Unpopular GAA opinion - MOD Note #426

cms88

Amprodude wrote: »

Dr Crokes are potential chokers when met with opposition that can match them in club football. With all their quality they have, they have won very little outside of Munster.

Dublin team of the 2010s are overrated even with 4 handy All Ireland's. Donegal in 2014 proved this.

Kerry extremely lucky to win All Ireland in 2014. Same can be said for Cork in 2010.

Mayo are never going to win Sam. Better off packing it in. Sorry guys but that's the way it is.

Waterford are scared to win All Ireland. The occasion gets to them.

Ulster football is the hardest province to win.

One of the biggest myths in the GAA is that Ulster is the most competitive etc In the last 20 years 4 teams have won it. During that time the same teams played eachother in the final, so its also a myth that any of the teams in it can win it on a given year

Stoner

Amprodude wrote:

Kerry extremely lucky to win All Ireland in 2014. Same can be said for Cork in 2010.

That was a great Cork team. Who was unlucky to be beaten by Cork in 2010?

Down or Kerry, or Dublin? if Dublin in 2010 are overrated how were Cork lucky to beat them.

That Cork team were Giants, a great team should have won more imo.

Bonniedog

Stoner wrote: »

That was a great Cork team. Who was unlucky to be beaten by Cork in 2010?

Down or Kerry, or Dublin? if Dublin in 2010 are overrated how were Cork lucky to beat them.

That Cork team were Giants, a great team should have won more imo.

If you follow the logic of the argument then the conclusion is that the best teams were those who never won anything.

I's certainly different ....

MaxPower131

OK here is one that might not go down well:)

GAA supporters are really nowhere near as good as they claim to be.

Croke Park is full twice a year maybe three times if the Dubs get a tasty semi or quarter against the likes of Kerry.

A small town in England with a club in the third or fourth tier can get 6k souls every weekend throughout the depths of winter. Even big GAA counties struggle to get that for their 3 or 4 home league games and for the first two months of the championship.

A bit like our countrys soccer fans...."best fans in the world" I don't think so.

Bonniedog

Good point about England. In the year that Leicester won EPL their rugby team still managed to have a full house when the soccer team was at home, and there are non league teams close by that get bigger crowds than LOI, which must be the worst supported soccer league in the northern hemisphere!

Yes, Irish people are generally not great for attending live sport. GAA crowds are way ahead of any other but still relatively small in comparison to the major sport in other countries. I'm afraid we are very much a nation of couch potatoes.

Fr Tod Umptious

MaxPower131 wrote: »

OK here is one that might not go down well:)

GAA supporters are really nowhere near as good as they claim to be.

Croke Park is full twice a year maybe three times if the Dubs get a tasty semi or quarter against the likes of Kerry.

A small town in England with a club in the third or fourth tier can get 6k souls every weekend throughout the depths of winter. Even big GAA counties struggle to get that for their 3 or 4 home league games and for the first two months of the championship.

A bit like our countrys soccer fans...."best fans in the world" I don't think so.

Firstly you cannot compare England and Ireland.
England has ten times the population of Ireland, so automatically your 6k is down to 600.

Secondly you are looking in the wrong place to get an idea of numbers.
Yes inter county is the top level of the game but as we know it's not the be all and end all in some counties.
So look at Carlow, and count the numbers that go to county championship, county league, minor etc etc from January to December and I'd imagine you would see a big number relative to the population.

cms88

The SKY deal isn't all that bad. People are up in arms about it, yet not a thing is said about league games being on Eir etc It's bringing extra games that wouldn't be on otherwise.

Fr Tod Umptious

cms88 wrote: »

The SKY deal isn't all that bad. People are up in arms about it, yet not a thing is said about league games being on Eir etc It's bringing extra games that wouldn't be on otherwise.

The games on Sky were previously covered by TV3.

MaxPower131

Fr Tod Umptious wrote: »

Firstly you cannot compare England and Ireland.
England has ten times the population of Ireland, so automatically your 6k is down to 600.

That makes absolutely no sense. If you want to compare you would have to add up attendances at all football league games in England and divide by 10 and your answer would not make for pretty reading compared to Ireland.

Of course there are many who attend smaller club games but that is the same everywhere. The only GAA game of note today (which you would think would attract the GAA "fanatics`) was In Portlaoise with just a few thousand souls.....probably more at Conference games accross the pond.

Not just having a go at GAA supporters. Its across the board. Just over 18 months ago Leinster and Munster hit hard times with results and the attendances collapsed.( Champions Cup tickets could be bought at the gate despite all the bravado of the Thomand faithful etc.) There were a few in the IRFU who were getting in a fluster hense the cautiousness of long term big pay contacts with the fickle nature of the supporters. Thankfully both Leinster and Munster are back on track. Indeed at an Ireland rugby international at the Aviva just at the person next to you about the AIL and they will most likely look at you like you had two heads.

Unpopular opinions but very true......

keane2097

Moorefield (Newbridge - ~22k pop) - one of four(?) clubs in the area? St. Lomans (Mullingar ~21k), one of about nine clubs in the locality?

Tranmere (Birkenhead 90k pop) have the highest average attendance in the Conference with ~4.5k. Including whoever they are playing against.

No idea what the attendance was today, but the size of the suburbs in England vs the base the average GAA club has to draw from is like comparing apples to the moon.

MaxPower131

keane2097 wrote: »

Moorefield (Newbridge - ~22k pop) - one of four(?) clubs in the area? St. Lomans (Mullingar ~21k), one of about nine clubs in the locality?

Tranmere (Birkenhead 90k pop) have the highest average attendance in the Conference with ~4.5k. Including whoever they are playing against.

No idea what the attendance was today, but the size of the suburbs in England vs the base the average GAA club has to draw from is like comparing apples to the moon.

Ah come on now.....today was the biggest club game of the year in Leinster football and attracted a few thousand. The Conference playoff final attracts 20-50k annually depending on whos involved. BTW most people in Birkenhead would obviously support the other two clubs.

I lived near Crewe about 10 years ago and they had about 6k in Gresty Road every Saturday throughout the winter with a population of about 60k or 70k with Chester and Wrexham nearby and a host of Welsh league clubs there was no spill over of fans from other areas. GAA clubs/counties just don't get that sort of support from similar bases but they like to talk down their noses bout "da soccer crowd":rolleyes:

Apples and da moon and all that......

OldMrBrennan83

This post has been deleted.

Fr Tod Umptious

MaxPower131 wrote: »

That makes absolutely no sense. If you want to compare you would have to add up attendances at all football league games in England and divide by 10 and your answer would not make for pretty reading compared to Ireland.

Of course there are many who attend smaller club games but that is the same everywhere. The only GAA game of note today (which you would think would attract the GAA "fanatics`) was In Portlaoise with just a few thousand souls.....probably more at Conference games accross the pond.

Not just having a go at GAA supporters. Its across the board. Just over 18 months ago Leinster and Munster hit hard times with results and the attendances collapsed.( Champions Cup tickets could be bought at the gate despite all the bravado of the Thomand faithful etc.) There were a few in the IRFU who were getting in a fluster hense the cautiousness of long term big pay contacts with the fickle nature of the supporters. Thankfully both Leinster and Munster are back on track. Indeed at an Ireland rugby international at the Aviva just at the person next to you about the AIL and they will most likely look at you like you had two heads.

Unpopular opinions but very true......

Actually the highest average attendance at the conference so far this year was Tranmere, a former league club in greater Liverpool, average attendance of 4.5k

http://european-football-statistics.co.uk/attn/aveengnl.htm

That puts your couple of thousand in Portlaois in a pretty good light, seeing as greater Liverpool has a population of 2.3 million, about half the size of Ireland.


A rearranged Leinster club championship final is not exactly a huge draw. I'd guess there was more at the Kildare and Westmeath county finals.

The structure of the provincial championships with uneven numbers of games spread over uneven calendars does not make for good comparisons with other sports that have a set number of home and away games.

But the kind of numbers that are attending given the population size is far from shabby, and the depth of attendance going all the way down the food chain is evidence of strong core support for the sports.

You mentioned rugby and the AIL.
Rugby folk will always point to sold out Ireland games and relatively good average attendance at Pro 14 and European games as evidence of strong support for rugby. But once you go below those competitions your in one man and his dog territory.

That's not the case with the GAA.

blanch152

Fr Tod Umptious wrote: »

Actually the highest average attendance at the conference so far this year was Tranmere, a former league club in greater Liverpool, average attendance of 4.5k

http://european-football-statistics.co.uk/attn/aveengnl.htm

That puts your couple of thousand in Portlaois in a pretty good light, seeing as greater Liverpool has a population of 2.3 million, about half the size of Ireland.


A rearranged Leinster club championship final is not exactly a huge draw. I'd guess there was more at the Kildare and Westmeath county finals.

The structure of the provincial championships with uneven numbers of games spread over uneven calendars does not make for good comparisons with other sports that have a set number of home and away games.

But the kind of numbers that are attending given the population size is far from shabby, and the depth of attendance going all the way down the food chain is evidence of strong core support for the sports.

You mentioned rugby and the AIL.
Rugby folk will always point to sold out Ireland games and relatively good average attendance at Pro 14 and European games as evidence of strong support for rugby. But once you go below those competitions your in one man and his dog territory.

That's not the case with the GAA.

That still doesn't make any sense unless the Tranmere game is the only one happening in the whole of greater Liverpool.

The point is clear, the attendances at regular sporting events in Ireland is abysmal, there are huge numbers of fairweather friends.

keane2097

MaxPower131 wrote: »

Ah come on now.....today was the biggest club game of the year in Leinster football and attracted a few thousand. The Conference playoff final attracts 20-50k annually depending on whos involved. BTW most people in Birkenhead would obviously support the other two clubs.

I lived near Crewe about 10 years ago and they had about 6k in Gresty Road every Saturday throughout the winter with a population of about 60k or 70k with Chester and Wrexham nearby and a host of Welsh league clubs there was no spill over of fans from other areas. GAA clubs/counties just don't get that sort of support from similar bases but they like to talk down their noses bout "da soccer crowd":rolleyes:

Apples and da moon and all that......

Roughly what % of the population of Leinster do you think are Moorfield or Loman's club people?

Leinster club final is the most important match of the year to probably literally zero people in Leinster. Would have been to Portlaoise people at one stage possibly.

Bonniedog

Indeed. How many of those who voted for McClean were ever at an LOI match, or even an international? Most peoples idea of sport here is to watch it on TV, preferably in a pub, and usually EPL. Hell will be a pub on a "Super Sunday." :-)

shockframe

English Football fans also have a set season and know when games will be played. They also more or less follow 1 team.

The GAA is a lot more fragmented with far less games per team but a lot more teams to follow. Fans will be more likely go to watch Minor, Under 21 and Senior club and county games than they would for underage Soccer in England.

Close to 10,000 attended All ireland minor final replays in 2006 and 2008. You aren't likely to get a crowd anywhere near that for any club or international under 18 competition in soccer.

Attendances in England are excellent I'd agree and they do travel further distances but given Ireland's size the crowds it gets at all grades is remarkable.

shockframe

blanch152 wrote: »

That still doesn't make any sense unless the Tranmere game is the only one happening in the whole of greater Liverpool.

The point is clear, the attendances at regular sporting events in Ireland is abysmal, there are huge numbers of fairweather friends.

GAA attendances across the grades from schools, underage, Third Level and Inter county is the strongest of the 3 by some distance.

Comparing it to England is a bit unfair. Why not a country similar in population like Croatia or Denmark?

DoctaDee

Come on son we're off to the footie, we don't want to miss the fireworks

https://twitter.com/TheFootyStands/status/934251910479179776

MaxPower131

keane2097 wrote: »

Roughly what % of the population of Leinster do you think are Moorfield or Loman's club people?

Leinster club final is the most important match of the year to probably literally zero people in Leinster. Would have been to Portlaoise people at one stage possibly.

Well ok, substitute Leinster Club final with O Byrne Cup/most National League games/most Leinster Championship games and you still can't beat the mighty Crewe.

If you don't believe me go to an O Byrne Cup game next week and see for yourself.

Of course there is a hard core element at all clubs across the country and these generally attend all the inter county games as well but my point is that they are very small in number.

One of the most common reactions to Irelands failed 2023 World Cup bigs was that it was a disgrace they didn't give to the best supporters in the World.

Some times it necessary to take a step back from our own hyperbole (best fans in the world/best little country in the world/everyone loves us) and look at things objectively rather than through patriotic tints)

jr86

MaxPower131 wrote: »

One of the most common reactions to Irelands failed 2023 World Cup bigs was that it was a disgrace they didn't give to the best supporters in the World.

Some times it necessary to take a step back from our own hyperbole (best fans in the world/best little country in the world/everyone loves us) and look at things objectively rather than through patriotic tints)

I cringe more than anyone at these videos of irish soccer fans abroad and our reaction to the RWC failure, but that's a complete different matter altogether

You just cannot compare GAA attendances here with soccer attendaces in a much bigger country and containing multi-billion franchises.

NufcNavan

jr86 wrote: »

I cringe more than anyone at these videos of irish soccer fans abroad and our reaction to the RWC failure, but that's a complete different matter altogether

You just cannot compare GAA attendances here with soccer attendaces in a much bigger country and containing multi-billion franchises.

I think it's a fair comparison. It all boils down to team support at the end of the day.

And the mega rich clubs are only at the extreme end of the spectrum. The majority of clubs in England are relatively small time and easy for their fans to support and follow.

This isn't a knock on GAA fans or sports fans in Ireland (that's another debate) but the level of dedication English football fans show on a wide scale is incredible.

jr86

I'll just echo this post which I think sums it up brilliantly

shockframe wrote: »

English Football fans also have a set season and know when games will be played. They also more or less follow 1 team.

The GAA is a lot more fragmented with far less games per team but a lot more teams to follow. Fans will be more likely go to watch Minor, Under 21 and Senior club and county games than they would for underage Soccer in England.

Close to 10,000 attended All ireland minor final replays in 2006 and 2008. You aren't likely to get a crowd anywhere near that for any club or international under 18 competition in soccer.

Attendances in England are excellent I'd agree and they do travel further distances but given Ireland's size the crowds it gets at all grades is remarkable.

bruschi

I somewhat agree with the point, but I think the comparison is not a good one.

For myself, I havent been going to as many county games as I'd like anymore. Thats because most of them now are not in Wexford. Travelling to away games is not easy with a young family who cant go. I'd go to a few league games, but really, the teams themselves arent bothered with leagues anymore, so fans ultimately wont be either. Championship is where it is at, and that should be the gauge of comparison. And you cant compare either as most times games are at neutral venues rather than a home team. Next year with the hurling set up will be interesting to see attendances for that.

Further to the above, I go to my clubs games, hurling and football and underage too. You would have a lot of people who only go to club games and arent as bothered with county games. You dont have that in the same capacity in English soccer.

Where I think an apt comparisons could be made, is attendances on GAA games from years gone by. As a whole, attendances are up, but I'd like to see a game ratio to fans stat as I remember being at sell out games in Croke Park for Leinster quarters and semis in hurling. Now you'd barely half it half full for a final. I think a saturation of more games, the back door and much more live games has contributed to that.

MaxPower131

jr86 wrote: »

I cringe more than anyone at these videos of irish soccer fans abroad and our reaction to the RWC failure, but that's a complete different matter altogether

You just cannot compare GAA attendances here with soccer attendaces in a much bigger country and containing multi-billion franchises.

I'm not comparing GAA to the big soccer clubs in England....the comparison I have used is areas with similar populations in the lower tiers and the conference of English football.

Fr Tod Umptious

MaxPower131 wrote: »

I'm not comparing GAA to the big soccer clubs in England....the comparison I have used is areas with similar populations in the lower tiers and the conference of English football.

From Wikipedia
Crewe - population 72k
Galway city - population 79k

Crewe is Galway, not Newbridge, not Mullingar, not Wexford, not Thurles, not Tralee, not Longford, not Castlebar, not Letterkenny, not Omagh etc etc

Find me a club in England the size of a club in Ireland and to hen we can make a comparison.

MaxPower131

Fr Tod Umptious wrote: »

From Wikipedia
Crewe - population 72k
Galway city - population 79k

Crewe is Galway, not Newbridge, not Mullingar, not Wexford, not Thurles, not Tralee, not Longford, not Castlebar, not Letterkenny, not Omagh etc etc

Find me a club in England the size of a club in Ireland and to hen we can make a comparison.

Most counties in Ireland have similar populations to lower tier towns in English football. We only have to go 3 or 4 home league games a year whereas they have to go to 23. Stats don't lie. As another poster stated we are a bunch of couch potatoes. Don't get me wrong we could fill Croke Park 3 times over in September but thats not really the point.

OldMrBrennan83

This post has been deleted.

shockframe

Fr Tod Umptious wrote: »

From Wikipedia
Crewe - population 72k
Galway city - population 79k

Crewe is Galway, not Newbridge, not Mullingar, not Wexford, not Thurles, not Tralee, not Longford, not Castlebar, not Letterkenny, not Omagh etc etc

Find me a club in England the size of a club in Ireland and to hen we can make a comparison.

Crewe also has a decent railway service so is easily accessible from most parts of the country.

The infrastructure is not as good in Ireland for long distance travel.

keane2097

MaxPower131 wrote: »

Most counties in Ireland have similar populations to lower tier towns in English football. We only have to go 3 or 4 home league games a year whereas they have to go to 23. Stats don't lie. As another poster stated we are a bunch of couch potatoes. Don't get me wrong we could fill Croke Park 3 times over in September but thats not really the point.

You don't have stats you have a load of auld blather and comparisons that don't survive first encounter with inspection.

Leinster club final the week before Xmas the biggest game in the Leinster club calendar - where do we begin. Tranmere's attendances explained away by proximity to Liverpool/Everton but no interest in the fact that there are 120 clubs across Kildare and Westmeath (combined population 300k vs over two million in the Liverpool area). Dodgy comparison of populations between towns in England well served by transportation infrastructure and towns in Ireland that are obviously much smaller (passed off as comparable sizes), with little infrastructure and games on 50 miles away from either club involved.

The fair comparison to make here is clearly between the number of club members vs size of attendance. People in the areas of those clubs that are not club members and that did not go to the games are hardly GAA people, in which case what have we to do with what events they are attending?

People who aren't interested in GAA are typically not great at attending GAA matches, this is known.

Any other club in Leinster that had a game on Sunday had its own club members rightly attending, managing and taking part in those.

keane2097

This latest attempt to conflate club population with county (!) population - never even mind town population - is laughable.

Many (most? all?) clubs would rather a sinkhole opened up and swallowed the pitch of their nearest neighbours than to be on hand to watch them achieve their finest hour. If Stacks were in the Munster final I'd rather go to Gallarus to be beaten with thistles than to go to see it in case they won - we have people here so divorced from the reality of the GAA they think we should be embarrassed that the whole county don't turn out to support our local heroes :pac:

Mother of god

testaccount123

The fairer comparison is probably between Ireland and Scotland.

A comparison where the GAA fares even worse.

Bonniedog

A good example on population basis is Dublin's league attendances. They average around 25,000 in divisional series. This in a city where there is almost never a counter attraction than the odd rugby game in Aviva or RDS. That is poor enough for a city of its size. Same applies to Cork where home league games average around 7,000 and Cork city around 4,000. Belfast is hardly worth even discussing, support for all sports being abysmal for a city of its size. So I would agree with Max that we are not a great bunch for going to live sports.

keane2097

Bonniedog wrote: »

A good example on population basis is Dublin's league attendances. They average around 25,000 in divisional series. This in a city where there is almost never a counter attraction than the odd rugby game in Aviva or RDS. That is poor enough for a city of its size. Same applies to Cork where home league games average around 7,000 and Cork city around 4,000. Belfast is hardly worth even discussing, support for all sports being abysmal for a city of its size. So I would agree with Max that we are not a great bunch for going to live sports.

Wat?

This started off with Max saying 'GAA supporters are nowhere near as good as they claim to be'.

It has now somehow morphed into 'GAA supporters don't make up a large proportion of the population of large urban centres'.

The people who are not interested in or associated with the GAA are not interested in it or associated with it, are not its supporters and presumably don't spend any time claiming to be 'good'.

GAA people are by and large unbelievably dedicated, should be and are rightly lauded for it.

Fr Tod Umptious

testaccount123 wrote: »

The fairer comparison is probably between Ireland and Scotland.

A comparison where the GAA fares even worse.

Elgin City
Population 23K

Average Attendance 629

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgin,_Moray

http://www.european-football-statistics.co.uk/attn/avesco.htm

testaccount123

Is there somewhere we can look up GAA club attendances to compare?

Bonniedog

keane2097 wrote: »

Wat?

This started off with Max saying 'GAA supporters are nowhere near as good as they claim to be'.

It has now somehow morphed into 'GAA supporters don't make up a large proportion of the population of large urban centres'.

The people who are not interested in or associated with the GAA are not interested in it or associated with it, are not its supporters and presumably don't spend any time claiming to be 'good'.

GAA people are by and large unbelievably dedicated, should be and are rightly lauded for it.

Irish people are poor attenders of ALL sports. There can hardly be a worse attended premier soccer league than the LOI! Actual club rugby here - as opposed to the four professional teams - is abysmal.

keane2097

Bonniedog wrote: »

Irish people are poor attenders of ALL sports. There can hardly be a worse attended premier soccer league than the LOI! Actual club rugby here - as opposed to the four professional teams - is abysmal.

I'm not at all convinced this applies to GAA.

I've been at very few club matches in my life where the attendance was in man and dog territory. Maybe this is the case in very low league matches in places like Dublin and Cork where the base in transient, but I would guess club membership to club attendance across the board in GAA is good.

Fr Tod Umptious

testaccount123 wrote: »

Is there somewhere we can look up GAA club attendances to compare?

Beyond inter county games I don't think there is because the task of head counting is up to the local clubs or organisations themselves

On a quick search regarding Kerry attendances the only non senior inter-county stat I could find was this one saying that there was 1,631 at the U-17 Munster final in 2017 on a Tuesday evening in spring/early summer.

http://sportsmanager.ie/cake/gaa2/kgf/news/10024332/p_r_o_g_a_a_scene24th_may2017

For anyone who does not know the U-17 grade is replacing the U-18 "minor" grade in 2018, and in 2017 both U-17 and U-18 competitions were run with the U-18 being the more high profile

testaccount123

Bonniedog wrote: »

Irish people are poor attenders of ALL sports. There can hardly be a worse attended premier soccer league than the LOI! Actual club rugby here - as opposed to the four professional teams - is abysmal.

Heres a couple of tables with attendances per capita, they are interesting in that while bad, the Irish attendances arent as bad as one might think.

http://www.scottishleague.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=4729
http://www.sportingintelligence.com/2012/04/02/revealed-the-most-dedicated-football-nations-the-faroes-iceland-cyprus-scotland-and-england-020403/

2017 attendances on the up:

http://www.extratime.ie/articles/19545/league-of-ireland-attendances-2017

---

the-story-so-far/

You'd think with GAA being so popular someone would be recording this stuff for that sport. Is there a cost for non-members to attend club GAA games? Surely the clubs need the numbers to report to revenue?

Bonniedog

testaccount123 wrote: »

Heres a couple of tables with attendances per capita, they are interesting in that while bad, the Irish attendances arent as bad as one might think.

http://www.scottishleague.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=4729
http://www.sportingintelligence.com/2012/04/02/revealed-the-most-dedicated-football-nations-the-faroes-iceland-cyprus-scotland-and-england-020403/

2017 attendances on the up:

http://www.extratime.ie/articles/19545/league-of-ireland-attendances-2017

---

the-story-so-far/

You'd think with GAA being so popular someone would be recording this stuff for that sport. Is there a cost for non-members to attend club GAA games? Surely the clubs need the numbers to report to revenue?

County boards are responsible for all revenue at championship, which are only ones which are charged in to.

keane2097

testaccount123 wrote: »

You'd think with GAA being so popular someone would be recording this stuff for that sport. Is there a cost for non-members to attend club GAA games? Surely the clubs need the numbers to report to revenue?

This is well down the list of mind-boggling things the GAA don't keep stats on.

I wouldn't be surprised if you couldn't find an exhaustive list of All Ireland senior intercounty medal winners.

Most adult games would have some charge on the gate, I don't doubt that the revenue reporting aspect of this has something to do with a lack of public attendance figures. The revenue do perform audits on clubs, although I don't really know how common that is.

EICVD

Mayo deserve an All Ireland, now that’s an unpopular GAA opinion in my view. If they’re good enough on the day of a final they’ll deserve it. This they deserve it because every year they come back talk is BS, surely Wicklow, Leitrim etc also ‘deserve’ it because every year they come back, play 2 games & lose 2 games.......

OldMrBrennan83

This post has been deleted.

Fr Tod Umptious

testaccount123 wrote: »

Heres a couple of tables with attendances per capita, they are interesting in that while bad, the Irish attendances arent as bad as one might think.

http://www.scottishleague.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=4729
http://www.sportingintelligence.com/2012/04/02/revealed-the-most-dedicated-football-nations-the-faroes-iceland-cyprus-scotland-and-england-020403/

2017 attendances on the up:

http://www.extratime.ie/articles/19545/league-of-ireland-attendances-2017

---

the-story-so-far/

You'd think with GAA being so popular someone would be recording this stuff for that sport. Is there a cost for non-members to attend club GAA games? Surely the clubs need the numbers to report to revenue?

Well I'm sure they are being recorded at individual club, county and provincial level, but they are not necessarily published on the internet for you or I to search for.

Bonniedog

According to the Irish stats for 2017 home match attendance for premier league on average is 21,795 - a good bit lower than the international table. Averages for Cork and Rovers are just over 4,000 and 3000 respectively. Again, significantly lower.

testaccount123

Patww79 wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

That the clubs are tiny and have little support is kind of the original point. Clubs in other sports in similar sized areas elsewhere in Europe draw larger crowds across a much longer season (see basketball, handball, hockey etc). Admitting this is the unpopular opinion.

keane2097

testaccount123 wrote: »

That the clubs are tiny and have little support is kind of the original point. Clubs in other sports in similar sized areas elsewhere in Europe draw larger crowds across a much longer season (see basketball, handball, hockey etc). Admitting this is the unpopular opinion.

It is not unpopular to say that people who aren't into GAA aren't into GAA.

The clubs are the size they are because of the amount of them per population. The people who are involved with each club tend to be very dedicated on average. The people who aren't interested or involved are neither interested nor involved, nor claiming to be 'good' GAA supporters for the most part.

testaccount123

Dont think anyone doubts the dedication of GAA members and volunteers, there are cults and militias with less zeal in their memberships.

GAA sports arent particularly well attended though, like many sports in Ireland it suffers from event-junkie-itis.

keane2097

A quick look suggests roughly 2200 GAA clubs on the island, population around 6.5 million, so a club for every ~3k people.

Apparently 5300 Association football clubs which presumably covers England and Wales with a population of ~56 million.

I guess that suggests you would expect the average GAA club to be a lot smaller than the average soccer club even adjusting for catchment area sizes. It's a GAA club for every ~3k people on the island of Ireland, a soccer club for every ~10.5k people in England and Wales, which is an enormous difference.