Attendances 2022

[PartySaint]

Extratime.com have Pats Drogheda down as a 3,000 estimate. I’d agree that’s pretty accurate, decent crowd considering the rain. Around 150 Drogs fans but in terms of consistent atmosphere they were the best visiting fans in Richmond this year so far (Sligo, Shamrock and UCD being the other home games up to now)

They have updated this on their site now to 3,325. The Main Stand and Patrons stand had sold out before that game.

It looks like tonight will be our lowest attendance of the season judging by the amount of available tickets left of the Pats website but if we can get 2,500 in it would still be a decent nights work.

[El-Pietro]

Theres a train at 11. Only one after the game ends unfortunately but its only a 25 minute journey back to the city.

[joey B]

Nearly 4 thousand at Cobh/Cork,great crowd….

[Martinho II]

Theres a train at 11. Only one after the game ends unfortunately but its only a 25 minute journey back to the city.

Or if you fancy it you can stay overnight in Cobh as I did in the past after attending Cobh Longford Town game and then getting the train back the following day.

[Buller]

Nearly 4 thousand at Cobh/Cork,great crowd….

Wow! They were treated to plenty of goals at least.

[El-Pietro]

Wow! They were treated to plenty of goals at least.
We had two disallowed as well. Would like to see the replay on the second one. Mental game overall.

[D24Saint]

3000-3500 in Richmond tonight.

[nr637]

Nearly 4 thousand at Cobh/Cork,great crowd….

I heard then announce 3924 at Cobh v Cork tonight.

[nr637]

We had two disallowed as well. Would like to see the replay on the second one. Mental game overall.

And Cobh had a hand ball shout ignored by the ref!

[LOI101]

2400 and something announced in Oriel

[nr637]

3-2 to Cork who were 2-0 up until Cobh got one back before half-time. Really good fast game, Cobh were very unlucky, but Cork will take the win as thats all that matters in this league now as they would have had one eye on the Galway result.

And this is why we love football, Friday nights under the lights and the greatest little league in the world as they say! :o

[gufct]

1,300 in Edp tonight .

[Olander]

Watching the Longford Town v Treaty United game on Watch LOI (exciting Saturday in I know), I'm taken aback by the appalling attendance at the game. Longford have started the season brilliantly and deserve a far better support. It seems the surge in attendances in the LOI hasn't reached the midlands yet.

Honestly, is there even 200 supporters in the main stand there? I know Longford don't have a great support, but I would've thought they would have at least 600-700 supporters at their home games. It's very sparse around the ground as well, I'd say there's not much more than 300 there, which is sad to see.

https://i.imgur.com/ogNTwJ7.png

[outspoken]

Watching the Longford Town v Treaty United game on Watch LOI (exciting Saturday in I know), I'm taken aback by the appalling attendance at the game. Longford have started the season brilliantly and deserve a far better support. It seems the surge in attendances in the LOI hasn't reached the midlands yet.

Honestly, is there even 200 supporters in the main stand there? I know Longford don't have a great support, but I would've thought they would have at least 600-700 supporters at their home games. It's very sparse around the ground as well, I'd say there's not much more than 300 there, which is sad to see.

https://i.imgur.com/ogNTwJ7.png
500+ official attendance. ET did a great piece on pre covid levels and attendances so far this season, only ourselves and Athlone have lower attendances this season than pre covid. At Athlone it's obvious to see why but for ourselves, as a club I feel we need to have a serious look at why we aren't capturing the minds of the local people.

Now, it should be remembered Longford is a small and very poor town, a huge portion of our fans live and work outside of Longford, there's no college here, so there's unique factors to take into consideration but overall yeah it's disheartening as someone who gives up so much time to try and promote the club.

[D24Saint]

Is the grounds location much of a factor ? I always thought it as an awkward ground to get to. If staying over I’d stay mostly stay in Longford and occasionally in Termonbarry. On away trips Id always like to get there early have a bit of dinner and a few pints before the game. In Longford that’s tricky with the grounds location. I’m wondering is that affecting the floating fan in the area that wants a night out and stroll to a game if the ground was located in the town itself ?

[outspoken]

Is the grounds location much of a factor ? I always thought it as an awkward ground to get to. If staying over I’d stay mostly stay in Longford and occasionally in Termonbarry. On away trips Id always like to get there early have a bit of dinner and a few pints before the game. In Longford that’s tricky with the grounds location. I’m wondering is that affecting the floating fan in the area that wants a night out and stroll to a game if the ground was located in the town itself ?

Covered this recently, ground location has huge positives and negatives. Positives being huge scope for development (underage pitches, astro, gym all on site) plus a massive car park which we use to generate money (car boot sales etc) but yes we've no fans able to walk from the local boozer etc

[Martinho II]

Covered this recently, ground location has huge positives and negatives. Positives being huge scope for development (underage pitches, astro, gym all on site) plus a massive car park which we use to generate money (car boot sales etc) but yes we've no fans able to walk from the local boozer etc

I know in late 90s/early 00s that club did free buses to ground from Longford Arms Hotel and there wasnt much uptake on it. I think Co Longford is more of a GAA hotbed than soccer hotbed imo.

[Longfordian]

If they'd ever gotten a bar licence out there then there might have been more interest in the buses.

[outspoken]

If they'd ever gotten a bar licence out there then there might have been more interest in the buses.

How much difference would it genuinely make? Would lads in town leave their local to pay 15 quid in for a few pints and need a taxi in and out? Obviously if you had a nice spacious bar it could be used for events but clubhouse isn't exactly modern for stuff like that. As for the GAA hotbed comments from Martinho, I've been at league games in pearse park with no more than a few hundred at them. It's a bandwagon town just like every other bar the obvious exceptions, cork, Dundalk, Sligo.

[EatYerGreens]

How much difference would it genuinely make? Would lads in town leave their local to pay 15 quid in for a few pints and need a taxi in and out? Obviously if you had a nice spacious bar it could be used for events but clubhouse isn't exactly modern for stuff like that. As for the GAA hotbed comments from Martinho, I've been at league games in pearse park with no more than a few hundred at them. It's a bandwagon town just like every other bar the obvious exceptions, cork, Dundalk, Sligo.

Important also to remember that Longford town only has a population of 10,000, and the county is the second smallest on the island with only 40,000 people. Dundalk is four times bigger as a town, Sligo twice as big, and Cork about 20 times larger. Plus all 3 of those are genuine football towns, whilst Longford isn't. Cobh has a bigger population and is a genuine football town, but isn't pulling in bigger crowds (Friday's derby aside).

In reality Longford isn't doing all that bad, all things considered. It's just a small town in a small county that doesn't have a strong football history.

[pineapple stu]

Longford's football history matches Cobh's in fairness. You can't say Cobh is a football town and Longford isn't. If you read back the old Leader papers (which I've been doing as part of getting UCD's non-league history) you can see plenty of excitement and interest at FAI Cup runs, Intermediate Cup titles and Met Cup titles. There was special trains ran for big games going back decades (and maybe for lesser ones, but they tend to be less spoken of). Football, not GAA, tended to be at the top of the page.

There is of course going to be a limit as to what a club from a relatively small town and county can achieve. And in fairness, Longford have achieved a lot.

[ToberonaTornado]

2400 and something announced in Oriel

2427 Official.

Anyone doing the averages,Season on season numbers etc... ??

[Longfordian]

How much difference would it genuinely make? Would lads in town leave their local to pay 15 quid in for a few pints and need a taxi in and out? Obviously if you had a nice spacious bar it could be used for events but clubhouse isn't exactly modern for stuff like that. As for the GAA hotbed comments from Martinho, I've been at league games in pearse park with no more than a few hundred at them. It's a bandwagon town just like every other bar the obvious exceptions, cork, Dundalk, Sligo.

If they were getting the bus there and back they wouldn't need a taxi. But you're probably right it wouldn't make a massive difference.

[Nah Nah Nah Nah]

2,125 in The Showgrounds

[brendy_éire]

Derry-UCD: 3.7k, minus the usual.

Some extra tickets became available late on, presumably UCD returns, but judging by people looking for tickets on social media, I presume it was a sell out.

[PartySaint]

2,800 at Richmond as per the clubs tweet after the game.

[Glen Of Aherlow]

I was at Longford - Pats game down there last season . Had a few pints in town before the game , absolutely nothing around town to suggest there was a game on .

Asked in two pubs if there was a bus to the ground , barman in first place did'nt know , barman in second place said yeah bus running from Longford Arms , which is kind of amazing if there has'nt been a bus in 20 years .

[D24Saint]

2,800 at Richmond as per the clubs tweet after the game.

Solid attendance but numbers starting to creep downwards after impressive crowds at the start of the season.

[PartySaint]

Solid attendance but numbers starting to creep downwards after impressive crowds at the start of the season.

I’m not sure about that, our last league game before Harps had 4,300 and I expect the Derry game to be 4,000+ again.

2,800 against Harps and 2,600 against UCD on a Monday night is great going.

[joey B]

This is a very hypothetical question but what would we expect Bohs weekly average attendance to be if they had say a capacity of 7000?

This is taking into account current form and seemingly fan disquiet over their current on field direction….

Edit* You could probably ask the same question about Derry without the negative connotation obviously!

[Shinkicker]

This is a very hypothetical question but what would we expect Bohs weekly average attendance to be if they had say a capacity of 7000?

This is taking into account current form and seemingly fan disquiet over their current on field direction….

Edit* You could probably ask the same question about Derry without the negative connotation obviously!
I think there are possibly four or five clubs who could get larger crowds if their stadium could hold the numbers and provide better facilities

[Kiki Balboa]

The SDCC and Rovers have really done fantastic work with promoting their games and buliding the stadium.

Heres hoping it will usher in government support for new development

[brendy_éire]

Edit* You could probably ask the same question about Derry without the negative connotation obviously!

I'd guess we'd have an upper limit of 5k for most league games. You're never going to get a large away crowd, bar the odd Harps match.

[Candystripe]

I'd guess we'd have an upper limit of 5k for most league games. You're never going to get a large away crowd, bar the odd Harps match.

At the moment I think we would definitely have 5k plus attendances as Brendy said the scramble for tickets is similar to our European cup run in the 2005/06 season.

On a different note, apparently not even one away ticket was sold to a UCD fan last Friday.

[outspoken]

I was at Longford - Pats game down there last season . Had a few pints in town before the game , absolutely nothing around town to suggest there was a game on .

Asked in two pubs if there was a bus to the ground , barman in first place did'nt know , barman in second place said yeah bus running from Longford Arms , which is kind of amazing if there has'nt been a bus in 20 years .

Again, I go back to the amount of our supporters who live and work away from Longford. A good few years back we had a young crew of lads who would organise pre match events in the local pub and they'd run a mini bus,away fans would come in as well and there would be a small bit of buzz but most of those lads have now moved out of Longford. That pub isn't even there anymore either, it's a struggling town so we probably are overly critical of ourselves at times.

[Martinho II]

Again, I go back to the amount of our supporters who live and work away from Longford. A good few years back we had a young crew of lads who would organise pre match events in the local pub and they'd run a mini bus,away fans would come in as well and there would be a small bit of buzz but most of those lads have now moved out of Longford. That pub isn't even there anymore either, it's a struggling town so we probably are overly critical of ourselves at times.

In fairness Outspoken you are spot on with Longford being a come out of the woodwork sort of town! I do think that why we got serious crowds over 20 years ago when Stephen Kenny was in charge was the mgr and players would go to a local pub after the game which was very popular back then and the PR was brilliant as it brought out the locals out. Once SK left that died a slow death Alan Mathews didnt have much interest in that and it hasnt being the same since then! I would love my club to try this again as I dont go into town socialisin after matches any more but would be happy to do so.
As for Pineapple Stus point hes spot on. There was huge interest in us in our non league days. That was because we used to be in the Greyhound track which from wot I heard from older supporters was much loved and brought locals out in their droves. Alas we got evicted from The greyhound track in 1972 and that was the end of that. We then moved to Abbeycartron and had to rebuild and the crowds were seriously bad.

[outspoken]

In fairness Outspoken you are spot on with Longford being a come out of the woodwork sort of town! I do think that why we got serious crowds over 20 years ago when Stephen Kenny was in charge was the mgr and players would go to a local pub after the game which was very popular back then and the PR was brilliant as it brought out the locals out. Once SK left that died a slow death Alan Mathews didnt have much interest in that and it hasnt being the same since then! I would love my club to try this again as I dont go into town socialisin after matches any more but would be happy to do so.
As for Pineapple Stus point hes spot on. There was huge interest in us in our non league days. That was because we used to be in the Greyhound track which from wot I heard from older supporters was much loved and brought locals out in their droves. Alas we got evicted from The greyhound track in 1972 and that was the end of that. We then moved to Abbeycartron and had to rebuild and the crowds were seriously bad.

Tbf Marty, it's 2022, players hanging around pubs after a game is a thing of the past.

[D24Saint]

https://www.balls.ie/football/6-former-league-of-ireland-grounds-that-are-still-in-use-300971

Its an old article but Abbeycarton gets a mention. The article lists Harold’s Cross aswell which is sadly no more.

[red bellied]

Abbeycarton doesn't look it has changed much since I was there. I remember a fence around the sloppy bumby pitch with a small sheltered area, very basic LOI ground even for 30 years ago.

[Glen Of Aherlow]

Again, I go back to the amount of our supporters who live and work away from Longford. A good few years back we had a young crew of lads who would organise pre match events in the local pub and they'd run a mini bus,away fans would come in as well and there would be a small bit of buzz but most of those lads have now moved out of Longford. That pub isn't even there anymore either, it's a struggling town so we probably are overly critical of ourselves at times.

Yeah in fairness the fact that ye keep a reasonably competitive league of Ireland team on the go , with a decent stadium is a fair achievement when you look at the state of Athlone Town in a place with twice the population and Mullingar which does'nt even have LOI

[D24Saint]

Mullingar which does'nt even have LOI

They had big plans about twenty years back. I'm not sure what blocked their entry at the time.

[Glen Of Aherlow]

They had big plans about twenty years back. I'm not sure what blocked their entry at the time.

https://www.independent.ie/sport/soccer/mullingar-dream-gets-off-to-a-perfect-start-26073573.html

[EatYerGreens]

They had big plans about twenty years back. I'm not sure what blocked their entry at the time.

Think it was Kildare County who pipped them to it (?)

There were two teams from Mullinfgar battling with each other at the time to join the league.

[EatYerGreens]

At the moment I think we would definitely have 5k plus attendances as Brendy said the scramble for tickets is similar to our European cup run in the 2005/06 season.

On a different note, apparently not even one away ticket was sold to a UCD fan last Friday.

Ticketless Derry fans obviously missing a trick there by not pretending to be visiting students :D

[EatYerGreens]

This is a very hypothetical question but what would we expect Bohs weekly average attendance to be if they had say a capacity of 7000?

Would probably depend upon the quality of the quinoa wraps and vegan options on sale from the chip van. Offer a monkbean and tofu special, and see the crowds flock.

[redarmyfaction]

Abbeycarton doesn't look it has changed much since I was there. I remember a fence around the sloppy bumby pitch with a small sheltered area, very basic LOI ground even for 30 years ago.

It was tight, you could tickle a player taking a throw in and milk a cow in the field in behind at the same time.

[EatYerGreens]

It was tight, you could tickle a player taking a throw in and milk a cow in the field in behind at the same time.

Or milk a player taking a throw in and tickle a cow in the field behind....

[PartySaint]

Do any Derry fans know how many tickets they were allocated for Friday?

[Martinho II]

Abbeycarton doesn't look it has changed much since I was there. I remember a fence around the sloppy bumby pitch with a small sheltered area, very basic LOI ground even for 30 years ago.

Yeah it hasnt changed at all as I went to matches there in late 80s/early 90s and I go there now to see my nephew play for his local soccer team red bellied!

[Martinho II]

They had big plans about twenty years back. I'm not sure what blocked their entry at the time.

I remember it well but I cant remember the exact reasons at the time! Any other footiers that know post ere!