Real Fans?

[Peadar]

There was a time when I used to buy 4 tickets for any Ireland game I could and give 2 of them to some mates. I remember them asking for tickets for the "big" games like as though they'd die if they didn't get to the game. I automatically bought them tickets for the friendlies too. Sometimes they'd give me an excuse not to go and I'd accept that and sell the tickets for face value or less. It all came to a head when they said they couldn't be bothered going to the Georgia and Albania games in the last qualifying campaign. These are the type of people who should be the last ones to get any tickets. I certainly wont buy or offer tickets for them again. They're in the pub every weekend watching Manchester United so I'm sure they'll be quite at home there for the Ireland games too.
If we're trying to distinguish between people who are or are not "real fans" then I maintain that this type of people are not "real fans."

[Schumi]

Absolutely, a 'real fan' is someone who is as interested in going to a small game as a big one.

[max power]

i'd love to go to every game but work gets in the way, but i do agree that all games are equal and should be supported the same way

[Paul03]

I'm a blockbooker who lives in England so going to home games is an expensive do, that said I've never missed a competative home game in about 6yrs but.............. never been to a freindly.

Guess that means I'm not real fan
:D

[John83]

Originally posted by Paul03
I'm a blockbooker who lives in England so going to home games is an expensive do, that said I've never missed a competative home game in about 6yrs but.............. never been to a freindly.

Guess that means I'm not real fan
:D
There are extenuating circumstances there. If you lived in Dublin, would you go to friendlies?

[nifan]

We have these coming out of the woodwork in spades, looking for tickets to england and wales, but not any of the other games.
Plenty of ROI fans have asked me for tickets to see these games too:confused:

[max power]

the reason his friends won't take the tickets ot because they're not real, ya know all in his head !!!

[DolansWaistcoat]

Aw ya the story affected me deeply,so very very deeply.The story touched me in places i,ve never been touched before,pas the tissues somebody,please i'm soaking the keyboard.;) ;)

Seriously though he has a good point,I don't think it's fair that the 'Big game' supporters should get a Ticket and that someone who goes to every game,the true supporter should be left without one.

[Peadar]

Originally posted by Paul03
never been to a freindly.

Guess that means I'm not real fan


These lads live in Dublin.
Knocking around their house on a Saturday afternoon and couldn't be arsed to go across town to watch Ireland playing.

Out of curiosity, will you travel over for the Brazil game?

[DolansWaistcoat]

If they live in Dublin and couldn't be arsed to go to the so called smaller games then i've no time for the fcukers.:mad:

[Paul03]

There are extenuating circumstances there. If you lived in Dublin, would you go to friendlies?

Yes I'd definately attend if I lived in Dublin, in particular the Canada as I'd have loved to have seen Reid live in action.

Out of curiosity, will you travel over for the Brazil game?

No I don't think so

[Paul03]

There are extenuating circumstances there. If you lived in Dublin, would you go to friendlies?

Yes I'd definately attend if I lived in Dublin, in particular the Canada as I'd have loved to have seen Reid live in action.

Out of curiosity, will you travel over for the Brazil game?

No I don't think so

[Junior]

Originally posted by Peadar
These lads live in Dublin.
Knocking around their house on a Saturday afternoon and couldn't be arsed to go across town to watch Ireland playing.

Out of curiosity, will you travel over for the Brazil game?

I know this question was posed at Paul03, however I suppose it could be applied to me as Im in a similar boat.

I pretty much go to all competitive matches, home and away, however have selected my friendlies over the years due to holidays from work, money etc..

I didn't come over for the Canada game, but will for the Brazil game. Im a football fan at the end of the day and the opportunity to see my team play against the best in the world is something I have never had the opportunity of doing so far and I will take the opportunity with both hands.

If I lived in Ireland, I would make the effort to attend all games comp or not (economic situation, family etc.. allowing). However, it is my choice to live in England and I don't expect any allowances to be made for that.

In terms of prioritising tickets for games. History of attendances of all games need to be recorded (competitive/friendly - Home and Away). With some kind of scoring being applied to the games.

However, as in all cases , this is far from foolproof. People would gladly spend 30euros on a ticket for say Faroes (away) with no intention of travelling in the hope that this will give them a higher scoring for when the France tickets came up for sale.:rolleyes:

[Neil04]

hi we should do what scotland does and they give the tickets a[t the team hotel for away games that way people cant buy tickets and not use them u have to travel to pick up tickets and u build up a n account an earn points for goign to matches

[tiktok]

that would work at the poorly attended away games, but it would have caused riots in switzerland

[Neil04]

well it only works for tickets that come directly from the FAI and u sign , it works if u have a system in place thjat the Tartan army have in place and they had 15,000 in Belgium so i think if they can hanle it so can we t[

[Junior]

Originally posted by Neil04
well it only works for tickets that come directly from the FAI and u sign , it works if u have a system in place thjat the Tartan army have in place and they had 15,000 in Belgium so i think if they can hanle it so can we t[

I think this could work. All admin being done, payments etc... before hand in Dublin.

Ticket issued on production of receipt. Agree, not quite sure of the expense of say 10-15k turning up at a parisian hotel, plenty of whom probably haven't followed procedure etc...:rolleyes:

[Paul03]

Junior

What part of Manchester do you livr in?

[frano]

Originally posted by Neil04
hi we should do what scotland does and they give the tickets a[t the team hotel for away games that way people cant buy tickets and not use them u have to travel to pick up tickets and u build up a n account an earn points for goign to matches

One problem with that Neil, it would only work if the FAI were willing to do even more work than they don't do already :)

I live in England so finacially every game is away game for me, taking that and annual holidays into account, I just budget for the full internationals. I am making an exception for the Brazil game though, as myself and a few brothers will be going.

There should be some system though, some kind of loyalty scheme. The current set up is totaly unfair.

To go home and away as so many of us did in the last qualifiers, and to get shafted for the final game in Basel, as so many of us did, was a total fcuking disgrace.

[Neil04]

well the tartan army have a scheme its called the Travel Club, you pay 20 quid some we will say 35 Euro every 2 years to join. and you are awarded points for every game that you go to. About a month before every game they send out an application form to the people to apply and does with most points get the the tickets until the allocation is full up. Once you have applied for tickets and been told that you are getting them, they inform you of where to pick them up. So in relation to the Swiss game we were allocated 3,000 tickets, the FAI would have given them 3,000 fans with the highest loyalty points. They woudl not deal with any other tickets only then the ones alocated to them.

[Macy]

Originally posted by frano
I live in England so finacially every game is away game for me, taking that and annual holidays into account, I just budget for the full internationals. I am making an exception for the Brazil game though, as myself and a few brothers will be going.

There should be some system though, some kind of loyalty scheme. The current set up is totaly unfair.
Well then a loyalty scheme would have totally fúcked wouldn't it? If you don't go home friendlies? They'd have to count as much (perhaps more so) than home competitive games?

[Neil04]

No each game is given a certain value and the away games to places like faroes etc would count for more that say france away. It is called a travel club so it relates to away games only. The block booking scheme is not going to be scrapped cause there are too many people signed up to it already

[frano]

I take your point Macy, and it's a fair one.

But surely the average fans ability to attend games on a financial basis should be taken into account. Or we'd be in danger of saying you can only attend games if you earn X amount of disposable income. Football, at all levels, has been built on working class money for over a century, a point clubs and FA's tend to forget all too quickly imo.

I have been to only 2 or 3 friendlies in the last decade, but for full internationals, myself and thousands like me have paid hard earned money to support our country home and away.

So maybe it's a case of playing the percentages. This to include friendlies. Where if Ireland play, for the sake of arguement, 6 games in a year regardles of the games importance, those attending 4 or more will have top priority, 2 or 3 lower priority and so on.

I'm not saying this should be the way it's run, it's just an idea. The point is though Macy that most fans travelling seem to think the current set up is unfair. And I for one agree with them.

[Junior]

Originally posted by Macy
Well then a loyalty scheme would have totally fúcked wouldn't it? If you don't go home friendlies? They'd have to count as much (perhaps more so) than home competitive games?

I don't think they should count more, but perhaps equal to home competitive games.

Away games however would also be considered in the scoring.

[Neil04]

i think the away games shoudl be kept separate, and that it should be called the Travel Club and u sign up and you earn your points as i have outlined above like they do with the Tartan Army, THey have been doing this for ages and it has worked for them. THis data could then be used for home games when the availability comes up either through increased capacity or move to another stadium or whatever. At the moment the home games are sold out and that system is impossible to break up without causing anarchy. With the away games we have a blank canvass and the FAI should release a statment on their Website calling for fans interested in joing the travel club to join up. We then pay our fee of say 35 Euro every 2years to cover admin costs. We the get an application for for the first away match. So say we are playing cyprus away first game we all apply. Whatever our allocation is whoever applies gets a ticket and if demand outways supply lots are drawn and the "losers" are then guaranteed to get some for the next match. This should continue to happen until a pattern establishes itself after one campaign of people with high points and those with lesser points, This database should be then carried through till the next campaign. The issue of home friendlies does not come into it

[IrelandUnited]

If the FAI start to struggle to fill the New Lansdowne because of a run of failure or something we will see them worry about the real fan. Unless that happens they won't because its all the same to them who buys the ticket as long as they are sold.

I'm afraid to say that is the real picture.

[Slash/ED]

I goto every home friendlys, and any U21 matches in Dublin, which has been limited to the Albania Liam Miller one, but when the competitive matches roll around I never get near a ticket. The only competitive match i've been at in years is the 2-0 Georgia one, which I have to admit is something that písses me off. I'd love for some kind of loyalty scheme to be introduced but there's probably not much of a chance of that.

[Beavis]

I'm in the same often situation but the difference is I pay what I have to to the touts.Sad state of affairs but what else can I do?:(