how to fix our league! - Mod Warning in OP

applehunter

PRAF wrote: »

Ridiculous underestimation? What is your estimate? I based my figures off wikipedia which show a little less than 10k fans per week actually (avg attendence of around 1600 x 6 matches per round of games).

There are lot of floating supporters that would only go to a few games a season.

Know full well from following Cork City that we have a "hardcore" of about 2k but on occasions we can get 4-5k through the gate.

GAA support has similar fluctuations.

overshoot

PRAF wrote: »

The comparisons for the dreaded franchise / regional model in rugby are around 7.5k for the rabo league (per game) and around 14k for the Heineken (per game). The GAA gets in around 16k per game according to wiki.

stop comparing rugby and soccer as if they are like for like! the provences in rugby have existed in one form or another since the 1870s! compare them to the new welsh or italian franchises! and european success is easy in rugby, ireland is a power and there are only realistically 4 (5 if you want to count the scots) countries with teams that compete! do a direct swap of leinster/munsters attendances to a football league and they still wont compete in europe to the standard you are going to want! 7.5k is league 1 attendance, you think that will honestly bring european success? if the loi's future is based on sucess in europe we may as well give up if our uber successful rugby regions can just about equal tier 3 in england

PRAF

doncarlos wrote: »

Apparently, TV stations will be fighting over the TV rights and sponsors will be fighting to get their name associated with the new league.

The two Dublin teams will play out of Lansdowne so attendances will be huge with kids begging their parents to come to games to see a 43 year old Damien Duff.

I have to admit I got a good laugh out of this one. Some of us prefer to think big and have ambitious, positive ideas. Others prefer to wallow in their own misery with the only consolation being that they are marginally less F***ed than the guy next to them lying in the gutter.

A quote from Bono comes to mind: "American people see the guy with the house on hill, say, 'I'm gonna work real hard and one day have a house like that'... Irish people see the guy with the house on the hill and say, 'One day, I'm gonna get that f****r.'". The Irish are world beaters when it comes to misery and begrudery. Some of you guys would be olympic contenders in it.

Speaking of Bono, back in his day lots of Irish music officianados used to tell U2 that you have to move to London, you can't be a successful band if you base yourself in Dublin. We all know what happened there. Lots of people talked down the chances of Irish pro golfers ('ah sure we'll never win a major'), Irish pro rugby ('sure it'll kill Irish rugby dead in its tracks'), Irish boxers ('ah sure we'll never compete with the Cubans and the Russians', Irish dancers (' ah sure nobody would pay to see Mick Flately lepping around like a big eejit').

C'mon boardies, we can dream big here.

doncarlos

PRAF wrote: »

Ridiculous underestimation? What is your estimate? I based my figures off wikipedia which show a little less than 10k fans per week actually (avg attendence of around 1600 x 6 matches per round of games).

And these 10,000 fans are the only ones that go to matches??
You are aware back in the real world that teams play at home and away so the 1600 that watch the team playing at home wont be the same 1600 that watch the team playing away from home. Plus plenty of fans are floating. for example your average gate could be 1600 but 3000 different fans might have attended home games over the season.

applehunter

PRAF wrote: »

C'mon boardies, we can dream big here.

It was called the Celtic Tiger.

It was big ugly and bloated and eventually burst leaving the ordinary man to pick up the pieces.

A bit like your plans.

dan1895

PRAF wrote: »

I have to admit I got a good laugh out of this one. Some of us prefer to think big and have ambitious, positive ideas. Others prefer to wallow in their own misery with the only consolation being that they are marginally less F***ed than the guy next to them lying in the gutter.

A quote from Bono comes to mind: "American people see the guy with the house on hill, say, 'I'm gonna work real hard and one day have a house like that'... Irish people see the guy with the house on the hill and say, 'One day, I'm gonna get that f****r.'". The Irish are world beaters when it comes to misery and begrudery. Some of you guys would be olympic contenders in it.

Speaking of Bono, back in his day lots of Irish music officianados used to tell U2 that you have to move to London, you can't be a successful band if you base yourself in Dublin. We all know what happened there. Lots of people talked down the chances of Irish pro golfers ('ah sure we'll never win a major'), Irish pro rugby ('sure it'll kill Irish rugby dead in its tracks'), Irish boxers ('ah sure we'll never compete with the Cubans and the Russians', Irish dancers (' ah sure nobody would pay to see Mick Flately lepping around like a big eejit').

C'mon boardies, we can dream big here.

And you just want someone to provide a big house on top of a hill for you.

bohsman

Would say there are at least 10k Bohs fans, over 5k turned up for the FAI Cup final at the RDS against Derry. I haven't been to a game this season so I won't be in the figures either.

PRAF

bohsman wrote: »

There are 2 divisions and it's not the same people going to games every week, also plenty don't go to games, just like EPL fans. Here's a more accurate look at attendances - http://foot.ie/threads/163317-2012-attendances?p=1610888&viewfull=1#post1610888

Also a good article from the indo - http://www.independent.ie/sport/soccer/lets-cash-in-on-spirit-of-poland-before-it-evaporates-3161542.html

FFS, you've just proven my point. 5 of the 11 teams have attendences that were lower than my average, 1 of them pretty much spot on, and the other 5 were higher. Going with your average of 1,700 per match, you still get 10k per round of games.

And adding in the first division is pathetic. I don't know what's more pathetic, trying to add this in, or the crowds you go to these games (an extra 1,500 fans per round of games is it?).

I stood accused of "massively underestimating" the LoI fans. Case closed, you were wrong

bohsman

PRAF wrote: »

FFS, you've just proven my point. 5 of the 11 teams have attendences that were lower than my average, 1 of them pretty much spot on, and the other 5 were higher. Going with your average of 1,700 per match, you still get 10k per round of games.

And adding in the first division is pathetic. I don't know what's more pathetic, trying to add this in, or the crowds you go to these games (an extra 1,500 fans per round of games is it?).

I stood accused of "massively underestimating" the LoI fans. Case closed, you were wrong

But you need to double it just from your own post. 90% home fans at most games so you need to take into account each away teams fans aswell, then take into account that it's not the same people going every week. You massively underestimated.

doncarlos

PRAF wrote: »

I have to admit I got a good laugh out of this one. Some of us prefer to think big and have ambitious, positive ideas. Others prefer to wallow in their own misery with the only consolation being that they are marginally less F***ed than the guy next to them lying in the gutter.

It's all good and well thinking big but you need to have common sense and a bit of realism. Idiotic ideas like yours are the reason why shows like Dragon's Den are so funny

PRAF

doncarlos wrote: »

And these 10,000 fans are the only ones that go to matches??
You are aware back in the real world that teams play at home and away so the 1600 that watch the team playing at home wont be the same 1600 that watch the team playing away from home. Plus plenty of fans are floating. for example your average gate could be 1600 but 3000 different fans might have attended home games over the season.

Please, you are just embarrassing yourself now. Will you be counting your make believe pals now as well, how about your pet dog who is a big rovers fan and barks every time Gary Twigg scores a goal. Give me a break

The discussion is around a league that is in financial difficulty. We need real fans, not makey uppy fans

bohsman

doncarlos wrote: »

Idiotic ideas like yours are the reason why shows like Dragon's Den are so funny

Can't believe nobody thought of it till now, problem solved, go on the show and ask for a billion or so, explain that it will lead to the following:
- Supporting more professional footballers and therefore creating more jobs in football
- Providing solid structures so that the best of our kids do not have to go to England to get chewed up and spat out by the EPL
- Providing a sufficiently strong level of football so that the best young talent in Ireland does not have to go abroad in order to continue their football education
- Generate enough interest in order to winover the barstool fans

and I'm sure they'll bite your hand off for a bit of the action.

dan1895

PRAF wrote: »

Please, you are just embarrassing yourself now. Will you be counting your make believe pals now as well, how about your pet dog who is a big rovers fan and barks every time Gary Twigg scores a goal. Give me a break

The discussion is around a league that is in financial difficulty. We need real fans, not makey uppy fans

What are you talking about???

PRAF

bohsman wrote: »

But you need to double it just from your own post. 90% home fans at most games so you need to take into account each away teams fans aswell, then take into account that it's not the same people going every week. You massively underestimated.

Meanwhile, back in the real world where everyone else thinks in terms of average attendences at matches, you are still wrong.

PRAF

bohsman wrote: »

Can't believe nobody thought of it till now, problem solved, go on the show and ask for a billion or so, explain that it will lead to the following:
- Supporting more professional footballers and therefore creating more jobs in football
- Providing solid structures so that the best of our kids do not have to go to England to get chewed up and spat out by the EPL
- Providing a sufficiently strong level of football so that the best young talent in Ireland does not have to go abroad in order to continue their football education
- Generate enough interest in order to winover the barstool fans

and I'm sure they'll bite your hand off for a bit of the action.

Or maybe we'll all just try to sell our home grounds to a rich developer who'll build us all 10,000 seat stadiums beside the M50

PRAF

applehunter wrote: »

There are lot of floating supporters that would only go to a few games a season.

Know full well from following Cork City that we have a "hardcore" of about 2k but on occasions we can get 4-5k through the gate.

GAA support has similar fluctuations.

which is why people try to compare things using average attendence figures

doncarlos

PRAF wrote: »

Please, you are just embarrassing yourself now. Will you be counting your make believe pals now as well, how about your pet dog who is a big rovers fan and barks every time Gary Twigg scores a goal. Give me a break

The discussion is around a league that is in financial difficulty. We need real fans, not makey uppy fans

How am I embarrassing myself?
My post was based on facts whereas yours was based on a wiki link and bad maths

overshoot

PRAF wrote: »

Or maybe we'll all just try to sell our home grounds to a rich developer who'll build us all 10,000 seat stadiums beside the M50

you wanted dayler sold a minute a go... and are you also forgetting the millions in cash that came with that deal... guess it wouldnt be used for investing money no?

bohsman

PRAF wrote: »

Meanwhile, back in the real world where everyone else thinks in terms of average attendences at matches, you are still wrong.

What? You claimed only 10k people support the league. This is so clearly wrong that if you can't understand how each of the 11 teams has an average of 1600 at games leads to more than 10k fans for a start before you even consider floating fans then there's no debating anything with you.

Would you agree that only around 250k people follow the EPL?

doncarlos

bohsman wrote: »

Would you agree that only around 250k people follow the EPL?

I've a feeling this could be Checkmate

*Edit*
Actually, the average attendance of the English Premier league is 34k so multiply that by 10 (number of games) = 340,000 fans of English football (You don't include lower leagues remember) using PRAF's formula. Pretty pathetic given the size of their country

celtictiger32

bohsman wrote: »

Plenty of teams from around the country have had their chance in the league from Finn Harps and Cobh Ramblers to Waterford, Galway and Limerick. If the football fans that will be so happy to jump on board your new league wouldn't support their own then how will that change now? Also look at the support Kilkenny, Kildare and Monaghan didn't get. Also zero chance of getting the IFA to allow Northern clubs in, Derry are a special case because nobody wanted to play with them.

would they have a choice if the clubs broke away?

bohsman wrote: »

There are 2 divisions and it's not the same people going to games every week, also plenty don't go to games, just like EPL fans. Here's a more accurate look at attendances - http://foot.ie/threads/163317-2012-attendances?p=1610888&viewfull=1#post1610888

Also a good article from the indo - http://www.independent.ie/sport/soccer/lets-cash-in-on-spirit-of-poland-before-it-evaporates-3161542.html

interesting article from the indo, should be sent to the clubs

PRAF wrote: »

FFS, you've just proven my point. 5 of the 11 teams have attendences that were lower than my average, 1 of them pretty much spot on, and the other 5 were higher. Going with your average of 1,700 per match, you still get 10k per round of games.

And adding in the first division is pathetic. I don't know what's more pathetic, trying to add this in, or the crowds you go to these games (an extra 1,500 fans per round of games is it?).

I stood accused of "massively underestimating" the LoI fans. Case closed, you were wrong

no you are wrong on this one there is definitely more than 10,000 LOI fans in this country, we just dont see them week in week out unfortunately. i will admit i dont get to as many games as i used to myself reason being i run a local club myself and that takes up a lot of my time.

overshoot

celtictiger32 wrote: »

would they have a choice if the clubs broke away?

unlikly, its uefa/fifa who keep the domestic league. derry were allowed join loi beacuse of their treatment in the north... as in being forced to play home games from colraine (v linfield in windsor) despite the ruc and army saying the brandywell was no more dangerous than any other ground.

the welsh premier league was formed in 1991, with the regional cymru alliance (north) and welsh football league (south) below it. swansea, cardiff, wrexham etc were allowed into the english league as a welsh national didnt exist at that time.

thus a tradition is started and these clubs may maintain their places in "foreign" leagues and how new derry got back into loi... there was work behind that! so to sum up there wont be an imitation of the pro12 any time soon!

legendary.xix

Could we get back to fixing the league within current structures?

celtictiger32

overshoot wrote: »

unlikly, its uefa/fifa who keep the domestic league. derry were allowed join loi beacuse of their treatment in the north... as in being forced to play home games from colraine (v linfield in windsor) despite the ruc and army saying the brandywell was no more dangerous than any other ground.

the welsh premier league was formed in 1991, with the regional cymru alliance (north) and welsh football league (south) below it. swansea, cardiff, wrexham etc were allowed into the english league as a welsh national didnt exist at that time.

thus a tradition is started and these clubs may maintain their places in "foreign" leagues and how new derry got back into loi... there was work behind that! so to sum up there wont be an imitation of the pro12 any time soon!

i know its unlikely and all but im sure with the situation the way it is i dont think uefa/fifa would object similarly with the players decaration for their country. its just a pity the fai and ifa cant get their heads together and do this on aamicable basis, i think both would benefit in the long run

PRAF

legendary.xix wrote: »

Could we get back to fixing the league within current structures?

I'm an ideas man, so here goes......

Centralised contracting: If you stick with the existing structures, I think centralised contracting of top young talent becomes critically important. They do it in the MLS so presumably FIFA have no issue with it. Retain the best young players, invest heavily in their development from a very young age (tiki-taka, futsal, etc.), ensure there is a fair spread of top young talent amongst the teams. Also, if you sell them on (after they reach 23), make sure you get a good price for them and then spread the proceeds around the league. It would also help with more centralised control over clubs expenditure.

Star names: with support from investors and perhaps someone like Dennis O'Brien or JP McManus, get a handful of star names to spread throughout the league. Could you get some great Irish heros who are maybe past their very best to come back to support the league in their home country for a year or two? Johnny Giles did it. Roy Keane used to talk about coming back to play for Cobh. Damien Duff talked about playing in Ireland again. Who knows what's possible here. Maybe Disco Pants Niall Quinn would tog out once more!

One off events: LoI 11 vs Ireland 11 in a friendly match (e.g. in the run up to a game or in an off season training session). Charge 5 quid entrance fee and offer complimentary free tickets to a LoI game if you go to it. Could maybe do similar for games against Real Madrid and whoever else comes over to Carton House for pre-season training.

Improved marketing (especially social media): everything from groupon deals to twitter feeds at matches. Generate a buzz, make it exciting.

LoI specific rules: bring in video refs (more justice in the game), rolling subs (use the entire squad, stop the use of subs to waste time), zero tolerance on diving. Would probably get banned by UEFA which would be the best marketing tool possible

Most importantly - BAN LoI FANS FROM CHANTING IN FAKE ENGLISH ACCENTS. Nothing more cringeworthy than hearing Irish people singing "Who are ya, who are ya", "You're not singing anymore", etc.

dfx-

PRAF, for someone who has posted so much in this thread, it's remarkable that you've barely posted anything based on or that could be actually done in reality.

Can I suggest that before you mention rolling subs, video refereeing, Irish 'stars' coming back, one-off games amongst the other gimmicks etc that you stop and think to yourself, "Could this actually happen" before you post it.

Within the current structures cannot be emphasised enough. No gimmicks.

stovelid

Is it any wonder that a lot of the suggestions get short shrift when they show such a - near disrespectful - disconnect from the game and its existing supporters in this country?

Coillte_Bhoy

PRAF wrote: »

I'm an ideas man, so here goes......

Centralised contracting: If you stick with the existing structures, I think centralised contracting of top young talent becomes critically important. They do it in the MLS so presumably FIFA have no issue with it. Retain the best young players, invest heavily in their development from a very young age (tiki-taka, futsal, etc.), ensure there is a fair spread of top young talent amongst the teams. Also, if you sell them on (after they reach 23), make sure you get a good price for them and then spread the proceeds around the league. It would also help with more centralised control over clubs expenditure.

Star names: with support from investors and perhaps someone like Dennis O'Brien or JP McManus, get a handful of star names to spread throughout the league. Could you get some great Irish heros who are maybe past their very best to come back to support the league in their home country for a year or two? Johnny Giles did it. Roy Keane used to talk about coming back to play for Cobh. Damien Duff talked about playing in Ireland again. Who knows what's possible here. Maybe Disco Pants Niall Quinn would tog out once more!

One off events: LoI 11 vs Ireland 11 in a friendly match (e.g. in the run up to a game or in an off season training session). Charge 5 quid entrance fee and offer complimentary free tickets to a LoI game if you go to it. Could maybe do similar for games against Real Madrid and whoever else comes over to Carton House for pre-season training.

Improved marketing (especially social media): everything from groupon deals to twitter feeds at matches. Generate a buzz, make it exciting.

LoI specific rules: bring in video refs (more justice in the game), rolling subs (use the entire squad, stop the use of subs to waste time), zero tolerance on diving. Would probably get banned by UEFA which would be the best marketing tool possible

Most importantly - BAN LoI FANS FROM CHANTING IN FAKE ENGLISH ACCENTS. Nothing more cringeworthy than hearing Irish people singing "Who are ya, who are ya", "You're not singing anymore", etc.

I thought European success was one of your main aims?

dan1895

stovelid wrote: »

Is it any wonder that a lot of the suggestions get short shrift when they show such a - near disrespectful - disconnect from the game and its existing supporters in this country?

This or any other country. What he's proposing doesn't sound like football to me.

Anyway to try and get things back on topic here's a couple of other small ideas I think could help in a small way and they are relatively inexpensive too so I don't see why they are not done already.

Facebook events. At the start of the season I posted on the shels official facebook page about doing this as it literally takes two minutes to do. First of all that gets the word out to the members on that page. Then when someone says they are attending the info gets relayed to all that persons friends. This isn't going to have the "sold out" signs hanging from the gates but it costs nothing and takes two minutes so whats the harm? For the record this was done for a Leinster Cup game and the first game of the season against Sligo before stopping again.

Second, player names on the back of shirts. This is more for the younger fans to A. Help them recognise players and B. Have them identify what they go to see in the flesh as being something similar to what they see on the television.

I know some clubs do the above and fair play but you need all the clubs pulling in the one direction when it comes to this sort of thing to have any affect.

PRAF

dfx- wrote: »

PRAF, for someone who has posted so much in this thread, it's remarkable that you've barely posted anything based on or that could be actually done in reality.

Can I suggest that before you mention rolling subs, video refereeing, Irish 'stars' coming back, one-off games amongst the other gimmicks etc that you stop and think to yourself, "Could this actually happen" before you post it.

Within the current structures cannot be emphasised enough. No gimmicks.

Why are you, as a Boards Moderator, trying to suppress debate and narrow the agenda so much that it becomes meaningless? Everything I've suggested has been done to some extent in other soccer leagues or professional sports. Please let me know why any of the above is impossible to do. Also please give me your suggestions, I look forward to picking them apart.

dan1895

PRAF wrote: »

Everything I've suggested has been done to some extent in other soccer leagues

Can we have some examples please?

PRAF

dan1895 wrote: »

Can we have some examples please?

Here's one: Centralised contracting - MLS (soccer) or Irish Rugby. I could provide more but the general standard of debate here is so poor that I really couldn't be bothered

dan1895

PRAF wrote: »

Here's one: Centralised contracting - MLS (soccer) or Irish Rugby. I could provide more but the general standard of debate here is so poor that I really couldn't be bothered

Can we have examples from a league that have to play by UEFA's rules?

doncarlos

PRAF wrote: »

I could provide more but the general standard of debate here is so poor that I really couldn't be bothered

Ah, the last sting of a dying wasp!

PRAF

dan1895 wrote: »

Can we have examples from a league that have to play by UEFA's rules?

Can you provide me with the specific UEFA rule that prohibits centralised contracts? Could you similarly provide me with an EU laws or rules that prevent centralised contracts?

PRAF

doncarlos wrote: »

Ah, the last sting of a dying wasp!

You just go back to chanting "Who are you" in your best fake english accent don. One day you'll see the irony of your arrogant attitute to EPL 'fanboys' whilst at the same time emulating their fans and ripping off their chants.

doncarlos

PRAF wrote: »

You just go back to chanting "Who are you" in your best fake english accent don. One day you'll see the irony of your arrogant attitute to EPL 'fanboys' whilst at the same time emulating their fans and ripping off their chants.

Cool story bro!

dfx-

Right, enough is enough. PRAF, stop posting in this thread. You have two yellows on thread, the next will be red and a ban.

legendary.xix

On the subject of how to fix the league. I'm sure many will have read the story during the week: Half of Ireland's population (1.8 million people) have a disposable income of €100 or less monthly after bills are paid. Also, alarmingly, the amount of people having to utilise loan sharks and pay exorbitant interest rates from other dodgy lenders has risen

Four out of 10 adults have borrowed to pay a household bill in the last year, with the most desperate 10pc using a moneylender, it revealed.

The GAA are getting their pricing all wrong for hurling and football championships with low turnouts for games. People are reluctant to pay €30 these days for games and many games are played outside people's counties.

There's a position opening in the market for affordable sporting entertainment. I took in a LoI game recently and paid €12 to get in. I enjoyed the game and will be back to take in more game. GAA games in the same area are costing about 3 times that price. You'd have to ask yourself will I pay €3timesX for a game here when I can pay €X for a game there. If people have an interest in both sporting codes, there could be a connect to take in LoI games.

Darragh Moloney had the good documentary on Irish soccer. There were times when the GAA was thriving and the soccer was thriving. In the current climate, there is a place for soccer to get a strong footing. A weakness though again is a lack of a connect nationwide. A solution has to be found within current structures while helping current established club, to get more regions involved in the league and a more nationwide connect.

Coillte_Bhoy

legendary.xix wrote: »

On the subject of how to fix the league. I'm sure many will have read the story during the week: Half of Ireland's population (1.8 million people) have a disposable income of €100 or less monthly after bills are paid. Also, alarmingly, the amount of people having to utilise loan sharks and pay exorbitant interest rates from other dodgy lenders has risen

Four out of 10 adults have borrowed to pay a household bill in the last year, with the most desperate 10pc using a moneylender, it revealed.

The GAA are getting their pricing all wrong for hurling and football championships with low turnouts for games. People are reluctant to pay €30 these days for games and many games are played outside people's counties.

There's a position opening in the market for affordable sporting entertainment. I took in a LoI game recently and paid €12 to get in. I enjoyed the game and will be back to take in more game. GAA games in the same area are costing about 3 times that price. You'd have to ask yourself will I pay €3timesX for a game here when I can pay €X for a game there. If people have an interest in both sporting codes, there could be a connect to take in LoI games.

Darragh Moloney had the good documentary on Irish soccer. There were times when the GAA was thriving and the soccer was thriving. In the current climate, there is a place for soccer to get a strong footing. A weakness though again is a lack of a connect nationwide. A solution has to be found within current structures while helping current established club, to get more regions involved in the league and a more nationwide connect.

I dont know what gaa games your on about, connacht final next sunday is €0 general admission, stand tickets dearer allright

overshoot

Coillte_Bhoy wrote: »

I dont know what gaa games your on about, connacht final next sunday is €0 general admission, stand tickets dearer allright

jesus is connacht that bad that its free;)
yea ulster final is decent too, student 10e /adult 15e for the terraced hill. ranging up to 27e for an adult for the covered seats.

i dont think loi prices are uncompetitive. 12/15 for premier and 12/10 for D1 seems the norm, student tickets can be 5e. iv seen boards though who have gone from 15 to 10 say attendance wise it doesnt make a difference, the income is down. a loyalty type thing may be a better idea, iv seen half season tickets but if you advertised the cards and a go to 4 games get a 5th free the cost is spread unlike the upfront season ticket (well same amount of free games as the season ticket). might appeal more to the floating fan. get them to 3... ah sure one more and iv a free one... then they are on 5 and could be getting into the habit

2ndcoming

From a complete beginner to LOI apart from watching MNS or the televised Euro matches, just after looking at this weekends fixtures with the intention of going to my first game Friday night, all 3 Friday night games are outside Dublin and the two games in Dublin are on Sunday at 3.00, which I can't make.

Given the population of Ireland is massively Dublin-centric, surely it would be wiser to try and have a game in the capital on every matchday (matchday as in, every day games are played, rather than each week's fixture card).

Both home Dublin clubs this week could surely pick up some more neutrals/ tourists/ even league diehards wanting to watch as many games as possible by having one game on Friday night and the other on the Sunday?

Richard Hillman

2ndcoming wrote: »

From a complete beginner to LOI apart from watching MNS or the televised Euro matches, just after looking at this weekends fixtures with the intention of going to my first game Friday night, all 3 Friday night games are outside Dublin and the two games in Dublin are on Sunday at 3.00, which I can't make.

Given the population of Ireland is massively Dublin-centric, surely it would be wiser to try and have a game in the capital on every matchday (matchday as in, every day games are played, rather than each week's fixture card).

Both home Dublin clubs this week could surely pick up some more neutrals/ tourists/ even league diehards wanting to watch as many games as possible by having one game on Friday night and the other on the Sunday?

Clubs play the games on the nights that suit their attendance best. If Shelbourne move their games to Thursday/Saturday/Sunday, its usually a very poor attendance. The 2 sunday games were moved because of European matches. I think only Sligo play normally on a Saturday, everyone else on Fridays.

I do think TV games shouldnt be on Friday at 7 o clock as most supporters of LOI clubs are usually at their own teams matches.

applehunter

Finally some realistic suggestions.

AgileMyth

2ndcoming wrote: »

From a complete beginner to LOI apart from watching MNS or the televised Euro matches, just after looking at this weekends fixtures with the intention of going to my first game Friday night, all 3 Friday night games are outside Dublin and the two games in Dublin are on Sunday at 3.00, which I can't make.

Given the population of Ireland is massively Dublin-centric, surely it would be wiser to try and have a game in the capital on every matchday (matchday as in, every day games are played, rather than each week's fixture card).

Both home Dublin clubs this week could surely pick up some more neutrals/ tourists/ even league diehards wanting to watch as many games as possible by having one game on Friday night and the other on the Sunday?

Both of the Sunday fixtures involve teams playing in Europe on Thursday night. They were moved to accomodate the European games.

Xavi6

Just read the last 100 or so posts. That PRAF lad, quoting Bono and everything...

legendary.xix

Richard Hillman wrote: »

Clubs play the games on the nights that suit their attendance best. If Shelbourne move their games to Thursday/Saturday/Sunday, its usually a very poor attendance. The 2 sunday games were moved because of European matches. I think only Sligo play normally on a Saturday, everyone else on Fridays.

I do think TV games shouldnt be on Friday at 7 o clock as most supporters of LOI clubs are usually at their own teams matches.

Similar issue with MNS at times clashing with games on Monday nights.

2ndcoming

I think the best way to improve and preserve the league long term is down to the FAI supporting UEFA licences for underage coaches and supporting underage leagues as much as possible, it might take 10 years to bear fruit but the more kids trained the right way all across the country the better it is for all Irish football.

Essien

2ndcoming wrote: »

I think the best way to improve and preserve the league long term is down to the FAI supporting UEFA licences for underage coaches and supporting underage leagues as much as possible, it might take 10 years to bear fruit but the more kids trained the right way all across the country the better it is for all Irish football.

Absolutely.

How much does it cost to get a UEFA licence does anyone know? And are there many coaches up to that standard in the country already?

Mr.Crinklewood

Popped into the FAI shop on Westmorland Street ( Dublin ):-

The only had four League of Ireland clubs jerseys ( St.Pats, Dundalk, Cork, Shamrock Rovers ).

They managed to have England, and a few foreign clubs though.