Attendances 2022

[ontheotherhand]

I'm not so sure about that, did Bohs not take 20k+ last year, outnumbered Pats anyway from memory reading reports.

What about the first final at the Aviva Sligo v Sham Rovers, was it 37K, good chance 20k of that in green.

Sure half of those were Wrexham fans.

[nr637]

GAA Just watched a few minutes on RTE Rathoath V The Downs in Croke Park there is probably 2-3 thousand in a stadium that holds circa 80,000. The quality of the game is not great. It doesn't make a good advertisement for the game and yet RTE show it.

RTE becoming like Sky, showing a GAA game at all costs even though the entertainment levels and interest is at a minimum! ?

[Kingswood Rover]

Rovers sold 1000 season tickets in the 1st 24 hrs after sales opened apparently.

[outspoken]

RTE becoming like Sky, showing a GAA game at all costs even though the entertainment levels and interest is at a minimum! ?

I'd love to see viewing figures for games like this but I work with GAA fanatics who litreally watch every single live GAA going, they'd even stream local underage games and all, there's more people like that out there than we think as LOI people

[culloty82]

Generally 50-60k, according to the Medialive website, which, sadly, is on a par with LoI matches on RTE.

[culloty82]

1595047073799630849

If this is for league games, the average attendance would be just under 3,734.

[EalingGreen]

Some hugely impressive crowds this season. I'n looking for a complete list of attendances for the season, I tried the LOI official site, but nothing there that I could find - you'd think they'd be shouting it from the rooftops.

Or is this site reliable?
https://www.worldfootball.net/attendance/irl-premier-division-2022/3/

Not sure how some clubs (Shams, Dundalk, Drogs) played so many more games than others, both home and overall - playoffs?

EDIT: Seems they simply didn't have the full figures for some clubs.

[2 Year Contract]

Some hugely impressive crowds this season. I'n looking for a complete list of attendances for the season, I tried the LOI official site, but nothing there that I could find - you'd think they'd be shouting it from the rooftops.

Or is this site reliable?
https://www.worldfootball.net/attendance/irl-premier-division-2022/3/

Not sure how some clubs (Shams, Dundalk, Drogs) played so many more games than others, both home and overall - playoffs?

Not sure where the figures in that link are coming from but they’re totally inaccurate/inconsistent.

Straight away Pats, Rovers and Derry all had higher averages than that, Harps and UCD had lower averages than that and the random number of games makes no sense. If they’re taking European/cup games into account for rovers then they haven’t included them all and haven’t included any cup/euro games for Pats/Derry/Sligo, likewise Drogheda and Dundalk didn’t play that many home games in 2022 and shels played more than 17 home games. There’s no doubt more inaccuracies in that link but that’s just at a glance

[pineapple stu]

It looks to be at a midpoint in the season and includes both home and away games.

You can select "home" and it'll show UCD with an average of 842 for example.

[EalingGreen]

It looks to be at a midpoint in the season and includes both home and away games.

You can select "home" and it'll show UCD with an average of 842 for example.
Although I rather unhelpfully linked to the Overall table, the Home table still looks very unbalanced eg Drogs 15 homes, Shams and Dundalk 13 each, versus Derry and Shels 6 each and Finn Harps 8:
https://www.worldfootball.net/attendance/irl-premier-division-2022/1/

Can hardly be the midpoint, no?

[pineapple stu]

There was a stage around mid-season when it was quite unbalanced in terms of games in hand. Not that much though. Maybe they're leaving out games with no attendance available? I just suggested mid-season as teams had roughly 18-21 games played (out of 36). Not an exact science though.

It looks reasonable, if strange

[EalingGreen]

Maybe they're leaving out games with no attendance available?
That's what I was thinking.

Either way, its pretty poor that there are apparently no official figures anywhere.

Even the NI Football League puts up the figure for each Premiership game a day or two afterwards:
https://www.nifootballleague.com/premiership/2022-2023/results/

[brendy_éire]

Even the NI Football League puts up the figure for each Premiership game a day or two afterwards:
https://www.nifootballleague.com/premiership/2022-2023/results/

Impressive that the figure are up there, even if you'd take a them with a large pinch of salt (likely to be higher).

[Buller]

That's what I was thinking.

Either way, its pretty poor that there are apparently no official figures anywhere.

Even the NI Football League puts up the figure for each Premiership game a day or two afterwards:
https://www.nifootballleague.com/premiership/2022-2023/results/

Yeah great its kept so well. We're lucky if the official LOI website is kept up to date with tables and scores!!

[EalingGreen]

Tbh, the reason I'm asking is because I'm interested to know how much (the increasingly impressive) LOI attendances have grown in the season just past, for comparative purposes with the IL.

After 3 seasons between 2016/17 - 2018/19 when IL average crowds stagnated at just over 1k , 2019/20 (part Covid curtailed) added 9.5% to 1,192. Season 2021/22 added 20.9% (1,441), while 2022/23 has added another 7.5% so far, at 1,549. Will be interesting to see whether the cost-of-living crisis will allow this to be maintained, esp since each week there's now a game streamed live/free on the BBC, plus the odd extra game on Sky.

(For people who are nerdy about such things like me, 15 x seasons figures, both overall and by club, can be seen here: https://www.irishleaguesupporters.com/attendances.php)

[yurt]

It's a shame that all these attendances aren't being tracked somewhere. I remember there being a fairly comprehensive table being updated on a weekly basis on here a few years ago.

The Galway United forum was tracking attendance during the year. Does anyone else have complete figures from any of the other clubs?



Waterford
4/3/22
3023


Treaty
14/3/22
1355


Cobh
1/4/22
1759


Wexford
9/4/22
1519


Bray
22/4/22
1307


Longford
2/5/22
2805


Athlone
20/5/
1248


Cork
27/5/22
4115


Treaty
24/6/22
1741


Waterford
1/7/22
1267


Cobh
8/7/22
1434


Wexford
5/8/22
1903


Bray
19/8/22
1380


UCD (Cup)
26/8/22
1121


Cork
16/9/22
3132


Athlone
7/10/22
2815


Longford
21/10/22
1034


Longford (playoff)
30/10/22
3031



So the total attendance for the season was 32958.
Which is an average of 1939.

[nigel-harps1954]

It's a shame that all these attendances aren't being tracked somewhere. I remember there being a fairly comprehensive table being updated on a weekly basis on here a few years ago.

The Galway United forum was tracking attendance during the year. Does anyone else have complete figures from any of the other clubs?



Waterford
4/3/22
3023


Treaty
14/3/22
1355


Cobh
1/4/22
1759


Wexford
9/4/22
1519


Bray
22/4/22
1307


Longford
2/5/22
2805


Athlone
20/5/
1248


Cork
27/5/22
4115


Treaty
24/6/22
1741


Waterford
1/7/22
1267


Cobh
8/7/22
1434


Wexford
5/8/22
1903


Bray
19/8/22
1380


UCD (Cup)
26/8/22
1121


Cork
16/9/22
3132


Athlone
7/10/22
2815


Longford
21/10/22
1034


Longford (playoff)
30/10/22
3031



So the total attendance for the season was 32958.
Which is an average of 1939.

Found it too difficult to get official attendances, and there were far too many estimates to chase up to get anything semi accurate.

[Martinho II]

Sad to see that we cant get an average attendance for the season. It seems to be dying out altogether with official figures. If you cant trust FIFA with their attendances how can you trust our clubs? Pity Nigel!

[Burnsie]

Official figures courtesy of Dodge on Twitter

https://twitter.com/seidodge/status/1605143664715763712?s=20&t=oneNVokR0dcQWjXbaT9Omw

[2 Year Contract]

Not far off a full house of attendances being up at every club in the LOI, it’s only Athlone, Bray, Dundalk and Longford that are down

[joey B]

Do Athlone have a backer or are they totally amateur? Tiny numbers there in a decent size town...

[Buller]

Not far off a full house of attendances being up at every club in the LOI, it’s only Athlone, Bray, Dundalk and Longford that are down

Crowds really are booming the last few years. I think 2019 was a slight improvement on 2018 too overall, before the post-pandemic related boost.

[Rasher]

https://www.the42.ie/league-of-ireland-attendance-figures-5951751-Dec2022/

[EalingGreen]

Official figures courtesy of Dodge on Twitter

https://twitter.com/seidodge/status/1605143664715763712?s=20&t=oneNVokR0dcQWjXbaT9Omw
Very impressive figures, both absolute and %age increase.

The IL Premiership has enjoyed a similar increase: 2018/19: 1,089 vs 2022/23 to date: 1,520 = +39.6%:
https://www.irishleaguesupporters.com/attendances.php

To some extent you might consider this is down to certain individual clubs boosting their crowds (eg DCFC/Shams/Cork and Cleraine/Larne/Glentoran) Yet both leagues have also had clubs whose attendances have declined.

I wonder might this be a reaction to Covid i.e. people have appreciated the opportunity to get out and about again, with big crowds leading to improved atmospheres, which in turn has led to even bigger crowds? There is evidence of this for lower leagues in England, esp the National league/5th tier:
https://sportsgazette.co.uk/2021-2022-football-attendances/
This season's crowds in the NL arepretty amazing:
https://www.footballwebpages.co.uk/national-league/attendances:

By contrast, I know that Rugby League in England was very worried that crowds had actually declined post-Covid, as this article from August 2021 indicates:
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2021/aug/27/stunted-super-league-attendances-spell-fresh-alarm-clubs-futures-rugby-league
(Not sure whether this has continued through 2022, but the article speculates that with RL fans being older than average, maybe they were more cautious about mixing in crowds even after lockdown ended?)

[Kiki Balboa]

Very impressive figures, both absolute and %age increase.

The IL Premiership has enjoyed a similar increase: 2018/19: 1,089 vs 2022/23 to date: 1,520 = +39.6%:
https://www.irishleaguesupporters.com/attendances.php

To some extent you might consider this is down to certain individual clubs boosting their crowds (eg DCFC/Shams/Cork and Cleraine/Larne/Glentoran) Yet both leagues have also had clubs whose attendances have declined.

I wonder might this be a reaction to Covid i.e. people have appreciated the opportunity to get out and about again, with big crowds leading to improved atmospheres, which in turn has led to even bigger crowds? There is evidence of this for lower leagues in England, esp the National league/5th tier:
https://sportsgazette.co.uk/2021-2022-football-attendances/
This season's crowds in the NL arepretty amazing:
https://www.footballwebpages.co.uk/national-league/attendances:

By contrast, I know that Rugby League in England was very worried that crowds had actually declined post-Covid, as this article from August 2021 indicates:
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2021/aug/27/stunted-super-league-attendances-spell-fresh-alarm-clubs-futures-rugby-league
(Not sure whether this has continued through 2022, but the article speculates that with RL fans being older than average, maybe they were more cautious about mixing in crowds even after lockdown ended?)

To be fair, only 4 out of 19 teams saw a decline- and apart from Longford, I can see obvious reasons why. Dundalk left a golden period (but even still, it's only a handful of people difference), Athlone continues to be a basketcase (which is pretty sad), and Bray had a very unpopular merge. I don't get why Longford's attendance dropped though.


It is also not just English Rugby either. Also in Ireland, Rugby attendance is falling: https://archive.ph/6F0mh


I do think the rise in attendance doesn't have much to do with COVID, but rather just a general disillusionment with the top level of the sport. I find people are less rabid English Premiership fans now than in the early 2000s- and more or often, less people are totaly wrapped up in it and are more casual fans.


Finally, I always thought the LOI was a great product. I watched it with many foreign football friends who absolutely loved the pace of the game and the less theatrics in it than maybe the top-level ball. Even still, compared to GAA, LOI is a slog, it takes a huge amount of effort to follow a team for a year. Its fantastic to see the attendance rise over a whole season and not just big games.

[pineapple stu]

In fairness, to get 21 increases out of 21 would have been spectacular. The law of averages says you're always going to get some going down, even if the overall trend is up.

[outspoken]

Very frustrated with those Longford figures. We've got a brilliant ground, our managers since Fenn all the way through to Cronin have all played a really good brand of ball but we simply aren't resonating with the local community. Up to the powers that be to knock heads together and see why that is and what can be done.

[nigel-harps1954]

Is there any effort to connect with the community? If you visit Longford town on match day you'd hardly know there was a game on, and seemingly neither do staff in many of the shops.

[Kiki Balboa]

It is also not just English Rugby either. Also in Ireland, Rugby attendance is falling: https://archive.ph/6F0mh


In the last full season before Covid hit, 2018-19, the average home attendance for the four Irish provinces was 12,502, which last season was down to 10,242.

10,242 x 4 = 40,968 total average home attendance of the 4 Proviencial Rugby Clubs.

486,365 came to Premier Division games, an average of 2,687 and 178,000 attended First Division matches, an average of 1,193,

[(2,687 + 1,193)/ 2] x 19 = 36,860 total average home attendance of the LOI.

Rough maths, give or take... Put it seems pretty clear that domestic soccer is catching up to professional rugby, and might even surpass it next season (if the average LOI attendance goes up 210). Also not clear if the rugby numbers include their European Games or not (I pretty sure it does), and if it doesnt, they only play 21 games (+3 playoff rounds), and have bumper attendence for Leinster vs Munster in the Aviva, which would have a little skew of their numbers.

According to wiki, Total URL attendance for Irish Clubs:

Connacht 40,140
Ulster 91,752
Munster 102,101
Leinster 155,512Total= 389,505 (minus Ulster is 297,753)

LOI mens Total= 664,365

So the LOI brings in far more bums on seats in a season than Provencial Rugby does.

Best I could find on the GAA is this: https://www.balls.ie/gaa/gaa-attendances-ranked-top-sports-around-world-124430, which shows the total GAA attendance is 880,000. Considering GAA does particulary well with creating finals and big matches - LOI is doing pretty well. If you add the FAI cup or removed the All-Ireland finals from the GAA to make it a more like-for-like comparison, they are not that far away from each other.

[culloty82]

Very frustrated with those Longford figures. We've got a brilliant ground, our managers since Fenn all the way through to Cronin have all played a really good brand of ball but we simply aren't resonating with the local community. Up to the powers that be to knock heads together and see why that is and what can be done.

Would certainly help if the local media paid more attention to the club - just had a look at the Longford Leader sports pages, and the only mention of Town is for the fixtures announcement:

https://www.longfordleader.ie/section/135/sport

Now of course, this being the close season, it's probably completely unrepresentative of their true coverage, but it still seems less than even junior soccer gets in the local papers here.

[Glen Of Aherlow]

Very frustrated with those Longford figures. We've got a brilliant ground, our managers since Fenn all the way through to Cronin have all played a really good brand of ball but we simply aren't resonating with the local community. Up to the powers that be to knock heads together and see why that is and what can be done.

Was down at a match last season and was around town for a while beforehand . There was little or nothing around town to suggest there was a game on that evening , plus with the ground so far out of town you don't get fans drinking in town before the game and then walking to the ground like you would in Sligo or Drogheda or Dundalk etc.

[Longfordian]

The town itself is in a bad state these days. Empty premises everywhere and not much signs of life. There isn't much in the way of disposable income floating around.

[Glen Of Aherlow]

The town itself is in a bad state these days. Empty premises everywhere and not much signs of life. There isn't much in the way of disposable income floating around.

Yeah that's true enough , sad to see

[Martinho II]

Would certainly help if the local media paid more attention to the club - just had a look at the Longford Leader sports pages, and the only mention of Town is for the fixtures announcement:

https://www.longfordleader.ie/section/135/sport

Now of course, this being the close season, it's probably completely unrepresentative of their true coverage, but it still seems less than even junior soccer gets in the local papers here.

Longford Leader was always very bad for coverage of Longford Town. Since the Longford News went belly up over a decade ago press coverage is extremely poor to say the least.
In regards to attendances in Bishopsgate think there is a huge disconnect between LTFC and the local soccer clubs. Also it doesnt help that Longford is a GAA county and always will be.
Strangely enough our crowds were always better with winter football. I remember when Stephen Kenny was in charge there was a huge connection between the club and Longford town in particular but since then it has declined majorly badly.

The massive crowds we got over 20 years ago we will never get again Im afraid to say!

[Kiki Balboa]

It might not be coincidence that both Midland clubs are struggling.

[EalingGreen]

To be fair, only 4 out of 19 teams saw a decline- and apart from Longford, I can see obvious reasons why. Dundalk left a golden period (but even still, it's only a handful of people difference), Athlone continues to be a basketcase (which is pretty sad), and Bray had a very unpopular merge. I don't get why Longford's attendance dropped though.
As Stu says, you're always going to get some clubs whose attendances go down, meaning it's the bigger picture which counts.



It is also not just English Rugby either. Also in Ireland, Rugby attendance is falling: https://archive.ph/6F0mh
I was referring to Rugby League, which has always been a professional sport. They're worried that some of their f-t clubs may now have to go p-t.

Whereas with Rugby Union, the (relatiuvely recent) transition to professional status has, with a few exceptions (Irish provinces, France), been a disaster for the game domestically throughout Eng/Scot/Wales/Ire in terms of finances and participation, with attendances none too clever either.



I do think the rise in attendance doesn't have much to do with COVID, but rather just a general disillusionment with the top level of the sport. I find people are less rabid English Premiership fans now than in the early 2000s- and more or often, less people are totaly wrapped up in it and are more casual fans.
It could always be both (Covid and disillusionment etc). Though I suspect that if there is a drop-off in interest in Ireland for the EPL, also Celtic/Rangers, it may be down to the difficulty and expense of getting match tickets for trips over?0
It would be interesting to know how TV subscriptions are holding up - maybe folk are still watching their Eng/Scot team on the box at home or in the pub AND going out to their local LOI/IL team a bit more often?

While in England itself, EPL crowds are as high as ever, with almost all games being sold out, which is why virtually all the clubs are expanding their stadia (if they've not recently done so).



Finally, I always thought the LOI was a great product. I watched it with many foreign football friends who absolutely loved the pace of the game and the less theatrics in it than maybe the top-level ball. Even still, compared to GAA, LOI is a slog, it takes a huge amount of effort to follow a team for a year. Its fantastic to see the attendance rise over a whole season and not just big games.I daresay if you can persuade new people to give it a try, many will be impressed and come back again.

But having an attractive product is one thing, getting them in in the first place is quite another.

[legendz]

there is a huge disconnect between LTFC and the local soccer clubs. Therein lies a problem. In a rural region, it's important to have the local clubs on board.

[outspoken]

Longford Leader was always very bad for coverage of Longford Town. Since the Longford News went belly up over a decade ago press coverage is extremely poor to say the least.
In regards to attendances in Bishopsgate think there is a huge disconnect between LTFC and the local soccer clubs. Also it doesnt help that Longford is a GAA county and always will be.
Strangely enough our crowds were always better with winter football. I remember when Stephen Kenny was in charge there was a huge connection between the club and Longford town in particular but since then it has declined majorly badly.

The massive crowds we got over 20 years ago we will never get again Im afraid to say!

Has the club not worked on divide between themselves and local clubs though? They've a partnership with Melview and have invited loads of kids out to ground this season, players took pics and signed stuff for them, it was great to see. I agree with Nigel, you wouldn't know there's a game on in the town but how do you change that? Club put posters up for years, zero impact.

It's been raised above and correctly that Longford Town is in an awful state, I was down home recently and I couldn't believe the amount of boarded up units. When you see bookmakers even shutting down you know things are bad. Not to mention the fueding and general ****e that has plauged the town in recent years, people dont want to go into longford and shop, times are tough.

Personally, I think the club missed a huge trick when we had Aodh Dervin, should have made him full-time and when he's not training he's in schools, he's getting pictures outside sponsors businesses etc

It's clear we've been raided by other clubs and we've turned to young unproven players. I'd gladly accept a few years of that if it meant the club invested off the field by hiring more full time staff. We don't even have merchandise to buy for xmas, small stuff like that really ****es supporters off.

[ad2023]

you need to invite more of these clubs to the games, get them to meet the players etc. in time it will feed into the numbers as these kids get older
one thing that is counter productive is giving out loads of free tickets... if people get stuff for free they think its worthless, years ago at my club we gave out free tickets to first time visitors and we tracked them to see if they came again, and sure enough hardly any were used.

[Longfordian]

Yeah they've always had at least some merchandise available at Christmas. Shame they haven't this year. Wouldn't have made a fortune but every little helps. It's very hard to keep a LOI team going nowadays. If they need to cut the budget to keep the show on the road then that's something we have to live with.

[Martinho II]

I properly didnt explain myself right I appreciate that my club have ties with Melview FC which is a start but I am on about the senior CCFL sides based in Longford like Longford Celtic, Mostrim Athletic. I dont think that has being tapped into. Surely that could be given a go?

[outspoken]

I properly didnt explain myself right I appreciate that my club have ties with Melview FC which is a start but I am on about the senior CCFL sides based in Longford like Longford Celtic, Mostrim Athletic. I dont think that has being tapped into. Surely that could be given a go?

I'm not really sure what good that would do. It's a bog standard level of football that you'll never recruit players from and it's grown adults who've already got other commitments and interests so they aren't overly marketable. It's the kids we need to be trying to target. We definitely should be doing more but then again I've been told of clubs banning people involved with LTFC from attending their games. Players being told if they go on trial with LTFC they won't be on representative sides. Even when I was involved in the LDSL I always found there was an animosity towards LTFC.

[EatYerGreens]

Not far off a full house of attendances being up at every club in the LOI, it’s only Athlone, Bray, Dundalk and Longford that are down

Some really big increases at quite a few clubs too, which is very encouraging. The league is definitely going through a growth spurt at the moment. Such that the capacity and state of some stadiums is now a real limitation on further growth.

[EatYerGreens]

Very frustrated with those Longford figures. We've got a brilliant ground, our managers since Fenn all the way through to Cronin have all played a really good brand of ball but we simply aren't resonating with the local community. Up to the powers that be to knock heads together and see why that is and what can be done.

Have you tried appointing a Climate Officer, or a 'Poet in Residence' ?

[legendz]

First Division Twitter followers:
Finn Harps 22500
Waterford 21100
Bray 20200
Galway 17700
Cobh 14300
Longford 13500
Wexford 12300
Treaty 8983
Kerry 5147
Athlone 5132

[culloty82]

Probably more for the "Promotional Activities" thread, so will post more on same anon.

[EalingGreen]

Therein lies a problem. In a rural region, it's important to have the local clubs on board.Is it, though?

You could argue that they are actually in competition, at least when it comes to attracting volunteers to fill the various off-field roles, also sponsors to an extent. While when it comes to players, they will likely be competing for kids (though not adult players, obviously) for their Academy etc.

Looking eg at Fermanagh, you have a senior club, Ballinamallard, and you have 20-odd junior clubs in a rural county of 50k people. Essentially the Mallards operate at a remove from those others. This is because you have some people who are fans of Senior football, and some who are fans of Junior football via their local club. And while some of the latter may go to watch the Mallards when circumstances permit, especially if eg some of the big Belfast clubs are in town, basically these are separate activities.

At its extreme, you see this in England, where the fans of EPL clubs look down on local EFL clubs and vice versa, while further on down the pyramid, fans of non-league clubs consider theirs is "real football" while league fans consider it to be "pub football" etc - and this rivalry can apply to clubs which in are in the very same town or region!

Meaning that in the end, clubs like Longford Town should surely be looking to manage by their own resources, and not hope merely to survive by drawing on the (scant) resources of other, separate, clubs, solely because they're from the same county/area/region.

And to do that they need to be offering something that local clubs in their region cannot.

[EalingGreen]

In the last full season before Covid hit, 2018-19, the average home attendance for the four Irish provinces was 12,502, which last season was down to 10,242.

10,242 x 4 = 40,968 total average home attendance of the 4 Proviencial Rugby Clubs.

486,365 came to Premier Division games, an average of 2,687 and 178,000 attended First Division matches, an average of 1,193,

[(2,687 + 1,193)/ 2] x 19 = 36,860 total average home attendance of the LOI.

Rough maths, give or take... Put it seems pretty clear that domestic soccer is catching up to professional rugby, and might even surpass it next season (if the average LOI attendance goes up 210). Also not clear if the rugby numbers include their European Games or not (I pretty sure it does), and if it doesnt, they only play 21 games (+3 playoff rounds), and have bumper attendence for Leinster vs Munster in the Aviva, which would have a little skew of their numbers.

According to wiki, Total URL attendance for Irish Clubs:

Connacht 40,140
Ulster 91,752
Munster 102,101
Leinster 155,512Total= 389,505 (minus Ulster is 297,753)

LOI mens Total= 664,365

So the LOI brings in far more bums on seats in a season than Provencial Rugby does.

Best I could find on the GAA is this: https://www.balls.ie/gaa/gaa-attendances-ranked-top-sports-around-world-124430, which shows the total GAA attendance is 880,000. Considering GAA does particulary well with creating finals and big matches - LOI is doing pretty well. If you add the FAI cup or removed the All-Ireland finals from the GAA to make it a more like-for-like comparison, they are not that far away from each other.Interesting numbers (at least for a sad old statto like myself!).

In the above context, LOI figures (664k) stack up weill against GAA (880k) and Rugby (390k), But with these last two both being all-Ireland sports, you arguably might throw in another 400k-odd from the IL into the total figure for football, to contend that it is actually the "biggest" sport on the island overall.

[Kingswood Rover]

So we are saying that there are more bums on seats at Football on this island when compared to Gaa County games. I would never have thought that its made my Chrimbo ;)

[Candystripe]

President cup final, Derry city v Shamrock rovers. Home tickets sold out with 600 away fans (guessing they'll sell out too). Took 8 mins to sell out home tickets online ?*??

More terrace tickets this season so probably just over 4k per game at the Ryan Mc Bride Brandywell stadium for next season.