Munster Team Talk Thread - New season title pending....

thats a fantastic counter argument

the evidence on here suggests otherwise

Cork has been alienated in all of this and the huge reputation and interest that was garnered in the 2000’s has been largely thrown away. There’s much more of a problem with Cork people not willing to attend games full stop, rather than not wanting to go to Thomond. The size of Musgrave Park disguises that a bit. That’s not because there’s no interest, there is. It’s because the centralisation in Limerick has made people lose the connection. I’m one and I know many.

Cork is where the majority of the players are from, where the major population centre is in the region and by extension the potential fan base. That opportunity has been thrown away with the lock, stock and barrel move to Limerick and throwing games against Zebre and Dragons to Cork almost makes the situation worse. What this now does is expose that for a brief moment and some don’t like it.

In a more forward thinking country you’re probably in breakaway region territory due to the missed potential, but that’s something I don’t see in reality here. It would be interesting to throw the cat among the pigeons though.

And when the naming rights are now sold?

big reason PUC isn’t gonna happen for league games, despite all the BS counter dream stuff out being put forward

Something to keep in mind about European semi finals.

EPCR rent the ground and keep the gate receipts. So moving a Munster game to Cork means zero income for either Munster or the IRFU, versus somewhere in the region of 4-500,000k rent for the Aviva (or maybe 200k for Thomond). The additional ticket sales going from Limerick to Cork only benefits EPCR and the publicans of the real capital.

Unless that changes, I'm struggling to see this being a runner.

I genuinely think the Irfu were shocked how much interest there was in Rugby in Cork when they moved the under 20s to Cork. Similarly when Women's game were moved .

Point being I'd that there is a market there. Its up to Munster and the Irfu to decide how to make money here.

Going to limerick from Cork for a game is not an easy excursion, and its understandable that people dont want to make that journey regularly and do so for Euro games or interpros mostly. For a lot of people its a two hour journey each way door to door.

The new (if it ever happens) road might help make it easier - and previously MR have made representations on this topic to the political leaders involved because they know its affecting attendances

The naming rights is not part of the consideration for moving games, its might have an impact on the price paid, but naming rights have been discussed for years and nothing has happened

Ummm, yes. You just repeated my point except with a needlessly aggressive "you know full well" at the start. I do indeed know it full well, that's why I said it. Now you know it full well too because I told you, so I guess you're welcome?

God I hope Munster win a trophy at some point so some lads can divest their shoulders of some chips.

I see some are saying "there will never be league games in PUC". Nobody is suggesting that there will be. What I see people suggesting is that potentially this SA game could open a door where we could have a home ERC semi final in Cork. To me the only Munster games that would be held in PUC are against touring sides and possibly home ERC semi finals. Taking "home" ERC semi finals to the Aviva also obviously sees a lot of Munster cash spent in the capital which I, for one, would prefer to see spent in Munster, be that Cork or Limerick. No floodgates will open following this SA game. But hopefully we might see Munster play a home ERC semi final inside the province in the near future which would be great for Munster Rugby's fanbase, great for Cork supporters and extremely welcome for the local economy.

The contract for naming rights has not stopped Saracens, wasps, northampton, and many many other teams from moving games away from their home ground, so a potential sale of naming rights would not come with guarantees of the sort like some have suggested.

Its been a regular topic over the years and one that was subject to a lot of backlash before.

If it happens so be it as far as im concerned but the point is that naming rights dont come with a guarantee that games wont be moved.

I think rotating the leinster xmas fixture between cork and limerick is the most viable one to consider in terms of ticket sales opportunity and guaranteeing a sellout.

The other opportunity that could be explored is a regular season league game against half decent opposition being held in killarney but there is less gurantee of a sellout and difficult to see financial viability.

While it sounds good in theory.

Kerry has no suitable venue or great support for Rugby.

It neither suits the core support of Limerick or Cork.