Attendances 2022

[ToberonaTornado]

Dundalk say 3500 in OP last night.I think their not counting the away fans and the drone.There was just over 4k and i've a good eye :)

https://twitter.com/DundalkFC/status/1495040306085089286

[ToberonaTornado]

Dundalk say 3500 in OP last night.I think their not counting the away fans and the drone.There was just over 4k and i've a good eye :)

https://twitter.com/DundalkFC/status/1495040306085089286


Btw
is anybody recording the attendances this year? I may have missed that circular.

[Finlay Harp]

Arise Sir Nigel.

[D24Saint]

Tolka looks much better with a big crowd behind the goal aswell.....

It’s gone very rough around the edges unfortunately. The newer stand behind the goal being out of action doesn’t help either. It was amazing last night to think that I had been at cup finals there , unthinkable now with how recent cup finals have been organised.

[bohsmug]

Tolka looks much better with a big crowd behind the goal aswell.....

Way better. Tolka looked so grim with a handful of ancient looking seats up there. Looks so much fresher now with the recent work. Amazing what a bit of a tidy up can do... and a good crowd.

[Martinho II]

I'd say about 1200-1300 in bray last night. A bit of hand bags between the fans at half time as well.

Wot on earth was that about with the hand bags G&W Army? Would never associate anything bad coming out of eithr club!

[jbyrne]

heard it was over a stolen flag. game delayed as a result by 15 mins i believe

[sadloserkid]

Wexford took the step of releasing a statement about one Treaty fan on the pitch last night too. I've no idea what happened so if it was something legitimately nasty I apologise but when I saw the tweet today I could only think that it isn't the first time there's been issues about feet from Limerick and the hallowed turf of Ferrycarrig.

[nr637]

As for Tolka Park this season, as far as I am aware, the Main Stand is open with approximate capacity of 1,500, The opposite Riverside has a reduced central covered seating section open for another 2,000 but the open portion sides are closed. The Ballybough end has about 1,000 open seating for away finds and the Drumcondra End stand is totally closed. I reckon a safe capacity of around 4,500.

Some great work done by Shels in their attempt to buy the ground back from DCC.

Anyone able to confirm these rough figures from recent visit and what are the plans for Tolka and Shelbourne.

By the by do they have some secret financial support behind them!

[kksaints]

As for Tolka Park this season, as far as I am aware, the Main Stand is open with approximate capacity of 1,500, The opposite Riverside has a reduced central covered seating section open for another 2,000 but the open portion sides are closed. The Ballybough end has about 1,000 open seating for away finds and the Drumcondra End stand is totally closed. I reckon a safe capacity of around 4,500.

Some great work done by Shels in their attempt to buy the ground back from DCC.

Anyone able to confirm these rough figures from recent visit and what are the plans for Tolka and Shelbourne.

By the by do they have some secret financial support behind them!

The Ballybough End is a terrace, no seating at all.

[nigel-harps1954]

Arise Sir Nigel.


I refuse to accept that the league has started yet.

I'll start collating figures for those pre-season friendlies last night though.

[Green&whitearmy]

Ye some kids took a Cork flag and they came over to get it back. Kids acting up unfortunately

[sbgawa]

Ye some kids took a Cork flag and they came over to get it back. Kids acting up unfortunately

Cabo ultras infiltrating Bray

[2 Year Contract]

As for Tolka Park this season, as far as I am aware, the Main Stand is open with approximate capacity of 1,500, The opposite Riverside has a reduced central covered seating section open for another 2,000 but the open portion sides are closed. The Ballybough end has about 1,000 open seating for away finds and the Drumcondra End stand is totally closed. I reckon a safe capacity of around 4,500.

Some great work done by Shels in their attempt to buy the ground back from DCC.

Anyone able to confirm these rough figures from recent visit and what are the plans for Tolka and Shelbourne.

By the by do they have some secret financial support behind them!

The terrace behind the goal holds 800. The game was sold out so 4150 is the capacity of the ground nowadays

[sulywaterfordfc]

I refuse to accept that the league has started yet.

I'll start collating figures for those pre-season friendlies last night though.

Any plans to bring back the attendance stats back like pre-covid? It was always one of the better threads to keep track of.

[EatYerGreens]

Any plans to bring back the attendance stats back like pre-covid? It was always one of the better threads to keep track of.

Can't we just stick with anecdoates, conjecture, argument, and bored people counting all the away fans in the stand instead ?

[nigel-harps1954]

Can't we just stick with anecdoates, conjecture, argument, and bored people counting all the away fans in the stand instead ?

You can't have an attendance thread without both.

[nigel-harps1954]

So, what I've gathered so far. If anyone can fill in the gaps or get any official numbers that'd be much appreciated.


Shamrock Rovers v UCD - 5,232
Shelbourne v St Pats - 4,150
Wexford v Treaty - 403

Dundalk v Derry - 3,500 estimate
Bray v Cork - 1,200 estimate
Athlone v Waterford - 300 estimate per extratime.ie

[DCWA]

Derry - Rovers sold out in 21 minutes this afternoon.

[Calcio Jack]

Derry - Rovers sold out in 21 minutes this afternoon.

The away allocation (10% thanks) went on a sale at 2pm and also sold out in a few minutes- great to see such interest and no doubt will be another full house when we visit Pats Friday week

[joey B]

Pity and it’s good problems to have that fans are missing out due to lack of stadium capacity,namely Dalymount park and the Brandywell,again it’s good problems but hopefully they’ll be rectified in time…..

[D24Saint]

It’s a new problem for LOI fans but a good one. I was a bit concerned about getting a Bohs away ticket so was delighted to get them earlier.

[pateen]

As for Tolka Park this season, as far as I am aware, the Main Stand is open with approximate capacity of 1,500, The opposite Riverside has a reduced central covered seating section open for another 2,000 but the open portion sides are closed. The Ballybough end has about 1,000 open seating for away finds and the Drumcondra End stand is totally closed. I reckon a safe capacity of around 4,500.

Some great work done by Shels in their attempt to buy the ground back from DCC.

Anyone able to confirm these rough figures from recent visit and what are the plans for Tolka and Shelbourne.

By the by do they have some secret financial support behind them!

Why is the Drumcondra End closed? That stand is just over 25 years old

[sulywaterfordfc]

As for Tolka Park this season, as far as I am aware, the Main Stand is open with approximate capacity of 1,500, The opposite Riverside has a reduced central covered seating section open for another 2,000 but the open portion sides are closed. The Ballybough end has about 1,000 open seating for away finds and the Drumcondra End stand is totally closed. I reckon a safe capacity of around 4,500.

Some great work done by Shels in their attempt to buy the ground back from DCC.

Anyone able to confirm these rough figures from recent visit and what are the plans for Tolka and Shelbourne.

By the by do they have some secret financial support behind them!

New investors were announced by Shels over the weekend. Sounds like a Peak6 type organisation made a significant ‘investment’ in the club...Shels fans seem quite happy with it but personally I’d be sceptical enough.

Sounds like it could be possible land grab on the cards. Tolka would hold a lot of value these days I’d imagine. If we being honest generally these outside investors best interests are far from the clubs best interests. Short term things are generally ‘great’, as history shows things quickly go pear shaped once things are going ‘great’.

[Glen Of Aherlow]

It’s a new problem for LOI fans but a good one. I was a bit concerned about getting a Bohs away ticket so was delighted to get them earlier.

In one way it seems like a good problem for clubs , but in another way its a bad thing .

If people are interested in going to a league of Ireland game and getting involved supporting a club and they can't get tickets they're going to lose the interest and the clubs lose out long term

[ToberonaTornado]

So, what I've gathered so far. If anyone can fill in the gaps or get any official numbers that'd be much appreciated.


Shamrock Rovers v UCD - 5,232
Shelbourne v St Pats - 4,150
Wexford v Treaty - 403

Dundalk v Derry - 3,500 estimate
Bray v Cork - 1,200 estimate
Athlone v Waterford - 300 estimate per extratime.ie

The Dundalk one is official.Figure from the Official Twitter account.

Was deffo more there but hey..........

[Nesta99]

Stand is 1100, away section 600(?), town terrace bout 500, shed side 1000, 100 or so behind the town goal. 3500 +/- 150 seemed about right to me.

[ToberonaTornado]

Stand is 1100, away section 600(?), town terrace bout 500, shed side 1000, 100 or so behind the town goal. 3500 +/- 150 seemed about right to me.

Maybe i wanted it to be more? :-)

It was a brilliant attendance and the atmosphere was incredible. Final words.

[oriel]

I was in town terrace, def more than 500 there plus a lot in the corner area, def more than 100 behind goal plus you probably didn't account for terrace in front of the stand, finally def more than 1k on shed side, they don't use the seating so more packs in.

All of this is so easily avoided if the club had released an actual figure, can't be that hard to count as ST are sold / zapped, then those paid in on the night.

I would have estimated around 3750, def under 4k.

[PartySaint]

Maybe i wanted it to be more? :-)

It was a brilliant attendance and the atmosphere was incredible. Final words.

is 2,900 home fans for the opening game of the season a brilliant attendance for Dundalk?

[nigel-harps1954]

Is Oriel limited to 3,500 now? I have a sold out attendance figure of 4,026 from a couple of years ago and a few figures over 3,500. I'd be surprised if it were exactly 3,500 in the ground but if that's their official attendance figure then fair enough!

[pineapple stu]

Technically I think their twitter said the attendance was just under 3,500, but didn't give an exact number.

[DCWA]

is 2,900 home fans for the opening game of the season a brilliant attendance for Dundalk?

Surprised to hear 3,500 attendance for opening night with big away crowd described as “brilliant” alright, solid enough maybe but surely no more than that.

[Longfordian]

Well if that's the capacity then by definition they can't do any better.

[Nesta99]

I dont think the capacity was reduced in recent years but maybe why 'official figures' always tend to be 3.5k. No tax dodges with cash on the gates like the old days so I dont see any reason to under state attendances. I'm sure looking back at old attendances to have almost 3k home fans would be a good attendance, selling out the away allocation always pushed the crowd close to safe capacity limit. The season decider v Cork included a temporary stand and iirc that was a 5k capacity sell out.

There's always been a bit of a pishing match on average attendances (not looking at Cork in particular) but not take in to consideration % of population, capacities, opposition including those that families avoid, and of course the old why would people pay in to sub standard facilities (the ones that actually have charm and character like Oriel and United Park). LoI Fans imo do tend to over estimate, I did myself until I saw actual figures, years ago now, and curtailed the more wishful thinking guesstimates, but I could well be overly stingy now.

[oriel]

I think the safe capacity is something around 4,500 these days for Oriel Park, there are 3,100 - 3,200 seats (I seem to recall from euro games).

During the SK title winning years, the avg was around 3k- 3,300, so if 3,500 is correct and that accounts for 2,900 home fans, it pretty much accounts for whoever wanted /could be there went!

I'd also think 4k max would be the pool to draw from for most games (apart from cup finals when most clubs treble their avg), so again around 3k is not bad, considering finishing 6th and the car crash of 2021, but that said, the new owners in Andy Connolly and Statsports and SOD back as manager have definitely given the whole place a huge lift.

[oriel]

is 2,900 home fans for the opening game of the season a brilliant attendance for Dundalk?

I would say its quite good and given how the club has slipped last 2 years, its probably even more impressive to be fair, as I mentioned before this is coming off the back of the 6th place finish in 2021.

Out of interest what would you be expecting / hoping for v Sligo on Friday, say if you allow for 400-500 Sligo fans?

[PartySaint]

I would say its quite good and given how the club has slipped last 2 years, its probably even more impressive to be fair, as I mentioned before this is coming off the back of the 6th place finish in 2021.

Out of interest what would you be expecting / hoping for v Sligo on Friday, say if you allow for 400-500 Sligo fans?

I'm expecting a similar crowd of around 3,500. A brilliant crowd would be over 4,000 but we may have to wait until Rovers at home on Friday week for that.

[oriel]

I often wondered how the Dublin clubs ranked in support, 1/ Rovers 2/ Bohs, then if Shels were doing well would they be similar or just more than Pats?

In general I think any LOI club getting over 3k is very good in any game, its keeping it going throughout the season that's the challenge. As we mentioned on here before your less well known L2 club in England might get 3,500 on any given Sat, lose 3-0, then lose again mid-week away, the same will turn up the following week at home, that's something we would find hard to replicate here.

[EalingGreen]

I often wondered how the Dublin clubs ranked in support, 1/ Rovers 2/ Bohs, then if Shels were doing well would they be similar or just more than Pats?

In general I think any LOI club getting over 3k is very good in any game, its keeping it going throughout the season that's the challenge. As we mentioned on here before your less well known L2 club in England might get 3,500 on any given Sat, lose 3-0, then lose again mid-week away, the same will turn up the following week at home, that's something we would find hard to replicate here.
Never mind Lge Two, the National Lge (i.e. 5th tier) is averaging 3,051 attendances over their 23 clubs, with the top ten averaging 4,890:
https://www.worldfootball.net/attendance/eng-national-league-2021-2022/1/

While Lge Two is 4,643 (24 clubs):
https://www.worldfootball.net/attendance/eng-league-two-2021-2022/1/

And the great majority of these are competing for support with a larger club(s) nearby.

All that said, your bold is very true.

[oriel]

Good post Ealing, sometimes forger about National Lge in England, some big clubs there too.

For the 3 PD games here last weekend the avg was just over 4,300 but 2 games called off, not sure what expected crowds there, maybe 3.5k for Sligo & 2.5k for FH, but I could be wrong, if that happened would have taken avg to 3.8k, I think overall that would have been a very good opening weekend crowd wise.

But...............early weeks and week 1 generally high figures.

Must look at see the comparison at some stage what Irish League clubs got in their opening weekend in August, then again were full crowds allowed, I think they might have been?

[EalingGreen]

But...............early weeks and week 1 generally high figures.

Must look at see the comparison at some stage what Irish League clubs got in their opening weekend in August, then again were full crowds allowed, I think they might have been?
Here are the opening home attendances for each of the 12 clubs, played over the last week in August/first 2 weeks in September, followed by their seasonal averages to date (brackets):

Portadown v Glenavon: 1,422 (1,003)
Larne v Coleraine: 1,934 (1,875)
W'point v Ballymena: 160 (396)
Linfield v Crusaders: 2,048 (2,812)
Dungannon v Glentoran: 1,178 (503)
Cliftonville v Carrick: 1,054 (1,670)
Carrick v Warrenpoint: 230 (515)
Glentoran v B'mena: 1.920 (2,598)
Glenavon v Carrick: 615 (900)
Ballymena v Glenavon: 972 (1,269)
Coleraine v Ballymena 3,183 (2,176)

Only 4 of the 12 exceeded their average on their season opener.

Tbh in NI at least, the attractiveness or otherwise of the opposition looks to count for far more in boosting/suppressing crowds than the date/time of year, i.e. local derbies (Portadown, Coleraine); or one of the Big Two coming to town (Dungannon).

[Shinkicker]

In NI most Irish league games are played on Saturday as are ALL intermediate and junior games. Therefore if you play for a team you can't go and watch Irish league.
Not that it's worth going!!

[Shinkicker]

Portadown and Coleraine is not a local derby

[oriel]

Good stats there Ealing and interesting to read. The traditional 26/12 (27/12 this year due to the Sunday;) ) were well attended I read, the top billing of Linfield v you up to 8k I think?.

If IL ever changed to summer football (I think they should - would def help euro prep for a start) the 26/12 games would be lost but they could replace that with 12/07 holiday matches.

[EatYerGreens]

Good stats there Ealing and interesting to read. The traditional 26/12 (27/12 this year due to the Sunday;) ) were well attended I read, the top billing of Linfield v you up to 8k I think?.

If IL ever changed to summer football (I think they should - would def help euro prep for a start) the 26/12 games would be lost but they could replace that with 12/07 holiday matches.

They've toyed with a Summer league schedule in the north which keeps the St Stephen's Day derbies. It is possible, though would mean not avoiding a lot of the crap weather as a downside.

[PartySaint]

Here are the opening home attendances for each of the 12 clubs, played over the last week in August/first 2 weeks in September, followed by their seasonal averages to date (brackets):

Portadown v Glenavon: 1,422 (1,003)
Larne v Coleraine: 1,934 (1,875)
W'point v Ballymena: 160 (396)
Linfield v Crusaders: 2,048 (2,812)
Dungannon v Glentoran: 1,178 (503)
Cliftonville v Carrick: 1,054 (1,670)
Carrick v Warrenpoint: 230 (515)
Glentoran v B'mena: 1.920 (2,598)
Glenavon v Carrick: 615 (900)
Ballymena v Glenavon: 972 (1,269)
Coleraine v Ballymena 3,183 (2,176)

Only 4 of the 12 exceeded their average on their season opener.

Tbh in NI at least, the attractiveness or otherwise of the opposition looks to count for far more in boosting/suppressing crowds than the date/time of year, i.e. local derbies (Portadown, Coleraine); or one of the Big Two coming to town (Dungannon).

Didn't expect Coleraine's figures to be so high, what's going on there?

[Finlay Harp]

Coleraine were always reasonably well supported. Decent sized town with places like Ballymoney, Portush and Limavady feeding support into it.

[DCSIL]

Didn't expect Coleraine's figures to be so high, what's going on there?

Coleraine have been out heavily promoting themselves and what they do in the local community for a few years now. Decent support base(Coleraine, Portrush, Portstewart etc).

[EalingGreen]

Good stats there Ealing and interesting to read. The traditional 26/12 (27/12 this year due to the Sunday;) ) were well attended I read, the top billing of Linfield v you up to 8k I think?.

Yep, official att. was 8,007.

Meanwhile the return at The Oval on 11 Feb was a 6k sell-out, despite being a Friday evening and live-streamed on BBC NI. Were the bloody Council not so strict on the capacity cap, I imagine they could comfortably have sold a lot more (both home and visiting fans).



If IL ever changed to summer football (I think they should - would def help euro prep for a start) the 26/12 games would be lost but they could replace that with 12/07 holiday matches.
Boxing Day always draws bumper attendances - 2021 also saw:

Ballymena v Coleraine: 3,210
Carrick R. v Larne: 1,204
Portadown v Glenavon: 2,430

Meaning all four games that day were around three times their respective seasonal averages.

EDIT: For anyone interested(!), I'm getting my stats from the official IL website: https://www.nifootballleague.com/premiership/2021-2022/results/