consecutive weekends, the schedule has been configured to ensure those counties finish their programme with these three games, all taking place in June.
The alternative system, which sees all counties play two weekends in a row would have seen one county starting the campaign with two away games and one county finishing with two away games. It was decided to remain with the system agreed prior to the start of the new format, which ensures a home/away/home/away or away/home/away/home sequence.
Counties also decided against starting on May 5 in order to give maximum time for club games in April.
Tickets for Munster SHC games are scheduled to go on public sale via tickets.ie and Centra/Supervalu outlets from Wednesday, April 24.
Senior and Minor Hurling round-robin match prices are €20 for stand tickets (adult) and €15 for Terrace. Under 16s are €5 all areas.
Student/OAP have a concession of €5 with valid ID prior to entry at the designated stile.
These prices are for pre-purchase only, applicable until midnight of the night before the game with prices being consistent for all venues.
All adult ticket prices increase by €5 on the day.
