Barstool facepalm

[avvenalaf]

I see your point but I don't think that people come up with excuses not to go to League of Ireland matches, they actively need to be encouraged by the clubs and their fans. I've brought people along who've added maybe a €150 euro over a couple of seasons to League of Ireland income. It's not a lot but it could add up.

One thing that písses me off about the Brandywell is that practically every seat in the Southend Road stand has a "Reserved" sign on it. I'm reasonably sure that the club hasn't sold nearly 2,000 season tickets but I can't be certain, e.g. at the Sligo Rovers game I had to move seats just before kickoff because someone told me it was their seat so enough seats can be an issue at League of Ireland games can be an issue even if our attendances can be poor.

As for clean toilets they're obviously an issue too. I'd love to know why there are so many (good-looking) female fans at GAA games throughout the summer (and to a lesser extent during the National League) while it appears that League of Ireland crowds are almost exclusively male.

You should have told him/her to f**k off. I'm a season ticket holder at Sligo Rovers and I sit in the same area the whole time but don't have an entitlement to a particular seat. if it's gone, it's gone. On the other hand, the set up with reserved seats at The Brandywell is ridiculous and as for Dundalk?. A friend was made move last season (att 600, 250 Sligo fans) because that was someon'e seat. Turned out the someone was Dermot Ahern!!!

[Charlie Darwin]

So what was the decision in the end lads?

[Ezeikial]

You should have told him/her to f**k off. I'm a season ticket holder at Sligo Rovers and I sit in the same area the whole time but don't have an entitlement to a particular seat. if it's gone, it's gone. On the other hand, the set up with reserved seats at The Brandywell is ridiculous and as for Dundalk?. A friend was made move last season (att 600, 250 Sligo fans) because that was someon'e seat. Turned out the someone was Dermot Ahern!!!

If you sit in a season ticket holders reserved seat in any ground you can expect to be asked to move.

[Schumi]

So what was the decision in the end lads?

Dublin is a part of Scotland now. It was as much as we could have hoped for.

[ArdeeBhoy]

How so?

[passinginterest]

Looks like someone was reading this thread;
http://www.independent.ie/sport/socc...-29491347.html

He covers most of the ground covered here many times over.

Yet, rather than complain about the crowds while at the same time dismissing or insulting them as unreal football fans, the question has to be asked about whether there is a genuine desire to see greater crowds at games. If 5,000 suddenly turned up at Dalymount or Tolka Park next week, would the supporters react in the same manner as those who love to discover a music band in small venues but go off them as soon as they become popular among the masses? Would they be happy to have their regular seats taken up by the blow-ins without complaining about where they were five years ago?

[MeathDrog]

Silly argument. 99% of LOI fans would be delighted to see such a gate at their ground.

[passinginterest]

Silly argument. 99% of LOI fans would be delighted to see such a gate at their ground.

Yeah highlighted that paragraph because I think it's the worst part of the article. There seems to be a growing perception that the League of Ireland is a closed off little secret society and new faces are shunned and it couldn't be further from the truth. Although maybe Social media etc. where harcore fans are venting their frustration are actually having a negative impact in putting the idea out there that those with a more passing interest are not welcome?

[avvenalaf]

If you sit in a season ticket holders reserved seat in any ground you can expect to be asked to move.

Season ticket holders at The Showgrounds do not have a reserved seat. First up, best dressed.

[Charlie Darwin]

What nonsense. When Rovers moved to Tallaght, 2,000 new fans turned up out of nowhere and nobody batted an eyelid. Limerick fans seem to have absorbed their 1,000 extra weekly atttendees without taking their ball and going to Pike Rovers.

This is the same trite crap that's trotted out every time there's a big barstooler occasion in Ireland. "League of Ireland fans think X whereas EPL fans think Y, but in fact the answer is somewhere in the middle blah blah blah." Give that man a ****ing PhD.

[Macy]

Yeah highlighted that paragraph because I think it's the worst part of the article. There seems to be a growing perception that the League of Ireland is a closed off little secret society and new faces are shunned and it couldn't be further from the truth. Although maybe Social media etc. where harcore fans are venting their frustration are actually having a negative impact in putting the idea out there that those with a more passing interest are not welcome?

Perception or an excuse? People have to justify dismissing the LoI, so when all else fails blame the people that do bother their holes to go to games. If they don't want to go, don't go - it's their loss - it's the coming up with absolutely pathertic reasons that really bugs the crap out of me. The media run this rubbish as it helps them to justify ignoring the league too.

We're supposed to believe that someone won't got to a LoI game as they might get slagged for being a part timer or johnny come lately, but will pay €100's to go once a season to somewhere like Old Trafford, where they're despised by all but the money men. And it's the LoI fans with the problem?

[ger121]

What brought you there in the first place?

My sister is a big Liverpool fan so I go over to a few games with her each year and she'd come to Dalymount with me. She has a bad back injury so didn't make it over last season, so this was the next best thing... To be honest she was cringing too at the match. I've no problem with people supporting foreign teams, I'd be fond of the Pool myself, I just think it's sad that a lot of these fans don't/won't give the league a chance:-/

[Jofspring]

Delighted to get as many fans in the gate as possible. The only annoying thing I have found is found this new phenomenon of people booing the team off if we lose or play poor. In all the years and rubbish we were served up in the first I can never remember the team being booed off. There has always been a few disgruntled groans heading out of the ground as you'd expect but never actual booing. It's definitely come hand in hand with the never supporters that expect top football all the time and to win all the time.

I saw someone giving out the other day that a tenner can be better spent on a few cans than watching the ****e LOI throws up. That the standard is rubbish and will never be good. Where they think the money will come from the bring up the standard I'll never know.

[Charlie Darwin]

Delighted to get as many fans in the gate as possible. The only annoying thing I have found is found this new phenomenon of people booing the team off if we lose or play poor. In all the years and rubbish we were served up in the first I can never remember the team being booed off. There has always been a few disgruntled groans heading out of the ground as you'd expect but never actual booing. It's definitely come hand in hand with the never supporters that expect top football all the time and to win all the time.

Careful now, you'll drive all those newer supporters away with that kind of abusive talk. They just want to enjoy the game, they don't need rabid LOI fans like you giving them dogs just because they're booing the team.

[sadloserkid]

Careful now, you'll drive all those newer supporters away with that kind of abusive talk. They just want to enjoy the game, they don't need rabid LOI fans like you giving them dogs just because they're booing the team.

To be fair to these intrepid newcomers we're currently bottom of the top half of the table in our first season back in the top tier in almost two decades. Massive underachievement clearly.

What irritates me a little, unreasonably if I'm to be honest, is the element of new support who feel to need to make up for their newness with a show of bravado and bluster designed to give the impression that they care at least as the much as the handful of saddos (myself included) who trudged up to watch us getting hammered that second year in Pike Field (a true nadir). Nobody actually cares, after where we were in the very recent past I'm utterly delighted to see people coming out to watch the team and I think any of the pre-existing support is the same.

[Charlie Darwin]

What nonsense. When Rovers moved to Tallaght, 2,000 new fans turned up out of nowhere and nobody batted an eyelid. Limerick fans seem to have absorbed their 1,000 extra weekly atttendees without taking their ball and going to Pike Rovers.

This is the same trite crap that's trotted out every time there's a big barstooler occasion in Ireland. "League of Ireland fans think X whereas EPL fans think Y, but in fact the answer is somewhere in the middle blah blah blah." Give that man a ****ing PhD.

I was right. Aidan O'Hara did write the exact same article two years ago: http://www.independent.ie/sport/socc...-26672367.html

He even opens with the same ****e about x,000 number of people going to a gig.

[Dodge]

I was right. Aidan O'Hara did write the exact same article two years ago: http://www.independent.ie/sport/socc...-26672367.html

He even opens with the same ****e about x,000 number of people going to a gig.

I just found it there. Knew it sounded familiar.

Of all the the things to blame for LOI crowds being ****e, the people who actually go to the games is easily the worst.

[Eminence Grise]

Oh, the iron knee of it all! Hack plagiarises himself.

[Ezeikial]

Season ticket holders at The Showgrounds do not have a reserved seat. First up, best dressed.

Obviously other grounds may not work the same way - In Oriel Park season ticket purchasers have a choice to buy a reserved stand seat by paying a premium or to opt for an unreserved seat at the normal price.

Its a non-issue for visiting supporters who enter through the designated away section.

For those who enter through the home entrances it is possible to mistakenly sit in a reserved seat - although they are marked with the season ticket holders name.

[DannyInvincible]

People have to justify dismissing the LoI...

Do they though? To whom do they have to justify their lack of interest? There are an infinite number of things in the world in which I take absolutely no interest; I surely don't have to justify my lack of interest in them to anyone else.

Maybe some people will feel they need to justify their lack of interest out of some sort of guilt and they may well come up with what we view as spurious excuses as to why, but there's no necessity to explain oneself to anyone.

Delighted to get as many fans in the gate as possible. The only annoying thing I have found is found this new phenomenon of people booing the team off if we lose or play poor. In all the years and rubbish we were served up in the first I can never remember the team being booed off. There has always been a few disgruntled groans heading out of the ground as you'd expect but never actual booing. It's definitely come hand in hand with the never supporters that expect top football all the time and to win all the time.

That must be that rugby crowd yous're drawing in now you're playing in Thomond.

I saw someone giving out the other day that a tenner can be better spent on a few cans than watching the ****e LOI throws up. That the standard is rubbish and will never be good. Where they think the money will come from the bring up the standard I'll never know.

That would assume they have an interest in seeing standards rise. I suspect they couldn't care less.

On a minor semi-related point, we were looking for a hotel room in Dublin for the night of the Ireland-Sweden qualifier and settled on the Pearse Hotel. Having a more in-depth look on the hotel's website, I came across the following page outlining what Dublin has to offer on the sports front: http://www.pearsehotel.com/sport.html

Whether you want to watch a game, play a game or tour a stadium, Dublin has so much to offer to the sports enthusiast:

•Gaelic Football & Hurling: Croke Park (Traditional, fast-paced exciting summer sport native to Ireland).
•Horse Racing: Leopardstown Racecourse
•Greyhound Racing: Shelbourne Park & Harold’s Cross
•Swimming: National Aquatic Centre
•Athletics: for full listings of all fixtures
•Basketball: National Basketball Arena
•Boxing: National Stadium
•Showjumping: RDS (August)
•Rugby: Aviva Stadium - Tours also available
•Rugby: Leinster Rugby

It's as if football (even international, surprisingly) simply doesn't exist in Dublin. I just thought it a bit odd that something like showjumping, limited to August in the RDS, would be promoted with absolutely no mention of the numerous League of Ireland clubs playing in Dublin every weekend for three quarters of the year.