Here here, we'd have no gates for clubs for 5 or 6 weeks. It would be a financial disaster. Dark old days - lets not go back there.
Imagine if we still had Winter soccer this year?
How many games would we be behind at this stage. Between the all the rain of November and December, and the freezing conditions of the last few weeks.
Viva Summer soccer.
Here here, we'd have no gates for clubs for 5 or 6 weeks. It would be a financial disaster. Dark old days - lets not go back there.
Was it Sligo who's fans were claiming that their attendances were down because of vital farm work that has to take place in the long summer evenings. That was one of my favourites.
The club soccer is winter soccer though isn't it?!
Football.
Life without Rovers, it makes no sense...it's a heartache...nothing but a fools game. S.R.F.C.
people who want loi to be played in winter deserve a facepalm. ireland really doesnt have a country for cold spells like this, and especially our football infrastructure which is absolute ****.
the farm thing is true unfortunitly.. i know a lot of lads who went to town games every week until we switched to summer football. the summer weather helps make going to a game a more attractive proposition and helps s in europe but it hasnt helped the smaller clubs much
Summer Soccer without a doubt. Not just because of the weather but the LOI clubs have done well in Europe since the move to summer soccer. On another note, the Scottish leagues should really move to summer soccer aswell.
No matter which way you play the league, whether it be during the Summer or Winter, its going to effect smaller teams in some way, thats the problem, main point to think about is: which will affect the greater amount and which will generate better sponsorship, more coverage and increase crowds, not to mention European results, if they go back to the WInter timing then it will be a disaster, look at the Northern League, when was the last time any of the clubs had a positive result in Europe!
They'll be considering it up North aswell I'd imagine. Most of their Christmas programme was wiped out. It cost Coleraine up to £40,000
btw irish weather isn't the worst, like a lot of countries have ****ter winter weather but the way ireland is so rural and has crap stadiums would make winter football just terrible.
the spl wouldn't need to go to summer football because they have quality stadiums and good transport in scotland.
Yeah, I remember those days 30 odd years ago when we last had a winter like this...
Any real evidence for this increase in sponsorship and increased crowds? The only increase in TV Coverage is because of the TV Deal for international games and has nothing to do with the season timing. For the short period we're not up against UK football, or international tournaments, we're swamped by the GAA instead (and attendances are actually down during the UK close season anyway). European results are more to do with spending than league timing, comparison with the Irish League is invalid because of the spending differential and the fact they don't seem to give a toss about european football.
We're stuck with a "summer" season for the foreseeable future, but there's little, if any, evidence it's been of any benefit compared to a traditional season.
If you attack me with stupidity, I'll be forced to defend myself with sarcasm.
Upwards to the vanguard where the pressure is too high.
That's largely true on the SPL stadium front. Though Fir Park always seems to have cancelled fixtures in bad weather for some inexplicable reason, and the SFA have had words with a few others in recent days about the performance of theirr under-soil heating.
However - there are three other senior divisions below the SPL you know, and their fixtures tend to get completely erased in bad weather, often for weeks on end. Lower division Scottish stadia are broadly better than the ones in Ireland (even compared to our Premier Division), but they do also tend to face worse weather than us.
After this Winter's fixture chaos in Scotland, I've no doubt the idea of Summer football will have crossed the minds of a few Chairmen there.
fair play Macy.
i love the "imagine if we had winter football" topic popping up in the worst winter since 1982!!
there is absolutely no evidence that crowds are better because of the move (to summer soccer) or that sponsorship is better. surely the clash with the GAA in summer months (support and exposure wise) and also people on holiday etc. have reduced numbers/interest.
i'd definitely be all for winter soccer.
as for european results, fair enough some have got some decent results but no team has made th breakthrough to group stages, a lot have sailed very close to the wind trying to and in reality only 3 or 4 teams out of the 22 league sides see the benefit of it anyway.
I'd broadly agree with this, though I'm not sure about evidence that crowds are up, especially for each club. Rovers' crowds last season will bring up the average, but that doesn't do any good for clubs in the First Division, for example.
Also, I think the next few seasons in Europe will give some insight into how much of our on-the-field improvement had to do with summer football and how much had to do with spending cash clubs didn't have.
Wouldn't be too sure on that, tbh. Look at Sligo this year losing to a club that was trying to lose. I think once financial reality settles on the league, there'll be a couple of hammerings.
Though I was pleasantly surprised how a much weaker Pat's side than recent years still did very well in Europe this time around.
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