What are Shels doing?

[Rovers Fellow!]

Cant believe they are playing against Lille at Lansdowne. They did right thing in Deportivo game but they wont sell out against Lille at Lansdowne. They have much better chance of beating them playing in Tolka and there would be much better atmosphere.

[manic da hoop]

Cant believe they are playing against Lille at Lansdowne. They did right thing in Deportivo game but they wont sell out against Lille at Lansdowne. They have much better chance of beating them playing in Tolka and there would be much better atmosphere.

They're kidding themselves if they think they can get more than 10,000 at that game (and they need to get considerably more than that if it is to pay off). then again I thought they'd do well to get more than 15,000 against Depor. Also the match kicks off at 5.30.

[Robinski]

Cant believe they are playing against Lille at Lansdowne. They did right thing in Deportivo game but they wont sell out against Lille at Lansdowne. They have much better chance of beating them playing in Tolka and there would be much better atmosphere.

You're right, they won't get the crowd for this match and Lansdowne will look like a very lonely place. However, the real reason for the move is that the flood lights in Tolka do not meet UEFA standards and because French television will be showing the match live an early kick off can't be facilitated.

[Robinski]

Hang on a sec, sorry about that. An early kick off IS being facilitated so they probably won't even need floodlights!

I take back my above post, I've no idea what they're playing at.

[eL Bettor]

I'll stick my neck out here and say they'll get around 18,000.

Post your attendance predictions here and we'll see who was closest!

[Terry]

I'll stick my neck out here and say they'll get around 18,000.

Post your attendance predictions here and we'll see who was closest!


around 19,852 :)

[gufct]

on one of the papers was that Tolka wasnt up to UEFA Standard which begs the question how come they played their earlier games there and how come they were granted an "A" Licence.Cant see them getting any of the bar stoolers and big day out merchants to go to the game seeing as they got less tha 1,000 at their last home game

[Terry]

Heres what was reported on RTEs website:


Eircom League champions Shelbourne have decided to play the home leg of their UEFA Cup match against French side Lille at Lansdowne Road.

The match, on September 16, will kick off at 5.30 pm. The earlier kick off time is to facilitate live television coverage in France.

The Management Committee of Shelbourne deliberated long and hard before deciding the venue and kick-off time for this prestigious match. As Shelbourne is in receipt of notice from UEFA that the floodlights in Tolka Park do not meet the minimum standards required for European competitions PROPER, an early evening kick-off was inevitable if the match was to be played in Tolka Park.

The decision to move the fixture to Lansdowne Road was made as a result of the tremendous interest generated in Shelbourne's recent Champions League match against Deportivo La Coruna, which was played at Lansdowne.

It is hoped to make special family tickets available for this match.

Meanwhile, shelbournefc.com report that Shelbourne Supporters Club will be running a raffle at next Monday's home eircom League game against Dublin City, with the prize being a place as a masot for the Shelbourne v Lille game.

Places as mascots are confined to children aged 12 or under.


Filed by Mark O'Neill-Cummins

[corkharps]

I'll stick my neck out here and say they'll get around 18,000.

Post your attendance predictions here and we'll see who was closest!

17,999 :D :D

[Schumi]

17,998 :p

How do they expect to get a crowd in Lansdowne at 5:30 on a Thursday? :confused: Daft.

[pete]

Obviously shels are getting more from tv than their own crowd. 5.30 is probably not early enough to show game on tv without lights but also gonna affect the crowd at Lansdowne as hoep many neutrals will take time off work for that ko time...?

Attendance will depend on what other tv events on that evening. 15k is doable.

[dcfcsteve]

One word will make or break this for Shels form a crowd point of view - hype.

You could even smell the hype around the Depor game, and surprise surprise it lead to a sell-out crowd, more people scrambling for tickets, and a big TV audience. I would question how much of that was genuinely due to the fact that the opposition were Deportivo - how many of their players do you think Joe average footy fan in Ireland could have named before the game ? The success of that event had as much, if not more, to do with the hype. Everyone was talking about that game - it was in every newspaper, on every TV channel, in every pub. It was all about whether Shels could make the Champions League - not about the opposition.

Lille are nowhere near as sellable a commodity as Deportivo to the fickle Irish football fans, so they'll definitely need to hype it on something other than the quality and draw of the opposition this time.

If I was Shels I'd see that a deal was done as quickly as possible with an Irish TV station to broadcast the game, and then work with them on creating a theme that would build the hype for the game both in the stadium and on the TV. I'd go down the route of 'Be part of Irish sporting history - watch Shels as they strive to be the first Irish team to qualify for a European group stage'. I'd not shy of drawing comparisons with Stuttgart 1988, Genoa 1990 and Giants Stadium 1994.

Work the media to create the hype, and the rest will follow.

[fergalr]

If they had to move the game from Talka then fair enough. The 5:30 ko time however is just plain nuts and it going to make a serious dent in the numbers going. I'd say they'll do well to get 10,000.

[tiktok]

It looks like the move the Landsdowne was enforced, but the 5.30 kick-off will affect the gate badly. I still think the game would have sold out in Tolka though, so that'd be 10,500.

I think it's going to depend on the ticket price, if they're reasonable (€20ish) they could get 15,000, any pricier and the gate will be lower.

[brendy_éire]

on one of the papers was that Tolka wasnt up to UEFA Standard which begs the question how come they played their earlier games there and how come they were granted an "A" Licence.

The FAI appointed a few extra members to the Licence Awarding body at 6 o'clock in the morning on the day of the deadline to have an A Licence. Those members agreed that Shels met the standards. Shel's licence was a fudge.


But don't they need 20,000 in Lansdowne just to break even?

[CuanaD]

The FAI appointed a few extra members to the Licence Awarding body at 6 o'clock in the morning on the day of the deadline to have an A Licence. Those members agreed that Shels met the standards. Shel's licence was a fudge. - thats just not true!


But don't they need 20,000 in Lansdowne just to break even?

16-20,000 at lansdowne would mean the same kind of profit as a full Tolka park - anything above 20k would be EXTRA profit

[Slash/ED]

We'll be lucky to get 10,000. Stupid move, both on the time and the location of the match. We haven't a prayer of selling out a match at 5:30 on a thursday evening and a half empty Lansedown will be a huge disadvantage to the team, so we're only denting our own chances of making the next round. Bloody madness.

[Stevo Da Gull]

I'd say 14,789 or ya know somethin else shy of 15,000.
I'm hopin to make the game myself but with that ko time I'm likely to find myself either going alone or not going at all.
A half empty stadium would be terrible for the Shels players.

[pineapple stu]

Surely they're going to struggle to get many neutral fans or armchair fans with that kick-off time? No non-Shels fan is going to take time off work to watch them play, which is what many people would have to do, realistically. Shels' fan-base is hardly the biggest as it is (yes, pot and kettle, I know) - I doubt they'd fill Tolka with that time to be honest.