Attendances 2018

[D24Saint]

We don't do too badly, all being said. The problem though is just facilities here. Our stadiums are so far behind many European leagues.

Thats a huge issue I’ve been to a few national league grounds in England and bar one or two loi grounds the facilities are much better.

[nigel-harps1954]

Down a couple of official figures. Will update accordingly as, and if, they come through.

Week 22:

PREMIER DIVISION

Bohs - 2,159 (2,006; 1,627; 1,724; 1,395; 1,597; 1,496; 1,488; 1,835)
Bray - 607 (966; 957; 769; 718; 891; 965; 1,121; 952)
Cork - 4,361 (4,559; 2,533; 3,263; 3,777; 1,965; 2,786; 2,128 FD; 1,693 FD)
Derry - 2,462 (1,517; 1,563; 1,124; 1,106; 1,446; 1,460; 2,135; 1,965 FD)
Dundalk - 2,664 (2,674; 2,738; 3,158; 2,534; 1,997; 949; 1,355; 1,877)
Limerick - 1,004 (1,610; 1,131 FD; 1,206; 757; 1,649; 734 FD; 569 FD; 598 FD)
Pat's - 1,681 (1,504; 1,088; 1,321; 1,386; 1,687; 1,474; 1,346; 1,756)
Rovers -2,712 (2,809; 2,041; 2,890; 2,269; 2,763; 3,127; 3,779; 3,794)
Sligo - 1,894 (1,717; 1,750; 1,750; 1,959; 2,342; 3,007; 2,103; 1,807)
Waterford - 2,356 (1,550 FD; 314 FD; 460 FD; 470 FD; 478 FD; 453 FD; 466 FD; 619 FD)

FIRST DIVISION

Athlone - 135 (154; 156; 314; 653 PD; 754; 271; 200; 354)
Cabinteely - 272 (346; 352; 610)
Cobh - 243 (358; 403; 366; 223; 439; 2008 - 1,122 PD; 681; 368)
Drogheda - 389 (850 PD; 583; 813 PD; 1,064 PD; 817 PD; 977 PD; 811 PD; 859 PD)
Galway - 793 (1,376 PD; 1,169 PD; 1,290 PD; 975)
Harps - 667 (1,202 PD; 1,216 PD; 784; 449; 479; 429; 433; 644)
Longford - 449 (342; 488 PD; 803 PD; 567; 379; 365; 315; 230)
Shels - 675 (496; 554; 596; 713; 1,114 PD; 1,187 PD; 781; 737)
UCD - 291 (236; 297; 216; 397 PD; 487 PD; 506 PD; 558 PD; 610 PD)
Wexford - 176 (338; 585 PD; 553; 331; 227; 302; 216; 343)


PREMIER AVERAGE: 2,188 (1,902; 1,476; 1,681; 1,502; 1,566; 1,630; 1,547; 1,512)
FIRST DIVISION AVERAGE: 409 (477; 476; 486; 495; 391; 372; 578; 682)

OVERALL AVERAGE: 1,261 (1,387; 1,117; 1,249; 1,160; 1,140; 1,125; 1,110; 1,095)


OVERALL PREMIER ATTENDANCE: 262,601 (376,627; 292,204; 332,805; 297,334)
OVERALL FIRST ATTENDANCE: 44,994(53,461; 52,807; 54,474; 55,408)

OVERALL COMBINED ATTENDANCE: 307,595(430,088; 345,011; 387,279; 352,742)

[EatYerGreens]

Our attendances are compared to the English game and GAA rather than our contemporaries in Europe. We're roughly on a par with the likes of Serbia, Greece, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Belarus. Generally though, there's one or two teams in those leagues with much higher averages.

We don't do too badly, all being said. The problem though is just facilities here. Our stadiums are so far behind many European leagues.

UK Tourism stats show that over 120,000 Irish people a year travel to England to watch football.

Assuming most of them turn their nose up at the LOI, that would increase the league's overall attendance by a quarter if they watched games at home instead/as well.

[sbgawa]

I'm surprised at how low that figure is

[nigel-harps1954]

UK Tourism stats show that over 120,000 Irish people a year travel to England to watch football.

Assuming most of them turn their nose up at the LOI, that would increase the league's overall attendance by a quarter if they watched games at home instead/as well.


Quite a number of LOI fans that I know also travel over to England to watch matches. There's naturally a huge amount of people who turn their noses up at LOI football, but I'd wager that most of those wouldn't travel to England either, more than maybe two or three times in their lives.

[EatYerGreens]

I'm surprised at how low that figure is

I've just checked, and it's actually over 180,000. Plus that's just from ROI - Nordies not included.

ROI is the biggest source of visiting football fans to England.

It amounts to more than 4,500 a week over the approx. 40 weeks that the English season tends to run (from opening day through to the FA Cup Final). Which would make English Football the best supported team in Ireland.

For a small country, that's quite a lot IMO.

[Philosophizer]

Flamenco average about 45k per match, and Corinthians and palmeiras average 30k.

Sorry, Flamengo's average is actually 50k so far this season - http://www.worldfootball.net/attendance/bra-serie-a-2018/1/

(That's a great site by the way, even shows the attendances for our own league, though i'm not sure they're as accurate as Nigel's numbers)

Looking down the list of attendances for the Brazilian league though, the spread is quite similar to our own league. The bottom 2 clubs get an attendance of about 6.5k on average, which is about 7-8 times less than Flamengo are getting. In our league Cork are averaging 4.4k per game while Bray average 600, about 7 times less.

[Charlie Darwin]

Flamenco average about 45k per match, and Corinthians and palmeiras average 30k.
Yeah, Corinthians average 30k in a city of 22 million and tickets are way too expensive for the average person for the most part.

[sidewayspasser]

I've just checked, and it's actually over 180,000. Plus that's just from ROI - Nordies not included.
And if that stat only covers England, then there's another crowd going to Celtic matches.

[ger121]

I’m assuming that 180,000 could contain people who travel over several times a year. I’d love to know the number of unique visitors. I’d also think a reasonable percentage of these unique visitors would also be LOI match attendees.

[Philosophizer]

Our attendances are compared to the English game and GAA rather than our contemporaries in Europe. We're roughly on a par with the likes of Serbia, Greece, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Belarus. Generally though, there's one or two teams in those leagues with much higher averages.

We don't do too badly, all being said.

That's spot on. I've done some research on attendance figures in the top divisions of other european countries with the closest populations to ourselves. Results below:

Before starting, note our average league attendance (http://www.worldfootball.net/attendance/irl-premier-division-2018/1/) last year was 1.9k. And so far this year it's up slightly up, at 2.16k.

- Moldova (http://www.worldfootball.net/attendance/mda-divizia-nationala-2016-2017/1/) have a million fewer people than we do, but their attendances were WAY worse than ours last year. Their top club averaged just 1.7k, while the lowest averaged just 167 people! The average figure was 732.
- Bosnia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016%E2%80%9317_Premier_League_of_Bosnia_and_Herze govina#Attendances[39]) are the next closest country to us in terms of population with 3.8 million. Their average attendance last year was 1.97k - roughly similar to ourselves.
- Croatia (http://www.worldfootball.net/attendance/cro-1-hnl-2017-2018/1/) have half a million fewer people than us but their average attendances are better than ours at 2.9k. But this result is very skewed by Hajduk Split, whom average 12k for every home game, 3 times more than the next nearest club. If you take Hajduk out of the equation, our average attendance would be considerably better than Croatia's.
- Norway (http://www.worldfootball.net/attendance/nor-eliteserien-2017/1/) have 400k more people than us, but their attendance figures completely dwarf ours, and everyone else on this list too. The average attendance in their top division is 6.7k. It's interesting that Norway are usually used as a benchmark for our league, but they're a total outlier when compared to other european countries of similar size.
- Slovakia (http://www.worldfootball.net/attendance/svk-super-liga-2017-2018/1/) are next, with almost a million people more than us. Their average attendances are almost identical to ours. But less evenly spread. Their top clubs have higher figures than our top clubs, but they're lowest club averaged less than 500 last year - that's even worse than Bray this season!
- Finland (http://www.worldfootball.net/attendance/fin-veikkausliiga-2017/1/) has a population of about 5.5 million (about 15% more than us), and their average attendances last year was just shy of 2.5k (15% more than us).


All in all, our attendances are quite middle-of-the-road.

[pineapple stu]

Just to add one factor you haven't considered - the number of clubs in each league. We have just ten teams; you can see an almost 10% increase on last year's 12-team league which is partly a result of relegating two of the smaller clubs.

So Norway's average is even more impressive when you consider they have 16 teams in their top flight. Slovakia, Finland and Bosnia all have 12. (Moldova only have 8). So this is actually a hidden plus for those countries (and a minus for Moldova)

But by far the bigger issue for the LoI is the lack of European income, transfer income and TV income.

[Partizan]

Official attendance of 3,287 at the RSC tonight for Waterford v Cork City.

[MattB11]

957 in Finn Park tonight

[redarmyfaction]

The league figures get a bit of shine because we have to compete with rugby, hurley and garlic. I know some of the countries compete with basketball, ice hockey and possibly other team sports. I suspect that that the viewership figures per person in the countries mentioned are higher than us and visits to other countries lower.

[nigel-harps1954]

You're never going to win when you come up against the garlic.

[thebronze14]

957 in Finn Park tonight
Pleasantly surprised at that

[wonder88]

2,214 the official figure at Oriel for cup tie v Cobh Ramblers.

[ToberonaTornado]

2,214 the official figure at Oriel for cup tie v Cobh Ramblers.

Reduced prices worked and both sides will be happy i think with that attendance.I was expecting maybe 1400 tbh
Noticed Shels also reduced their prices for the match v Athlone.

[nigel-harps1954]

410 announced at Carlisle Grounds for Bray v Harps. Looked like less tbh

[Ezeikial]

410 announced at Carlisle Grounds for Bray v Harps. Looked like less tbh

Niall O'Driscoll is new, so maybe he hasn't got the hang of this shared gate receipts craic yet

[nigel-harps1954]

Niall O'Driscoll is new, so maybe he hasn't got the hang of this shared gate receipts craic yet

Or maybe he met Harps directors beforehand, who almost all of which were in attendance, including the treasurer, who rarely travels to away games..

[ToberonaTornado]

About 900 at Bray tonight for v Dundalk

[oriel]

I think I heard 1,050 reported, forget where I read it.

[Martinho II]

Sin think I heard 1,050 reported, forget where I read it.

yeah sun said it!

[nigel-harps1954]

1,053 official from Bray.

[nr637]

Any attendances figures for Cork 1 v St. Pats 1 on Sunday evening or Sligo Rovers 0 v Dundalk 2 last night?

[nr637]

Just checked Cork City Forum, and the following replies added,

3,296? Did they accidentally count empty seats or what?

3296 = Number of season ticket holders (attending and non attending) + those who paid in tonight via a scanned match ticket.

I’d be surprised if there were that many ST holders who stayed away, as I wouldn’t have expected that many to have paid in. I’d have said there was about 1,600-1,800 in the ground tonight.



So will we estimate 2,000 !

[El-Pietro]

There were far more than 2000 in there. There probably werent as many as 3296 though. I would have said closer to 2500. But 3296 is the official.

[Buller]

Any official for Rovers-Bohs? I'd say maybe 4,500 as a guess.

[Kingswood Rover]

Any official for Rovers-Bohs? I'd say maybe 4,500 as a guess.
Attendances will plummet even further, lots of seson tickets holders sayin not coming back till the club kop on and sort a new manager

[red bellied]

Any attendances figures for Cork 1 v St. Pats 1 on Sunday evening or Sligo Rovers 0 v Dundalk 2 last night?

1659 in Showgrounds, around 200 from Dundalk.

[RathfarnhamHoop]

Attendances will plummet even further, lots of seson tickets holders sayin not coming back till the club kop on and sort a new manager

Don't buy that at all, unless a manager is doing dodgy stuff legally or being a ***** to fans then they're no reason to essentially boycott games. If a team playing badly is reason enough for you to essentially throw your money away then imo you're not cut out for being a football fan cause it can get a lot worse than a few bad tactics. Not buying tickets is a different matter but having a ticket and not using it, not reason enough to do that imo.

[Kingswood Rover]

Don't buy that at all, unless a manager is doing dodgy stuff legally or being a ***** to fans then they're no reason to essentially boycott games. If a team playing badly is reason enough for you to essentially throw your money away then imo you're not cut out for being a football fan cause it can get a lot worse than a few bad tactics. Not buying tickets is a different matter but having a ticket and not using it, not reason enough to do that imo.

Lots of season ticket holders from various clubs often do not attend games en masse for a variety of reasons, even celtic fans who were seeing a decent team were absent in their droves last season, Arsenal as well. i heard what i heard and i have no reason to disbelieve the people who said it. one of the posters on here made the point about us being essentially a super sized schoolboy club jeez the more i think about this the harder it is to disagree, spend that 400 k on getting us back competitive again in the LOI.

[sbgawa]

Or alterrnativly u could say we've lost 1 league match in 7 conceding only 1 goal in that time and the addition of manus greene and watts has strengthened the team ....with Trevor Clarke to come back and one or two signings we look like things are improving.
A lot will depend on how we finish out the league this season in terms of the amount of changes needed.....

Having followed rovers around through 20 years of homelessness a bad loss or even a bad season kind of doesn't seem that bad.
The dundalk and cork lads that are enjoying success at the moment we're shaking buckets 10 years ago.....as were we , times change things go up and down

[dundalkfc10]

Assuming ourselves or Cork win the cup, 4th place will get you your Euro money guaranteed again

[sbgawa]

Or Waterford :) wins it.....
Haven't given up on third yet.

[Mr A]

Having followed rovers around through 20 years of homelessness a bad loss or even a bad season kind of doesn't seem that bad.
The dundalk and cork lads that are enjoying success at the moment we're shaking buckets 10 years ago.....as were we , times change things go up and down

Take your long term view and sense of perspective and GTFO! It has no place here or on any other football forum!

[sbgawa]

Sorry Mr A, your right its a disgrace, Bradley out , Kenny out (Larneca and Cobh) Caulfield out (offences against football)
Ollie out (offences against hairdressers) Sheils out (too grumpy) Long out (too Long) Little out (Too little) Buckley out (Trying to play football).

[Kingswood Rover]

agreed but we are not fulfilling our potential with our senior team i am not saying we should be winning the league but with the squad we have being 20 odd points behind again needs addressing and a new manager would the first step imo.

[Kingswood Rover]

Take your long term view and sense of perspective and GTFO! It has no place here or on any other football forum!
i think thats called irony, shgawa

[RathfarnhamHoop]

Lots of season ticket holders from various clubs often do not attend games en masse for a variety of reasons, even celtic fans who were seeing a decent team were absent in their droves last season, Arsenal as well. i heard what i heard and i have no reason to disbelieve the people who said it. one of the posters on here made the point about us being essentially a super sized schoolboy club jeez the more i think about this the harder it is to disagree, spend that 400 k on getting us back competitive again in the LOI.

In my opinion though not thinking the manager is doing a good job is a seriously poor excuse to not go to games and especially to not use a season ticket because if that's the worst thing that happens to your club in football you've been pretty blessed in our league anyway

[sbgawa]

i think thats called irony, shgawa


I kinda got that Kingswood :) hence my reply ...

[sbgawa]

agreed but we are not fulfilling our potential with our senior team i am not saying we should be winning the league but with the squad we have being 20 odd points behind again needs addressing and a new manager would the first step imo.

I'm not happy with where we are either but we've changed managers before and gone nowhere, If we'd lost to Sligo and beaten Bohs we woudl'nt be having this conversation we'd be talking about the good run we are on and hoping it continues.
I don't think we are that far off with our first 11 the problem is cover, but I guess that's a budget issue.
If we can win a decent % between now and seasons end i'll be unhappy but hopeful.
Watts and Manus are outstanding signings we need to sign a couple more and get Clarke back.

[Ezeikial]

agreed but we are not fulfilling our potential with our senior team i am not saying we should be winning the league but with the squad we have being 20 odd points behind again needs addressing and a new manager would the first step imo.

Europa League qualification would surely constitute a successful season for a manager who is in the process of team building. Watts and Mannus are significant recent additions with Clarke yet to return for 2019. Add 2 or 3 defenders in the off season and the team would be building nicely to challenge for the top three next season.

The project also looks like it is starting to work in generating transfer income, even if Aaron Bolger leaves in the close season for minor training compensation fees

If the Rovers board did not replace Bradley in June at the lowest point of the bad run, it would make little sense in ditching him and starting again with someone else

[RathfarnhamHoop]

Europa League qualification would surely constitute a successful season for a manager who is in the process of team building. Watts and Mannus are significant recent additions with Clarke yet to return for 2019. Add 2 or 3 defenders in the off season and the team would be building nicely to challenge for the top three next season.

The project also looks like it is starting to work in generating transfer income, even if Aaron Bolger leaves in the close season for minor training compensation fees

If the Rovers board did not replace Bradley in June at the lowest point of the bad run, it would make little sense in ditching him and starting again with someone else

Right can't believe I'm about to say this but I agree with Ezeikial here, except bolger has 2 more years on his deal so he'll need a transfer fee to go anywhere, rest of it is all pretty accurate.

[sbgawa]

I'd call it minimum achievement to qualify for Europe tbh.
Hopefully transfer fee income this year can fund a couple more players for next season.
I'd be amazed if Aaron Bolger leaves most of the young lads seem very bought in, bradser gave most of them their chance.
Dundalk can obviously offer more money but its not about an extra 500 of a grand for kids his age its about getting over to England.
Looking at Burke and Bazunu if I was him id stay

[Asterix]

Europa League qualification would surely constitute a successful season for a manager who is in the process of team building. Watts and Mannus are significant recent additions with Clarke yet to return for 2019. Add 2 or 3 defenders in the off season and the team would be building nicely to challenge for the top three next season.

The project also looks like it is starting to work in generating transfer income, even if Aaron Bolger leaves in the close season for minor training compensation fees

If the Rovers board did not replace Bradley in June at the lowest point of the bad run, it would make little sense in ditching him and starting again with someone else

Hes contracted for two more years.

[White Horse]

Hes contracted for two more years.

I thought it was up at the end of the season. However, Rovers fans should know.

[RathfarnhamHoop]

I thought it was up at the end of the season. However, Rovers fans should know.

"Congratulations to Hoops first team players @aaronbolger21 & @dean_dillon24 with great Leaving Cert results today. Both players can now enjoy the next two years with 100% focus on football @ShamrockRovers. Thanks to our partners @AshfieldCollege" From Rovers socials