Irish football fights back

[town73]

Today's Sunday Business Post has a feature on the eircom League (http://www.sbpost.ie/post/pages/p/story.aspx-qqqt=INSIDE%20STORY-qqqs=agenda-qqqid=6557-qqqx=1.asp).

[1 9 2 8]

The highest average attendance this season is that of Cork City, with 3,798, and the lowest is Mullingar Town with 125.

Very high attendance for a non league club I'd say it's better then CHF

[thejollyrodger]

good to see the EL in the papers, maybe an investor will see the possibility of making money and back some of the clubs (like shels ;) )

[Xlex]

nick leeson is certainly making an impression in the media.

Sunday Business post, Business and Finance and the VIP mag amongst others. His publicity is quite unique, and very different to the loudness of Dolan etc...

refreshing.

[pete]

Its a good article excluding the Mullingar Town reference. If only they knew the top dublin based players earning a lot more than €1500.

For all the difficulties of a few clubs there are other clubs running themselves properly. Fulltime professionalism & summer football are relatively new so will take time for fans & players to adjust.

I disagree with point that need 1 tv station to cover the games. IMO theres no chance RTE will show 30 live games on their own, i've no problem with spreading the games around as long as its fair to all.

[Slash/ED]

Yeah, but I do think Dolan had a point about if the FAI had the bottle to use the international team as a bargaining chip they could get as good a TV deal as they want. But 30 or so live games + Europe + Setanta Cup is a great deal as it is.

[Pablo]

Mullingar are in the eircom under 21 league so i suppose thats why he included them

[Troy.McClure]

IMO theres no chance RTE will show 30 live games on their own, i've no problem with spreading the games around as long as its fair to all.


[QUOTE=Slash/ED]Yeah, but I do think Dolan had a point about if the FAI had the bottle to use the international team as a bargaining chip they could get as good a TV deal as they want. QUOTE]

I agree with both, so Im kind of contradicting myself! Theres no reason why you could have a live match on every week, a regular time and place would be amazing for the league but I think that RTE are the only channel with the ability to afford it and clearly they arent interested which is a shame.

Good article though (again with the exception of the Mullingar Town bit)

[Poor Student]

I reckon Saturday night every week would be brilliant. Regular time and place, plenty of people off work and all other eL fans would be available having played the previous day.

[Troy.McClure]

I reckon Saturday night every week would be brilliant. Regular time and place, plenty of people off work and all other eL fans would be available having played the previous day.

Clashes with The Premiership/Match of the Day though, alas there would only be one winner there :(

Friday night is football night should be marketed to hell, with a regular slot on tv.

[Poor Student]

Clashes with The Premiership/Match of the Day though, alas there would only be one winner there :(

Friday night is football night should be marketed to hell, with a regular slot on tv.

I don't know about you Troy but I never see the eL games on TV as I am at games. I think clashing with the rest of the games minimises the audience. Bohs v Drogs is the first I can remember watching in a while.

[Troy.McClure]

Well there are Fridays that I dont get my football fix as I cant make all games at the X from Dublin. To be honest most fans have every 2nd Friday 'off' so if there was a game on telly Im sure they would watch it alright.

[4tothefloor]

[QUOTE=Slash/ED]but I think that RTE are the only channel with the ability to afford it and clearly they arent interested which is a shame.
Or clubs could buy their own professional cameras and rig their grounds up permenantly for tv broadcasts, funded by grants and in liason with the tv stations. Then it would just be a case of RTE\TV3\TG4 coming in and providing the rest. Would be money well spent for a change and would leave the media with very little excuse regarding not showing games on a weekly basis. Instead of complaining about the lack of media coverage clubs should try and do something about it.

[Éanna]

good article, publicity is always a bonus.

[Stevo Da Gull]

I never see the eL games on TV as I am at games. I think clashing with the rest of the games minimises the audience. Bohs v Drogs is the first I can remember watching in a while.

Next week (Bohs-v- UCD) will be my first League game this season 'cause we play Rovers on Sunday, but Setanta usually repeat their matches so I've seen a few repeated.

I saw an ad on TG4 last night saying that thier will be live football every Friday night starting sometime soon so I suppose that they will be covering the climax of the league campaign unless I heard wrong :confused:

[Slash/ED]

TG4 have the most live games to show alright and have only shown one so far so a lvie game every friday starting soon is definitely possible.

[thecorner]

be honest most fans have every 2nd Friday 'off' .

lots of us travel away as well every 2nd friday

[Éanna]

I saw an ad on TG4 last night saying that thier will be live football every Friday night starting sometime soon so I suppose that they will be covering the climax of the league campaign unless I heard wrong :confused:
yeah, I saw that alright. Good news

[Troy.McClure]

lots of us travel away as well every 2nd friday
City have about 100 at each away game, that leaves about 3000 who dont.

[superfrank]

Friday is the only night for Irish football. Saturday is English football and Sunday is GAA, whether we like it or not.

With four channels (RTE2, TV3, TG4 and Setanta) there should be a live game every week for what is undoubtedly the most popular sport here. It would also help with the "every 2nd Friday off" problem mentioned earlier. Those who don't go to away matches can watch the League on the telly.

Today I saw athletics on the telly. :confused: How can there be a demand for that?

[pete]

I think Monday is good option for some live tv games as can't people probably more likely to stay in for Monday after the weekend. Can't think of much sports competition either.

The FAI can't hold RTE to randsom too much but should at least be able to prevent RTE from almost banning eL live football when the GAA season on.

[rerun]

I think Monday is good option for some live tv games as can't people probably more likely to stay in for Monday after the weekend. Can't think of much sports competition either.
...obviously excluding live Premiership match on Sky on Monday nights...

[Macy]

Or clubs could buy their own professional cameras and rig their grounds up permenantly for tv broadcasts, funded by grants and in liason with the tv stations. Then it would just be a case of RTE\TV3\TG4 coming in and providing the rest. Would be money well spent for a change and would leave the media with very little excuse regarding not showing games on a weekly basis. Instead of complaining about the lack of media coverage clubs should try and do something about it.
If the clubs do that, then the eircom league should just launch it's own TV station, Free To Air on Satellite. If we're just going to supply TV companies footage to make money off us, we might as well do it ourselves. Pay for an EPG number and uplink, get the advertising revenue ourselves. Free To Air wouldn't need a sky box either, and the clubs could dictate the coverage themselves, and sell on the footage to the terrestrial channels.

However, the FAI should just have a decent highlights package covering all games at a reasonable hour as a deal breaker for the next international contract. There should be no excuses - say 7.30pm on a Monday.

Setanta is shown as some kind of victory - it's a irish sports station desperate for sports to cover during the summer and we act like they're doing us a favour with the eL coverage....

[pete]

Setanta is shown as some kind of victory - it's a irish sports station desperate for sports to cover during the summer and we act like they're doing us a favour with the eL coverage....

Setanta is good for now but they'll drop the eL as quick as they find something else to show. I'd be surprised if anymore Setanta eL games when the SPL starts again.

The Multi-channel tv deal probably works ok as different stations want to show eL at different times of the year.

[superfrank]

I never thought there'd be a demand for Rangers games over here. I understand the demand for ****** games because we live in a country full of stupid people.

The one thing bout the eL coverage on Setanta is they show the same match three times over the weekend so if you miss it, you get another chance to sse it.

[Schumi]

I think Monday is good option for some live tv games as can't people probably more likely to stay in for Monday after the weekend. Can't think of much sports competition either.
Wouldn't fancy Monday night long distance away games though!

[Macy]

Wouldn't fancy Monday night long distance away games though!
All the games would be from Tolka, so wouldn't be an issue for you.

[Schumi]

True, hadn't thought of that. :D

[SRFC Head]

The live games are certainly important, but what I think is needed is a better weekly magazine show, tv3 are the only station doing one and it is late night, what is needed is a saturday afternoon show like football focus which would show the goals, interviews with managers/players, focus on as a different team every week, news etc..

That would go a long way to getting the young people interested in the game, instead of always looking to england for 'their team'.

[pete]

TV3 could easily improve eL weekly with player/club focus if they werren't too lazy.

[student]

I reckon Setanta and the EL could be a match made in heaven.

Setanta need the EL as much as the EL needs regular television coverage. All they seem to show is repeats. Also there isnt much other live sport to show on a friday night.

Setanta need something to capture the Irish market, and they aren't going to do that by just showing Scottish Football (they cant show ****** every week), GAA highlights and some crappy boxing matches.

[gypsyfella]

I never thought there'd be a demand for Rangers games over here. I understand the demand for ****** games because we live in a country full of stupid people.


it's quotes like your idiocy above that make people stay away from the league. button it would you and stop embarrassing yourself.

as for this 'censorship' on the site - whata ****ing joke.

when only just over 1000 people bother to attend a Shels game then you can understand why people arent in a rush to televise it... id wager the viewing figures are generally very small on rte's live games or setanta...

[gypsyfella]

I reckon Setanta and the EL could be a match made in heaven.
Setanta need the EL as much as the EL needs regular television coverage. All they seem to show is repeats. Also there isnt much other live sport to show on a friday night.
Setanta need something to capture the Irish market, and they aren't going to do that by just showing Scottish Football (they cant show ****** every week), GAA highlights and some crappy boxing matches.

why would the eL be a partner from heaven? small attendances dont mean there's 000's at home waiting to watch it from the comfort of their living room.. id love to see 15,000 in dalymount rather than 5000 watching on tv... that doesnt help much.

as for Scottish Football - id say youd be surprised by the figures setanta have based on the attraction of C-eltic alone. they're a huge pull in the irish market, second prob only to manu (and may some new Pool gloryhunters:) )

[Slash/ED]

i'd wager the viewing figures are generally very small on rte's live games or setanta...

You'd wager wrong so. The games on RTE are usually amoungst the msot watched matches in the country that year iirc.