2010 attendances [Archive] - Page 37

pineapple stu

16/10/2010, 8:54 PM

Didn't hear the official figure - I'm sure the Irish Times or extratime has it - but looking at the video, I'd say about 500. Thought it was a relatively poor Dundalk crowd, but that's assuming people went into the home/away sections as appropriate, which they often don't. Don't know where you're getting 250 from tbh.

The Lep

16/10/2010, 9:18 PM

It said in the star today that there was over 4,000 at the bohs game.

poster

16/10/2010, 9:36 PM

What does the shed hold?.

Think it's about 1,400?? I was told.

RoversInn

16/10/2010, 10:08 PM

It said in the star today that there was over 4,000 at the bohs game.

Those figures are unheard of at Sporting Fingal.

Jofspring

16/10/2010, 10:44 PM

which clubs are they and do you think any of them are interested in joining the a league ?

Only Pike are near good enough and don't think they have an interest in stepping up. Big fish in a small pond. Wouldn't be so big at LOI level. Decent set up though with two lovely pitches.

Schumi

17/10/2010, 12:19 AM

assuming people went into the home/away sections as appropriate, which they often don't.Looked like a fairly sharp split in the middle of the stand celebrating the 2nd goal.

Only Pike are near good enough and don't think they have an interest in stepping up. Big fish in a small pond. Wouldn't be so big at LOI level. Decent set up though with two lovely pitches.
Is that the same place Limerick played in 2004?

holidaysong

17/10/2010, 12:56 AM

...but that's assuming people went into the home/away sections as appropriate, which they often don't.

In fairness, your stewards don't help that situation. I was told to sit wherever I wanted, that there was no away section.

pineapple stu

17/10/2010, 9:46 AM

There were signs outside the stand each end showing Home and Away sections. Away fans who want to stand will get directed to the far end of the stand. It doesn't really matter where you sit obviously; I'm purely going on how many people were in the far ("away") section on Friday and in May, and assuming there were similar numbers of minglers at both games. It was less full on Friday. I acknowledge that's probably not the most scientific of tests, but there you go!

oriel

17/10/2010, 10:23 AM

I was at the game in May and it looked like most Dundalk fans were sitting in the away area, but when we arrived we didnt want to go there so just went to the middle section, when we scored we noticed loads of other fans in our area. As for last Friday the Irish times had no crowd reported, unusual for them.

PS I liked the ground a lot, looking forward to going back there again next season, hopefully it wont take us another 13 years to win away to UCD.

Lamper.sffc

17/10/2010, 11:23 AM

Those figures are unheard of at Sporting Fingal.

No no. We have heard of them, we just dont get them.

Dillonman

17/10/2010, 11:29 AM

Its hard to estimate the crowd we brought when your in among them but from my guess it was about 800 or 900.
Makes you wonder what crowd we would have brought if the FAI attempted to accomodate travelling fans and switched the Semi's with Pats and Shams.

Sure we got over 4000 just last year at the Semi vs Waterford, ya couldnt move in the Showgies.

Back when we won it, the semi against Rovers in Oriel, was a near capacity crowd that evening, brilliant atmosphere for the whole game!

Spudulika

17/10/2010, 1:30 PM

Looking forward to getting back to the Belfield Bowl this week, I had only been for rugby there until this May and was impressed by how it looked with a half decent crowd in it. There's something re-assuringly alpine about the place. Though I did feel a bit of nostalgia for the old Belfield Park. Playing there was fun, though on a wet night....

Straightstory

17/10/2010, 2:28 PM

Agree about the 'alpine' element. Like watching a game in Norway or something. Much preferred UCD's old ground, though...

Schumi

17/10/2010, 4:23 PM

Agree about the 'alpine' element. Like watching a game in Norway or something. Much preferred UCD's old ground, though...

And I thought the Alps were around Italy and Switzerland. ;)

Spudulika

17/10/2010, 5:09 PM

And I thought the Alps were around Italy and Switzerland. ;)

Going laughingly down the route of both JOhn 83 and Pineapple Stu, I had better clarify what I said to put both straightstory and I in the visionary clear.

http://www.ldoceonline.com/dictionary/alpine

And by laughingly I mean - laughing with jollity or good humour, just in case any slight is taken :-)

I'd forgotten the nice view of the mountains from the Tallaght Stadium and was pleasantly reminded of them in their sunny glory today.

Schumi

17/10/2010, 5:26 PM

I knew what you meant (same as Los Angeles has a Mediterranean climate), I was just having a laugh. I must say I'd never have described Belfield as Alpine though, monsoon at times maybe!

Spudulika

17/10/2010, 5:47 PM

I knew what you meant (same as Los Angeles has a Mediterranean climate), I was just having a laugh. I must say I'd never have described Belfield as Alpine though, monsoon at times maybe!

:-) I was very impressed by the way it handles football, for rugby it has a kind of natural layout, however I'm looking forward to Friday's game. I'm trying to remember what ground it reminds me of, I'm almost certain it's Micheldorf in Austria, though I just can't put my finger on it. And one major bonus about the Bowl, it does the best chips in the LOI! I'd a friend's kid with me and I figured I'd keep him busy for a while, and bought a tray for myself, and man alive, they were good. None of your manky Burdocks stuff. (manky in comparison to the Bowl fries).

Schumi

17/10/2010, 5:55 PM

And one major bonus about the Bowl, it does the best chips in the LOI! I'd a friend's kid with me and I figured I'd keep him busy for a while, and bought a tray for myself, and man alive, they were good. None of your manky Burdocks stuff. (manky in comparison to the Bowl fries).
LOL, someone else was moaning about the chips on here earlier. :)

Spudulika

17/10/2010, 6:52 PM

No way! I thought they were class. It threw my mind back to the late 70's and quality chips. The match day experience needs to be ramped up a bit though, it was good to see young local kids playing, however there was not a great deal else for the punters to get built up with.

legendz

17/10/2010, 10:23 PM

On crowds, when looking at the support clubs get, it should be noted what Gaelic Games club games can attract. There's a county this weekend where the Football County final between the two biggest urban areas of the county attracted a crowd over 10,000. Last week in that same county, the hurling final, the third sport behind Gaelic Football and Association Football, attracted a crowd of 5,000. The county doesn't even play in the top tier of hurling.
If Gaelic clubs are attracting these crowds, questions have to be asked of Association Football club structures in the country that it does not ignite the same interest. Gaelic clubs do benefit from a pyramid system in that all clubs can dream of playing in Croke Park on St. Patrick's day some year. I think Spudulika is right on his call for a pyramid system from top to bottom. Something drastic will be needed to raise the profile of the League and improve the attendances we've seen this season.

culloty82

18/10/2010, 7:32 AM

legendz

18/10/2010, 8:38 AM

Most of what you say is true but Intermediate and Junior Championships attract big crowds as well. The GAA under Sean Kelly had a great initiative to create an Intermediate and Junior All-Ireland C'ship. These games attract big crowds as well and it's not all down to star names.

Big Chief

18/10/2010, 9:30 AM

Well here is one to ponder, why can Gaelic attract these crowds when soccer can't?

legendz

18/10/2010, 10:03 AM

One reason would be structure and a pyramid system.
I'd want clarity on this but I think there's about 32 District Leagues in the country and then 3 Senior League in Ulster, Leinster and Munster.
They could work on a system where 32 District Leagues feed into 16 Regional Divisions, which would then feed into 8 -> 4 -> 2 and then to the national league.

Rough Draft Pyramid Structure:
Level 1: Premier Division
Level 2: Division One
Level 3: Division Two North & South (2 Divisions)
Level 4: Intermediate League One (4 Divisions)
Level 5: Intermediate League Two (8 Divisions)
Level 6: Intermediate League Three (16 Divisions)
Level 7: 32 District Leagues

Dodge

18/10/2010, 10:06 AM

Well here is one to ponder, why can Gaelic attract these crowds when soccer can't?

Because GAA fans here aren't obsessed with British gaelic games. Seriously, you didn't notice this?

Main sports story on the RTE news last night was Blackpool v Man City, then Everton v Liverpool. Then they showed 3 of the 4 goals from the FAI Cup semi final

Comparisons to GAA are completely useless.

Big Chief

18/10/2010, 10:17 AM

I am well aware of the point you make Dodge and I too had the dubious pleasure of watching the sports bulletin on RTE. To take it to a slightly deeper level why can the GAA persuade people to follow it's sports and turn out to view them and quite often close their minds to other sports when soccer fans become fixated with teams in another country?

pineapple stu

18/10/2010, 10:20 AM

Main sports story on the RTE news last night was Blackpool v Man City
And within that, they only showed Man City's goals, so even the bottom teams in the Premier are irrelevant here.

Mr A

18/10/2010, 10:21 AM

legendz

18/10/2010, 10:27 AM

It's not just football though. British papers sell well in this country. There's a big interest in importing British Programs on TV. The RTE News bulletin was a disgrace and adds belief to the notion that the E in RTE is for England.

legendz

18/10/2010, 10:32 AM

But the GAA crowds we're talking about here are for finals. That will always generate way more than the usual level of interest. It's completely different to attracting crowds over a long drawn out league campaign. Even the National League sees crowds that are nothing like those for the championship, despite the fact that each county only has 3 or 4 home games. Irish people love the big day out.

And most GAA fans are premiership fans as well in my experience.

It depends on the counties involved. A lot of games would get over 3000 which isn't bad for a league that has no promotion whatsoever. There's a belief in GAA circles that the National League could be expanded and marketed better. The fact that it isn't leaves the gap there for the FAI to exploit with a well run league but that is not being done.

Dodge

18/10/2010, 10:54 AM

Its not a gap at all. The people who might go to a GAA league game if marketed well are not the people who might go to a LOI game if marketed well.

pateen

18/10/2010, 12:25 PM

Back to Attendances

Any figures on the Cup Semi's?

Dodge

18/10/2010, 12:32 PM

Just under 5,000 for the Rovers v Pats game. Strangely enough a good deal lower than our league games in Tallaght this year, despite far bigger away support

legendz

18/10/2010, 12:41 PM

Its not a gap at all. The people who might go to a GAA league game if marketed well are not the people who might go to a LOI game if marketed well.
They are actually. In Limerick there's a lot more people who might go to GAA league game and a lot of these people could be tempted to go to a LOI game as well. The gap is there.

bluemovie

18/10/2010, 1:15 PM

True, but as well as two of the best players in the country against each other in that final, the rivalry between Tralee and Killarney also helped. The main lesson to be drawn from it is one of quality - GAA gets the crowds because people know the best players in the sport will be in action on the day, and likewise with rugby, all the Irish players are contracted to their provinces. The barstoolers would probably find an excuse to stay away anyway, but if young players can be kept in the country until aged 18-21, fans would see promising players at the start of their career, those good enough to succeed abroad would have a greater likelihood of a breakthrough, and the attendances would rise accordingly.

Most of what you say is true but Intermediate and Junior Championships attract big crowds as well. The GAA under Sean Kelly had a great initiative to create an Intermediate and Junior All-Ireland C'ship. These games attract big crowds as well and it's not all down to star names.

New to foot.ie: two Kerrymen arguing about Gaelic football :p

legendz

18/10/2010, 1:31 PM

New to foot.ie: two Kerrymen arguing about Gaelic football :p

Waterford could be the leading club in Munster soon, are ye going to get the crowds to go with it?

Aberdonian Stu

18/10/2010, 1:43 PM

The GAA argument simply doesn't balance well. With county teams you have at most 4 home league games in a year plus the Championship season where again games are limited leading to big day out factor, and the odd game or two in the start-of-season cups (McKenna, FBD League etc).

A Premier division LoI club has at least 18 home games plus LC and FAI Cup games. Dublin Premier division clubs have another 8 close to home games in the season as well, 10 if you include Bray. Maintaining crowds over that period without every game having a substantial reward at the end (trophy, place in a final/semi-final) especially when they are alternate versions of the same product at a higher standard with easier access (barstool, couch etc) is a completely different challenge.

GAA club game crowds often exceed LoI crowds but these too vary wildly and again the big day out factor is in play. In more urban areas, read Dublin, the difference in turnout for a county semi-final vs county final is huge. I went to Crokes' last three games in the Dublin SFC this year and the crowds in the quarter and semi were similar and small but the crowd for the final was substantially bigger (still not great by the way, there would been more in Tallaght and then some).

bluemovie

18/10/2010, 2:35 PM

Waterford could be the leading club in Munster soon, are ye going to get the crowds to go with it?

(here goes...) We already are the biggest club in Munster!! Doubt we'll get any major crowds IF we go up. 372 at an important game against Harps last week (Saturday night, loads of excuses). I'd say IF we went up, we'd average over 1000 per match. The last time we were promoted under Jimmy McGeough (2003), we already had good crowds in the First and were getting about 2000 in the Premier. I don't think we'd match that now.

legendz

18/10/2010, 2:56 PM

(here goes...) We already are the biggest club in Munster!! Doubt we'll get any major crowds IF we go up. 372 at an important game against Harps last week (Saturday night, loads of excuses). I'd say IF we went up, we'd average over 1000 per match. The last time we were promoted under Jimmy McGeough (2003), we already had good crowds in the First and were getting about 2000 in the Premier. I don't think we'd match that now.

It's a long way from being knocked out by the Kerry League in Tralee!!
I'd like to see ye do well anyways, I've good connections in Waterford. I might be down for the play-off against Galway!

bluemovie

18/10/2010, 3:04 PM

It's a long way from being knocked out by the Kerry League in Tralee!!
I'd like to see ye do well anyways, I've good connections in Waterford. I might be down for the play-off against Galway!

Ha. That was David Hennessy's fault! Thanks, but sure why don't you just book in for our games against Bohs and Rovers next season and completely jinx us!!:D

Sam_Heggy

18/10/2010, 3:35 PM

Harps last 3 attendances:

Cork (2) - 474
Athlone (2) - 491
Wexford (2) - 490

Not bad considering it's one of the worst season's in the clubs history.

legendz

18/10/2010, 3:53 PM

Harps last 3 attendances:

Cork (2) - 474
Athlone (2) - 491
Wexford (2) - 490

Not bad considering it's one of the worst season's in the clubs history.

Not bad. They should work on doubling that core group of support.

redobit

18/10/2010, 4:00 PM

Not bad. They should work on doubling that core group of support.

In fairness to Harps, considering their league position and the season they have had, that seems fairly hard-core to me.

If they keep that figure and get their shyt in order off the pitch, its a good start.

Rasputin

18/10/2010, 8:22 PM

Harps always have a good support when they are in the Premier.
If I remember correctly they always had the guts of 2000 the last time they were up in a not too spectacular season.

Dodge

18/10/2010, 10:36 PM

Not bad. They should work on doubling that core group of support.

I'd wager your the first to suggest this. Shame on harps for not trying to double it before hand

legendz

18/10/2010, 10:45 PM

Harps always have a good support when they are in the Premier.
If I remember correctly they always had the guts of 2000 the last time they were up in a not too spectacular season.

The first Division probably is a bit of a stale Division. Club's have languished there before going nowhere. If it was the second tier on a pyramid structure, it could be a more livelier league like many second tiers tend to be. Could happen within current structures as well if the A Championship gains more of a status.

pateen

19/10/2010, 12:44 PM

(here goes...) We already are the biggest club in Munster!! Doubt we'll get any major crowds IF we go up. 372 at an important game against Harps last week (Saturday night, loads of excuses). I'd say IF we went up, we'd average over 1000 per match. The last time we were promoted under Jimmy McGeough (2003), we already had good crowds in the First and were getting about 2000 in the Premier. I don't think we'd match that now.

Asking the difficult question, but what has chaged in Waterford to only expect average 1000 attendance vs 2000 in 2003. Munster Rugby, Hurling Hype?