How to Improve the Eircom League?

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Dundalk as a mediocre 1st division side can expect to pull in about 1000 to most home games which is great for teh 1st division if we were playing in the premier our crowds would nearly match any of the big boys as proven in teh cup game against drogehda where there was about 4500+ at the match, the point is some teams have natural good support others have to work on it , it kills me watching 1st division football again this season and more then likely next season as well , like here is athlone town coming to dundalk tomorrow night and there will be a crowd of 800+ at the match they're feck all premier teams would get that crowd on a thursday night against a lowly athlone team ! Dundalk are too big of a team to be stuck in the first divison

jonny68

PHB wrote:

p.s. I'd love the Irish league to dissolve and join up with the English league, and then they would get the money to eventually make it to the top, some teams anyway

would you get a grip of yourself there ive never heard such nonsense in my life

applehunter

Like we haven't lost enough of out Irish identity :rolleyes:

jonny68

applehunter wrote:

Bohs barely get 1500 at their matches.

Nonsense only on smaller games will be get around that figure usually it's 2,500+ and a lot more for the bigger games and we are still the best supported team in Dublin.

KdjaCL

jonny68 wrote:

would you get a grip of yourself there ive never heard such nonsense in my life

Dont you want Celtic to join the English league

kdjac

Kingp35

I have to admit I like the Aussie idea allot and I think it work perfectly for the EL. I can see where people will have a problem with it considering that the current clubs that they support will more than likely have to be merged with another club or disbanded all together and therefore you technically would not be supporting your club anymore. However the league is stuck in a rut and drastic change is needed to get it out of it. More fans need to be attracted in and I have said before that there are too many clubs in Dublin. If there were less clubs then there would be allot more fans supporting a particular club which would in turn up attendances.

The only problem I would have with the Aussie system is that we would need to have a Division 1. there would have to be promotion and relegation as well to keep the interest. Having clubs based on their geographical region makes allot of sense as people are more likely to support a team from they come from because of pride of where you are from. That is why the GAA gets such good crowds because it’s a pride thing. It would mean a huge change to the current system if it was to happen but change is needed and maybe its the only way.

I would like to hear what peoples objections to this idea are and why they think it wont work

Slash/ED

I've a simple reason, and I no doubt speak for every EL fan here too.

I'm not about to give up my club, that's been around since the 19th century, that I've supported up and down the country and even beyond just because a few people think the league is beneath them so wont support it and instead want some tailor made franchises before they'll bother coming out.

It's not going to happen, and rightly so. You want to improve the league, go out and support it, simple as that.

Could you imagine the reaction to someone claiming the solution to the falling attendences in England is to merge City and United, merge Everton and Liverpool etc etc.

KdjaCL

Kingp35 wrote:

I have to admit I like the Aussie idea allot and I think it work perfectly for the EL. I can see where people will have a problem with it considering that the current clubs that they support will more than likely have to be merged with another club or disbanded all together and therefore you technically would not be supporting your club anymore. However the league is stuck in a rut and drastic change is needed to get it out of it. More fans need to be attracted in and I have said before that there are too many clubs in Dublin. If there were less clubs then there would be allot more fans supporting a particular club which would in turn up attendances.

Leeds should have merged with Bradford 3 years ago to get out of their money rut, i mean its fine they would have survived and just be called Leeds Bradford FC, kinda catchy name.

When you spit your tea at the monitor in complete disgust at the thoughts of that idea, you may then have somehwat of the same feeling ANY other fan or ANY club would have at the thought of a merger.

man this thread has left normality and went into the Retarded Zone!!

kdjac

Kingp35

Haha are you serious? Can you not see where the problem with your post lies? Leeds are one club that existed in a league that wasn’t struggling. The entire eircom league is struggling at the moment. The attendances are terrible, many clubs are in debt and struggling to get by. The league needs to be reformed to save itself not just a single club!!!

and for the record i am an ex season ticket holder with Bray wanderers but I dont have the time to go to all the matches anymore. My dad and my three brothers all have season tickets to Bray. Bray will most definitely be disbanded if the reform was to happen so dont think I dont understand why people would have a problem with it but for teh good of the league in general something needs to be done

KdjaCL

Kingp35 wrote:

Haha are you serious? Can you not see where the problem with your post lies? Leeds are one club that existed in a league that wasn’t struggling. The entire eircom league is struggling at the moment. The attendances are terrible, many clubs are in debt and struggling to get by. The league needs to be reformed to save itself not just a single club!!!

Ehh how you figure that out? How is it struggling? If an EL team can get further in Europe than a PL/SPL team obviously something must be right?

Cork have great Attd Shels have a deadly attds in the away edn, Derry have excellent attd. That would be the top 3. The top 3 in any league have great attd. Out side of that its fickle city.

The football is better than ever, theres a game on tv every 2nd week. The El is possibly at its strongest now than ever before. You are posting on an EL thread?

Wheres the problem, i posted way back at the start of this thread the El needed 3 things.
Tv
Coverage
Better ground.

Since then 2 out 3 isnt bad, taking Boards as percentage of football watching fans in ireland, how many have watched EL this year? More than last year? So coverage would be up as its on tv. 100,000 people watch the live EL games on TG4 dunno about setanta figures. But thats not far off those who watch PL on Net 2 on a sat.

kdjac

Slash/ED

Indeed, there is plenty of room for improvement in the league, but there is that in any league.

I love going to matches, and at the end of the season when Shels win the league in Dalymount Park I wont be worrying what people outside the league think about it.

Kingp35

KdjaC wrote:

Since then 2 out 3 isnt bad, taking Boards as percentage of football watching fans in ireland, how many have watched EL this year? More than last year? So coverage would be up as its on tv. 100,000 people watch the live EL games on TG4 dunno about setanta figures. But thats not far off those who watch PL on Net 2 on a sat.

it could also be argued that this is actually having a bad affect on the league in that people choose to watch the game on TV rather than actually going to the match and supporting the teams. Obviously if you live on the other side of the country this is understandable. I agree with you totally about we are doing better in Europe but again this is really only Cork and Shels last season. Its only 2 clubs. My problem lies with attendance figures in the league not the quality of the football as such. the league struggles to gain the attention of the Irish soccer fan compard to the PL for example. We need to attract more fans to games in order for the league to improve. Granted attendances are up by 6% last season but a greater improvement is needed.

Marketing might be the way forward but if that is tried and it fails there is no other option other than to try a reform. Its a drastic tactic I dont deny that.

Slash/ED

Nobody would support a reform. The current EL fans who lost their clubs would boycott it, and non EL fans will jump on the bandwagon initially before loseing interest by the 4th series of matches.

KdjaCL

Kingp35 wrote:

it could also be argued that this is actually having a bad affect on the league in that people choose to watch the game on TV rather than actually going to the match and supporting the teams. Granted attendances are up by 6% last season but a greater improvement is needed.

Would you stand on the Camac side of Richmond in the pissings of rain on a damn cold night with no protecion whatsoever?
Would you sit in the Canal Stand in Tolka on the same night in a nicely protected seat?

Simple as that really, grounds are in bits they need to be done before any drastic merging of anything. Who in their right mind would pay to stand on the camac....ehh besides me



kdjac

Kingp35

KdjaC wrote:

Would you stand on the Camac side of Richmond in the pissings of rain on a damn cold night with no protecion whatsoever?
Would you sit in the Canal Stand in Tolka on the same night in a nicely protected seat?

Simple as that really, grounds are in bits they need to be done before any drastic merging of anything. Who in their right mind would pay to stand on the camac....ehh besides me

You definitely have a point there. I remember going to Bray matches and because its beside the see it would be absolutely freezing and the cover there is terrible so more than likely you would be in the rain. It didnt stop me going though I just wore about 5 jackets. But isnt this one of the reasons we moved to summer football? Big question though is where are clubs going to get the money to re-develope their grounds if they cant enough fans in the gate to bring money into the club? Any suggestions? TV money I suppose is the most obvious answer but until the league gets more popular TV money wont be an awful lot.

Slash/ED wrote:

Nobody would support a reform. The current EL fans who lost their clubs would boycott it, and non EL fans will jump on the bandwagon initially before loseing interest by the 4th series of matches.

Yeah possibly they would at the start but true football fans will always want to watch football so i cant see them staying away from the league indefinite otherwise its a case of cutting off your nose to spite your face

por

Firstly soccer fans are far too hung up with tradition, tradition counts for nothing. So what if your team was set up is 1900 and won the league 7 times in a row between 1935 and 1942, it’s what is happening now and what your future looks like that is important.
I’m sure a lot of people would like to see Shamrock Rovers dissolved and started all over again.
As regards people not supporting ‘new’ clubs I am correct is saying that Cork city were set up in the 1980s, same with Galway united, it seem to work for Cork (that’s some 20+ year bandwagon) why can’t it work elsewhere ?
Apart from the 3 mentioned (Shels, Cork and Derry) feck all are going to EL games.
So overall the league is in poor shape and something has to be done about, franchising and a more regional spread are obvious ideas.

applehunter

There are still Hibs and Celtic fans that dont support Cork City.

Töpher

Kingp35 wrote:

I agree with you totally about we are doing better in Europe but again this is really only Cork and Shels last season. Its only 2 clubs.

We only get 4 European spots a year, one of which is an Intertoto spot (and one's gone to Longford, shudder, for the last 2 seasons). So technically, 50% of our participating European entrants have made incredible progress.

I mean, look over the water at Everton, and tell me that our progress is non existant!

MrJoeSoap

Slash/ED wrote:

I've a simple reason, and I no doubt speak for every EL fan here too.

I'm not about to give up my club, that's been around since the 19th century, that I've supported up and down the country and even beyond just because a few people think the league is beneath them so wont support it and instead want some tailor made franchises before they'll bother coming out.

It's not going to happen, and rightly so. You want to improve the league, go out and support it, simple as that.

Could you imagine the reaction to someone claiming the solution to the falling attendences in England is to merge City and United, merge Everton and Liverpool etc etc.

Perfect, couldn't have said it any better.

jonny68

KdjaC wrote:

Dont you want Celtic to join the English league

kdjac

Celtic are a Scottish club and it would certainly be in theirs and the rest of the teams in the SPL's best interest if they did join the Premiership,it wouldn't with the EL

MrJoeSoap

seansouth wrote:

Say if some Championship club came in for Wes Hoolahan with an offer of €120,000. Shels would find it very hard to say no.

Was just reading back over this thread and saw this. Really spooky, gave me goosebumps.

Töpher

:eek: Seaneh, on the ball from down under? Someone's in bed with Ollie!

speriamo

Quality stuff. We have 2 moderators who want to merge teams and leagues:D

The gates are down, the lights are flashing but the train isnt coming.