Rugby V GAA in Limerick City

Declan30

The Reason those 15-25 would be able to name 5 munster Players over 5 limerick hurling players.
Is because Munster Rugby is always in the media in Limerick.Everyone has jumped on its Bandwagon.

Ask the 15-25 yr olds to name 5 AIL Players in Clubs From Limerick

Liam79 wrote: »

Utter sh*te! Tell that to Limerick 37 or even better tell that to a Limerick football team who made 2 munster football finals, beat cork by 10 points in Cork, pushed Kerry harder than any other team in Ireland and still got PITIFUL support from the great limerick sports people

Utter sh*te

Rugby is WAY bigger than hurling in Limerick City and anyone who cant see that is delusional.
Take 5 normal lads in limerick between 15 and 25
ask them to name 5 Munster Rugby players and 5 Limerick Hurlers and see who is more popular......

grenache

Up to a few years ago i would have said that hurling had many more participants in the city, but with Munster making rugby all glamourous, one would assume that the figures for those playing the oval ball game are very much on a par with hurling. Although from my experience of working in the city, the average city dweller doesn't seem to know much about Limerick hurling, and there is definitely more talk of rugby in the city and its suburbs. In terms of quality, GAA in the city has fallen greatly from its lofty perch of the 1980s when you had teams like Claughaun achieving the double. Nowadays, with the exception of the Monaleen footballers, gaelic games in the city is indeed very weak. Its a disgrace really when you think that a city with a population of 100,000 can only give one player to the county hurling team (Brian Geary). Contrast this to rugby clubs like Garryowen and Shannon, who have dominated the senior club rugby scene in Ireland for the last 17 years. All the Limerick clubs are highly competitive and the majority of them operate in the top two divisions. So in the city yes, rugby is definitely the stronger of the two. Go out into the county and hurling is much stronger.

D-A-V-E

Thomond Park would not be full if it were 40k bar one or two games a year, the same as the Gaelic grounds. There were plenty of tickets available for any of the group games in the Heiniken Cup and all Magners league games. If Munster Rugby thought they could sell out a 40k stadium once a month, then you can be damn sure they would have developed the stadium to cater to for that and remember they are attracting fans from all over Munster, a supporter pool of 1 million people.

this has come up many times in the past..only people who really follow rugby knows that there is not enough room to develop thomond to 50k (like the new lansdowne road) and the developers didnt want to make it any bigger as it would lose its intimate hostile atmosphere..thats actual fact but iv a feeling all you gaa people wont believe that at all :rolleyes:

tommy249

D-A-V-E wrote: »

this has come up many times in the past..only people who really follow rugby knows that there is not enough room to develop thomond to 50k (like the new lansdowne road) and the developers didnt want to make it any bigger as it would lose its intimate hostile atmosphere..thats actual fact but iv a feeling all you gaa people wont believe that at all :rolleyes:

Ummm, don't develop Thomond Park into a stadium the size of Lansdown Road because it will lose its hostile atmosphere (by the way, a hostile atmosphere is nothing to be proud of) and instead forgo a couple of extra million euro for every game.

Are the same people who made this call the same people who wanted to sell the naming rights of the stadium until public reaction stopped them??

By the way, this is the first time I have ever even heard that there were people talking of building TP bigger.

You can be sure that if that was on the table and was ever a reality it would have happened and the "hostile atmosphere" would not have been an issue. This is a business after all. If the people in Munster rugby cared about the atmophere and not the money, we whould have half the amount of big business there.

And no I'm not a GAA head! I support GAA the same way I support Munster Rugby!!

D-A-V-E

tommy249 wrote: »

Ummm, don't develop Thomond Park into a stadium the size of Lansdown Road because it will lose its hostile atmosphere (by the way, a hostile atmosphere is nothing to be proud of) and instead forgo a couple of extra million euro for every game.

Are the same people who made this call the same people who wanted to sell the naming rights of the stadium until public reaction stopped them??

By the way, this is the first time I have ever even heard that there were people talking of building TP bigger.

You can be sure that if that was on the table and was ever a reality it would have happened and the "hostile atmosphere" would not have been an issue. This is a business after all. If the people in Munster rugby cared about the atmophere and not the money, we whould have half the amount of big business there.

And no I'm not a GAA head! I support GAA the same way I support Munster Rugby!!

augh..your misinterpreting this completely! BEFORE the plans were final and BEFORE they built the new thomond park..it came up to have a 50,000 stadium but they thought 26 was better as it would be big enough for demand yet still retaining its small atmospheric feel..its not getting "expanded"!

Itsdacraic

D-A-V-E wrote: »

augh..your misinterpreting this completely! BEFORE the plans were final and BEFORE they built the new thomond park..it came up to have a 50,000 stadium but they thought 26 was better as it would be big enough for demand yet still retaining its small atmospheric feel..its not getting "expanded"!

There you go.

tommy249

D-A-V-E wrote: »

it just bewilders me as to why we have a 50,000 stadium that has never been full. where as if thomond was that size it would be full every game..fact, !

D-A-V-E wrote: »

it came up to have a 50,000 stadium but they thought 26 was better as it would be big enough for demand !

Sorry - Not trying to start an argument - Just had to point that out!!!

D-A-V-E

tommy249 wrote: »

Sorry - Not trying to start an argument - Just had to point that out!!!

ya for heineken cup games and one or two magners you would deffinately fill it but it wouldnt be worth the vacancies on the other magners league for the smaller games..26,500 is the perfect in between

4tothefloor

Liam79 wrote: »

Which is bigger lads? Tom Ryan and Len Dineen had a cat fight about it on the radio the other day. I would think Rugby by a MILE! I cant stand hurling, 30 farmers with sticks!! I prefer gaelic football, but Rugby is superior to both and far more popular in the city!

Firstly, the biggest sports in Limerick by a MILE are football (soccer) & hurling. Rugby is miles behind junior/schoolboy soccer, hurling and even gaelic football. Don't kid yourself!

If it's flavour of the month you're on about, it's definately rugby (by rugby I mean Munster, not the local AIL clubs). But judging by the many clueless "fans" who were out on Saturday to watch the game, it's very much a false perception. I also know of a huge number who were at the game in Croke Park, my own father included, who wouldn't know a rugby ball if it smacked them in the face. First game this year, never set foot in a club rugby ground before yada yada yada.....A few years of Leinster being dominant and the French/English actually taking the Heineken Cup seriously would sort a lot of the huge "fanbase" out It'll be interesting to see where Munster will be when they inevitably go through a sticky period on the pitch and the success evaporates.....

Finally, to say that rugby is superior to hurling, gaelic football or football is hilarious. Granted you have to admire the toughness of the players, their honesty and the war of attrition that they go through in a game, but in terms of field sports rugby is easily the least skilful of the lot. Ball in hand bashing off each other might be exciting, but it's not skillful. I'm not saying that it's skill-less, you have to admire players like O'Driscoll, O'Gara, Wilkinson etc. But you cannot compare the skills in rugby to what DJ Carey or Lionel Messi can do in hurling and soccer. It's not even the best rugby game, rugby league is far superior as a game, both on the pitch and in the stands. Remember when you were young and you were picking teams for field/street games? Well all the lads that were always left till the end to be picked, they were your future rugby players. Skill and finesse - hurling, soccer. Big awkward mullockers, the toepokers - rugby.

4tothefloor

Itsdacraic wrote: »

The AIL League is the biggest club rugby tournament in Ireland. The two two biggest clubs in Limerick, Shannon and Garryowen played the semi final of that competition last weekend. Where was it played? In a field in Coonagh with about 2k spectators. Pretty poor for a game that is MASSIVE in a city of 165k.

+1. Ironically this isn't a reflection on the REAL rugby fan, as the hardcore who actually know the game would've been out in Coonagh. What it is a reflection of is the blatent bandwagon jumpers who form the majority of the Munster support. In truth rugby (AIL) is no better supported in Limerick than the local League of Ireland soccer team. Munsters support is inflated by event junkies who all go missing for Magners league games and who don't support local rugby either.

Declan30 wrote: »

The Reason those 15-25 would be able to name 5 munster Players over 5 limerick hurling players.
Is because Munster Rugby is always in the media in Limerick.Everyone has jumped on its Bandwagon.

Ask the 15-25 yr olds to name 5 AIL Players in Clubs From Limerick

Exactly

tommy249 wrote: »

Take out big business, take out the girls who have no interest or clue about rugby and only want to watch the players and see how full Thomand Park would be.

+1. I'd also add the fact that if you open the local Post or Independent in the lead up to any game, every second pub/club/business is falling over themselves running competitions for 2 tickets to the game. It's a very cute and well run PR machine.


As for D-A-V-E, you keep contradicting yourself in your posts. Your assertion about Thomond Park being full every game is delusional as well, especially when the very reason that Thomond Park Stadium put in those god awful multi-coloured seats is to mask the fact that the stadium is half empty for Magners League games. Seeing as you're one of the people that "really follow rugby", surely you'd already have known this?!?