Katie Taylor’s farewell fight held in Croke Park last week attracted over 80,000 fans to the stadium to catch a glimpse of the boxer in the ring for the final time.
It also accounted for an “extraordinary impact” on the local economy and record spends in Dublin’s north inner city that night, according to analysis by AIB.
People who bank with AIB spent €248,000 in restaurants within a two kilometre radius of Croke Park on Saturday night, according to the bank’s most recent “spend trend” report on consumer behaviour. This was “higher than any day in July and August,” it said.
They also spent €211,000 in pubs within the same area that night – the second highest spending day this summer, pipped only by July 26, when the Mayo men’s senior GAA football team won the All Ireland Championship final for the first time since 1951. That night, AIB customers spent €264,000 in pubs near Croke Park.
Adrian Moynihan, AIB’s head of consumer banking, said the latest “data shows the extraordinary impact Katie Taylor had in early September. As the sun set on her boxing career, tens of thousands of supporters showed up for her and enjoyed their day out around Croke Park.”
The bank counted over 100 separate pubs and restaurants in the area that benefited from the event.
Elsewhere in the report, AIB reported a 36 per cent increase in spending in book and stationery shops across the country last month as the ‘back to school’ season was in full swing.
It noted 67 per cent of book shop spends were conducted by female customers, with those between the ages of 45 and 54 accounting for the largest proportion of sales. The data was compiled from 79 million card transactions made by AIB customers throughout the month.