Attendances 2023

[nigel-harps1954]

Barely looked to be 300 at Longford v Harps with a very disappointing ~30 Harps fans, probably not helped by the change from Saturday to Friday for the trip to Longford.


Shamrock Rovers v UCD - 5,782
Cork v Dundalk - 3,815
Drogheda v Pats - 1,888

Kerry v Athlone - 480

[EatYerGreens]

Kerry v Athlone - 480

That's a big drop off at Mounthawk. Presumably very few away fans, but still low versus what they were getting just a few games ago. I hope the people of Tralee/Kerry aren't tiring of either a team that is struggling in its first year at senior level and/or the oft-times drudgery of watching a club across a whole season.

[joey B]

606 at Longford/Harps

[Shearer]

Barely looked to be 300 at Longford v Harps


606 at Longford/Harps

I got a laugh out of this

[sbgawa]

I got a laugh out of this

Joey on the pints early , seeing double

[nigel-harps1954]

606 at Longford/Harps


https://i.imgur.com/ty3lUF1.png
https://imgur.com/ty3lUF1

https://i.imgur.com/E187EJP.png

[legendz]

That's a big drop off at Mounthawk. Presumably very few away fans, but still low versus what they were getting just a few games ago. I hope the people of Tralee/Kerry aren't tiring of either a team that is struggling in its first year at senior level and/or the oft-times drudgery of watching a club across a whole season.I thought there was more and the commentators had said the crowd was up on Monday. The lowest figure for the season will be the base support that can attend games regularly. Some people will tire of a struggling team. Others will tire of the marathon. Just the way it is.
The KDL has 40 or so clubs. Kerry have been building through the youth leagues since 2016. The foundations should be there for sustainable support long-term.

[Martinho II]

No way was there 606 ppl at Bishopsgate!

[Philosophizer]

No way was there 606 ppl at Bishopsgate!
That’s 300~ estimate looks more realistic all right.
Maybe they’re doing the old JD trick of counting the players, staff, medical personnel etc ?

[nr637]

Maybe it was 306 at Bishopsgate! :confused:

[outspoken]

Maybe it was 306 at Bishopsgate! :confused:

At a very maximum.

[nigel-harps1954]

At a very maximum.

Can only presume it counts season tickets not shown up? Even the first game between Harps and Longford in Bishopsgate seemed a highly overinflated attendance figure earlier in the season, and you'd wonder what's the benefit in doing this?

[outspoken]

Can only presume it counts season tickets not shown up? Even the first game between Harps and Longford in Bishopsgate seemed a highly overinflated attendance figure earlier in the season, and you'd wonder what's the benefit in doing this?

Doubt it as we scan tickets these days. No idea how that figure was inputted

[blueblood]

Can only presume it counts season tickets not shown up? Even the first game between Harps and Longford in Bishopsgate seemed a highly overinflated attendance figure earlier in the season, and you'd wonder what's the benefit in doing this?
Same carry on at Treaty. Mondays crowd v Wexford given as 453, Friday v Cobh there was definitely less than the Wexford game but crowd given as 581, must have been only around 300 being realistic.

[nigel-harps1954]

Anyway, all the weekends 'official' attendances ;)

Shamrock Rovers v UCD - 5,782
Cork City v Dundalk - 3,815
Derry City v Bohemians - 3,274
Shelbourne v Sligo Rovers - 2,615
Drogheda United v St Pat's - 1,888

Waterford v Bray Wanderers - 1,784
Wexford v Galway United - 616
Longford Town v Finn Harps - 606
Treaty United v Cobh Ramblers - 581
Kerry v Athlone Town - 480

TOTAL: 21,441

[nigel-harps1954]

Taking us up to the mid-season break: (Missing Bohs v Sligo 2nd June)

Worth noting, time of the year, everyone except for UCD, have seen a drop in their averages in the Premier Division, while only Bray and Athlone saw any marginal increase in the First Division. To be expected during the summer months.


PREMIER DIVISION

Bohs - 4,264 (3,209 {2022};2,878{19}; 2,148; 2,006; 1,627; 1,724; 1,395; 1,597; 1,496; 1,488)
Cork - 4,119 (3,517 FD; 2,505; 4,245; 4,559; 2,533; 3,263; 3,777; 1,965; 2,786; 2,128 FD)
Derry - 3,493 (3,184; 2,049; 2,297; 1,517; 1,563; 1,124; 1,106; 1,446; 1,460; 2,135)
Drogheda - 1,896 (1,941; 721 FD; ; 377 FD; 850; 583 FD; 813; 1,064; 817; 977; 811)
Dundalk - 2,744 (2,689; 2,775; 2,738; 2,674; 2,738; 3,158; 2,534; 1,997; 949; 1,355)
Pat's - 4,315 (3,489; 1,919; 1,621; 1,504; 1,088; 1,321; 1,386; 1,687; 1,474; 1,346)
Rovers - 6,028 (5,379; 3,384; 2,749; 2,809; 2,041; 2,890; 2,269; 2,763; 3,127; 3,779)
Shels - 3,096 (2,913; 1,071 FD; 654 FD; 496 FD; 554 FD; 596 FD; 713 FD; 1,114; 1,187; 781 FD)
Sligo - 2,899 (2,166; 1,995; 1,853; 1,717; 1,750; 1,750; 1,959; 2,342; 3,007; 2,103)
UCD - 908 (953; 739; 365 FD; 236 FD; 297 FD; 216 FD; 397; 487; 506; 558; 610)

FIRST DIVISION

Athlone - 838 (307; 382; 130; 154; 156; 314; 653 PD; 754; 271; 200)
Bray - 798 (482; 773; 643 PD; 966 PD; 957 PD; 769 PD; 718 PD; 891 PD; 965 PD; 1,121 PD)
Cobh - 1,134 (872; 268; 236; 358; 403; 366; 223; 439; 2008 - 1,122 PD; 681)
Galway - 2,254 (2,081; 780; 746; 1,376 PD; 1,169 PD; 1,290 PD; 975)
Harps - 1,411 (1,293 PD; 1,154 PD; 708; 1,202 PD; 1,216 PD; 784; 449; 479; 429; 433; 644)
Kerry - 939 (No previous)
Longford - 697 (500; 610; 449; 342; 488 PD; 803 PD; 567; 379; 365; 315)
Treaty - 708 (695)
Waterford - 2,118 (1,705; 1,496 PD; 2,329 PD; 1,550; 314; 460; 470; 478; 453; 466)
Wexford - 730 (445; 235; 181; 338; 585 PD; 553; 331; 227; 302; 216)

PREMIER AVERAGE: 3,432 (2,687; 2,185; 2,170; 1,902; 1,476; 1,681; 1,502; 1,566; 1,630; 1,547)
FIRST DIVISION AVERAGE: 1,156 (1,193; 586; 413; 477; 476; 486; 495; 391; 372; 578)

OVERALL AVERAGE: 2,334 (2,051; 1,500; 1,249; 1,387; 1,117; 1,249; 1,160; 1,140; 1,125; 1,110)


OVERALL PREMIER ATTENDANCE: 350,060 (486,365; 393,238; 316,515; 376,627; 292,204; 332,805; 297,334)
OVERALL FIRST ATTENDANCE: 109,828 (178,000; 79,115; 55,756; 53,461; 52,807; 54,474; 55,408)

OVERALL COMBINED ATTENDANCE: 459,888 (664,365; 472,353; 372,271; 430,088; 345,011; 387,279; 352,742)

[Shearer]

Same carry on at Treaty. Mondays crowd v Wexford given as 453, Friday v Cobh there was definitely less than the Wexford game but crowd given as 581, must have been only around 300 being realistic.
Ah would you stop, take off the tinfoil hat ffs. Crowd would never be down on a Friday from the prior Monday anyway.

[Nah Nah Nah Nah]

4,147 for our game against Bohs

[blueblood]

Ah would you stop, take off the tinfoil hat ffs. Crowd would never be down on a Friday from the prior Monday anyway.

OK thanks, it was definitely a mirage so.

[cláirseach]

Women's Premier attendance record broken on consecutive weekends, which is an unlikely occurence on paper but two well promoted games with great outreach to local clubs (Rovers) and to their own underage setup (Bohs) in the run up to the WWC was a perfect storm really. I'd say it will fall again before the season is out.

[2 Year Contract]

Article on attendance stats so far this season vs last season.

https://leagueofireland.ie/news/attendances-increase-23-in-sse-airtricity-mens-premier-division/id-4925

Dundalk, Finn Harps and Treaty United the only 3 that have seen a decrease in crowds. Athlone with the biggest increase, an incredible 135%.

First time I’ve seen figures on the women’s LOI too, shamrock rovers women’s leading with an average of 759, higher than the men’s teams of Wexford, Treaty United and Longford

[joey B]

Article on attendance stats so far this season vs last season.

https://leagueofireland.ie/news/attendances-increase-23-in-sse-airtricity-mens-premier-division/id-4925

Dundalk, Finn Harps and Treaty United the only 3 that have seen a decrease in crowds. Athlone with the biggest increase, an incredible 135%.

First time I’ve seen figures on the women’s LOI too, shamrock rovers women’s leading with an average of 759, higher than the men’s teams of Wexford, Treaty United and Longford


Considering the lack of away supporters and the form ,Harps attendances are actually very decent despite the decrease on paper….

[pineapple stu]

Another weird one is that two recent UCD games (v Bohs and Rovers) were deemed sell-outs despite having about 600 less at them (combined between the two games) than the equivalent last year. Not sure why that was, but if those two crowds were at the same level of last season we'd be up around 11%, not 4%.

It's genuinely amazing that 697 is the lowest average of anyone on that list.

[nigel-harps1954]

My annoyance with that list is that I'm going to have to go through FAI Connect one by one of each match and double check their attendance figures with mine. Someone has lied, and I'm not happy. Although, their average for Harps on that link is different to mine, and I know mine is correct as they come from the ticket scanners.
I can only presume their 1,401 is a misprint compared to my 1,411.

[JC_GUFC]

I’m surprised the Galway United’s women’s attendances have decreased.

I haven’t seen figures, or been to a match, but I know some of the Maroon Army lads have been going along this season and with others connected I’d have assumed our crowds would have risen from Galway WFC.

[2 Year Contract]

Considering the lack of away supporters and the form ,Harps attendances are actually very decent despite the decrease on paper….
Agree with you there. Of the three clubs to have a decrease, Harps have the most explainable reason for a drop off with the relegation and some arguably worse performances (reportedly) in the FD this year compared to last year in the PD. Even so, for the attendances to only drop by circa 100 amidst all that isn’t too bad all things considered

[oriel]

A big factor in the Dublin clubs with lesser extent to UCD, is up top 1k, possibly 1500 away fans are going to the derby games, this is boosting figures at Shels and Pats mostly, and probably Rovers, Bohs are at capacity for most games so are fairly consistent.

Now Shels and Bohs are still posting decent home crowds, and fair play, but they will still be getting 1k away fans up to 6 times a year with the upturn in LOI interest, especially in the capital.

Dundalk's may be down a little, but even during SK era and 3 leagues in a row, we only got 4k+ on rare occasions, 3-3.5k big games, but often just below 3k.

[EatYerGreens]

A big factor in the Dublin clubs with lesser extent to UCD, is up top 1k, possibly 1500 away fans are going to the derby games, this is boosting figures at Shels and Pats mostly, and probably Rovers, Bohs are at capacity for most games so are fairly consistent.

Now Shels and Bohs are still posting decent home crowds, and fair play, but they will still be getting 1k away fans up to 6 times a year with the upturn in LOI interest, especially in the capital.

Dundalk's may be down a little, but even during SK era and 3 leagues in a row, we only got 4k+ on rare occasions, 3-3.5k big games, but often just below 3k.

Important to remember that Dundalk only contains 35,000 people, and have Drogheda United less than half an hour away in a slightly bigger town. So they do fairly well for crowds, alll considered.

[oriel]

The biggest I can recall at a domestic game in Dundalk was last match of 2014, winner takes all (or a draw for Cork), 5,500 crammed in, figs never released due to H+S, Cork City took just under 1k.

(We got 6k for winning the league in 76 from reading back and domestic record of 12k was v Rovers 1967 shield final)

Mental to think 22k were at Celtic in 79, 18k v Spurs 81 and 16.5k v Liverpool 82, the Spurs and Liverpool games both had temporary wooden planks probably 5 deep all along the stand side, they moved dugouts to shed side.

UEFA obv had zero or very little safety standards those days.

[placid casual]

But the relative size of dundalk is irrelevant to the discussion.
Why are dundalk the only team getting less fans than last year?
My own guess on that is that these dundalk fans thought the "kenny era" was the norm for dundalk and not the exception. Considering you had a relatively decent season last year (qualifying for europe) one wonders if something else is the reason for the slight decline in numbers.

[EatYerGreens]

But the relative size of dundalk is irrelevant to the discussion.
Why are dundalk the only team getting less fans than last year?
My own guess on that is that these dundalk fans thought the "kenny era" was the norm for dundalk and not the exception. Considering you had a relatively decent season last year (qualifying for europe) one wonders if something else is the reason for the slight decline in numbers.

It's relevant to the point I responded to though :cool: Which is the limit to the number of fans that Dundalk seem able to attract.

[dundalkfc10]

Louth GAA play all their league fixtures on a Friday night this year and it's being played since March and with 5 GAA teams in the town and one in every parish just outside the town definitely impacts the attendances. I know lads who play gaelic who would be at Oriel every night there was no GAA on

[RealJohn91]

A big factor in the Dublin clubs with lesser extent to UCD, is up top 1k, possibly 1500 away fans are going to the derby games, this is boosting figures at Shels and Pats mostly, and probably Rovers, Bohs are at capacity for most games so are fairly consistent.

Now Shels and Bohs are still posting decent home crowds, and fair play, but they will still be getting 1k away fans up to 6 times a year with the upturn in LOI interest, especially in the capital.

Dundalk's may be down a little, but even during SK era and 3 leagues in a row, we only got 4k+ on rare occasions, 3-3.5k big games, but often just below 3k.
Bohs have a maximum of 450 away fans this season

[culloty82]

304 in attendance at UCD.

[2 Year Contract]

4754 at Pats Shels in Inchicore. The usual home end sellout with around 700 away fans

https://twitter.com/stpatsfc/status/1672531412413562883?s=46

[nigel-harps1954]

1,004 in Finn Park.

[sbgawa]

1,004 in Finn Park.

You said there would be under 1000 , not like you to be so out of touch with whats happening in Harps..

[Candystripe]

Brandywell sold out as usual but definitely loads of season ticket holders not there. 3,400 est.

[nigel-harps1954]

You said there would be under 1000 , not like you to be so out of touch with whats happening in Harps..

I have let everyone down and need to apologise.


Brandywell sold out as usual but definitely loads of season ticket holders not there. 3,400 est.

3,274 given on FAI Connect.

[Candystripe]

I have let everyone down and need to apologise.



3,274 given on FAI Connect.

I was near enough Nigel. If we keep playing like we did in the first half it'll drop below, 3000 during the summer. A terrible 1st half of football.

[ger121]

I was near enough Nigel. If we keep playing like we did in the first half it'll drop below, 3000 during the summer. A terrible 1st half of football.

Still not playing well? From the outside it would have looked like a routine home win.

[nr637]

I was near enough Nigel. If we keep playing like we did in the first half it'll drop below, 3000 during the summer. A terrible 1st half of football.

The covered all seated stand on the east side had a lot of empty seats. It's capacity is approx. 2,500+ and it looked as if 1,500+ were in attendance!

[nr637]

You said there would be under 1000 , not like you to be so out of touch with whats happening in Harps..

At least it was more than my expectation of 999, if it went under the 1,000 mark!

[nr637]

304 in attendance at UCD.

There was at least 4 Sligo Rovers flags on display, maybe only 4 away fans as well! :confused:

Well all the College students are gone now as the Campus shuts down generally at this time!

[Candystripe]

The covered all seated stand on the east side had a lot of empty seats. It's capacity is approx. 2,500+ and it looked as if 1,500+ were in attendance!

Remember Derry started selling terrace tickets this season for either side of the Mark Farren stand. Unless you've a Southend stand ticket you can't get past the gate to get access to it. They only started doing that 4 weeks ago.

[Nesta99]

But the relative size of dundalk is irrelevant to the discussion.
Why are dundalk the only team getting less fans than last year?
My own guess on that is that these dundalk fans thought the "kenny era" was the norm for dundalk and not the exception. Considering you had a relatively decent season last year (qualifying for europe) one wonders if something else is the reason for the slight decline in numbers.

Its not irrelevant but there is definitely a tendency to overestimate a fanbase and what expectations are. I would say that Dundalk FC have a solid/consistant fanbase of about 2500. To get over 3k regularly a good away crowd is needed. A bumper crowd over 3.5-4k needs to have a side that is competing for the league, against a fellow rival or a big cup tie. A sellout circa 5k would be a winner takes all last night of the season or a cup semi depending on opposition.

The reasons for not having a bigger average attendance are pretty obvious and done to death, ranging from facilities, weather, holidays, current cost of living pressures maybe even LoITV, (of course other clubs also have some or all of these issues too) and clashing with other events - mainly Horse/Dog racing at Dundalk Stadium to the mentioned GAA scheduling, which has been deliberate and targeted ie GAA fixtures between 2 larger Dundalk sides on the same night as a 'Cat A' game in Oriel and similar but to a lesser extent United Park. This isnt a paranoid anti GAA assumption but a genuine openly spoken about issue. When Louth GAA open their new stadium and can play actual home games rather than having to go to Navan eg its already planned to play inter-county league games on the same night. Championship games are scheduled by Croke Park but there will still be some local push to be the Friday night game. As Louth seem to be improving rather than being a basketcase for 40 odd yeays its is an issue of concern for Dundalk and Drogheda United. It will be necessary to counter this with planning fixtures with the FAI either by moving matchnight like S Rovers or looking at the 2 sports home and away sechedules. Local games I cant see much to be done, as Louth GAA have set targets for their own attendance growth to help pay for the County Ground and theyve had green eyes the the potential crowds, seen at LoI games in the 2 towns over the years. Its now less a soccer v GAA thing and more a pragmatic 'we have to come up with new income for this new and now €25million costing stadium (and growing). The County Board and Fitzer may yet rue campaigning against the proposed, costed and Dept of Sport accepted groundshare at/with DkIT!!

Then theres the very Irish bandwagoner who will follow the success rather than their passion for a club or county. LoI fans do seem to like to turn attendances in to some sort of p1ssing match as if it was worth actual league points and I think PC with your stated love for Dundalk FC you are falling in to this puddle of pish - The Kenny Era was over 2018 and the Bradley era and your current norm will end one day also so not sure what that point is? Stats on % of population attendances at games suggest that LoI punches quite well relatively in general as does Dundalk. Averages could and maybe should be better though so we, as a club, should be looking at what can be done and mitigate the plethora of excuses made by the floating fan that is not just the Oriel is a kip laziness. There are probably more pressing issues the club needs to deal with but Id like to see a real push on season tickets during the close season, Id even go as far as employig people to go door to door, look at instalment based payments, and see if there is anything else that could be offered as a season ticket holder bar the overall reduced cost in to games - many people may have €15 a week to go to games but not the guts of €200 in one go and during the expensive christmas period. Are there half season tickets on sale now for example? The very patchy form isnt a help of course, even when winning its a tough watch at the moment and a subsequent drop in crowd does show a fickle side to the Dundalk fanbase. Its hard to break the cycle of a team not inspiring crowds yet the crowds are needed to resource the better calibre of player. The club have been very open about this transition phase, rebuilding, and trying to balance things with qualifying for Europe. Yr1 achieved, great chance to maximise that income with a favourable draw, Yr2 is anyones guess with the way the league is this season but if its success then Yr3 the chips will be down for the squad to get the crowds enthused again!

[Abbeyman]

Very interesting post- As someone who worked in Louth over the years unlike many other provincal towns I would always have considered Dundalk & Drogheda staunch soccer towns . In saying that Dundalk in particular used baffle me with the amount of GAA clubs in the town 6 or 7 from recollection compared to a staunch gaelic football town like Tralee with only 4 or Portlaoise with only 1 gaa club. The one other thing about Dundalk was those coming into the town for work or college came from big GAA areas like Mid Louth, Monaghan & Armagh so we ended up talking more about football than soccer often in the workplace we were in . The Gaelic top 2 league divisions in Louth were also more competitive & well ran than i expected and they used play fri or sat evening to avoid junior soccer on sundays when i was there.With regard to fixtures clashing , there seems to be 3 good times to draw a crowd or play a match , fri evening, sat evening or Sunday but with TV games sundays are used less & Less by all sports so fri & Sat evening only 2 runners for all to play games.
It varies across the country what sports are strongest , in Limerick where i live both Treaty FC & Limerick Footballers struggle to get a 1,000 supporters where as the Hurlers & Munster rugby are massive operations in comparison & could pull anything from 10,000 to 40,000 supporters depending on competition stages, be thankful Rugby & Hurling arent big in Louth !

[EatYerGreens]

Very interesting post- As someone who worked in Louth over the years unlike many other provincal towns I would always have considered Dundalk & Drogheda staunch soccer towns . In saying that Dundalk in particular used baffle me with the amount of GAA clubs in the town 6 or 7 from recollection compared to a staunch gaelic football town like Tralee with only 4 or Portlaoise with only 1 gaa club. The one other thing about Dundalk was those coming into the town for work or college came from big GAA areas like Mid Louth, Monaghan & Armagh so we ended up talking more about football than soccer often in the workplace we were in . The Gaelic top 2 league divisions in Louth were also more competitive & well ran than i expected and they used play fri or sat evening to avoid junior soccer on sundays when i was there.With regard to fixtures clashing , there seems to be 3 good times to draw a crowd or play a match , fri evening, sat evening or Sunday but with TV games sundays are used less & Less by all sports so fri & Sat evening only 2 runners for all to play games.
It varies across the country what sports are strongest , in Limerick where i live both Treaty FC & Limerick Footballers struggle to get a 1,000 supporters where as the Hurlers & Munster rugby are massive operations in comparison & could pull anything from 10,000 to 40,000 supporters depending on competition stages, be thankful Rugby & Hurling arent big in Louth !

Don't forget that Dundak is one a half times bigger than either Tralee or Portlaoise. And Drogheda is a decent big bigger again.

[Nesta99]

Don't forget that Dundak is one a half times bigger than either Tralee or Portlaoise. And Drogheda is a decent big bigger again.

That may be the case but it is true, imo, that there are too many GAA clubs in Dundalk and the county as a whole for its size. Some of the clubs in Dundalk are as a result of fallings out and one club becoming two back in the day. Catchments are strictly divided where one side of a street is one club and the other side another club. Dundalk Gaels looked to sell their ground to Tesco and move to a better purpose built facility but the plan was binned as anywere they could secure as a new home infringed on another clubs catchment area. Most of the clubs are intermediate or junior level in Dundalk itself whiich is due to the diluted talent pool. I dont recall the last Dundalk county champion.

[dundalkfc10]

Its not irrelevant but there is definitely a tendency to overestimate a fanbase and what expectations are. I would say that Dundalk FC have a solid/consistant fanbase of about 2500. To get over 3k regularly a good away crowd is needed. A bumper crowd over 3.5-4k needs to have a side that is competing for the league, against a fellow rival or a big cup tie. A sellout circa 5k would be a winner takes all last night of the season or a cup semi depending on opposition.

The reasons for not having a bigger average attendance are pretty obvious and done to death, ranging from facilities, weather, holidays, current cost of living pressures maybe even LoITV, (of course other clubs also have some or all of these issues too) and clashing with other events - mainly Horse/Dog racing at Dundalk Stadium to the mentioned GAA scheduling, which has been deliberate and targeted ie GAA fixtures between 2 larger Dundalk sides on the same night as a 'Cat A' game in Oriel and similar but to a lesser extent United Park. This isnt a paranoid anti GAA assumption but a genuine openly spoken about issue. When Louth GAA open their new stadium and can play actual home games rather than having to go to Navan eg its already planned to play inter-county league games on the same night. Championship games are scheduled by Croke Park but there will still be some local push to be the Friday night game. As Louth seem to be improving rather than being a basketcase for 40 odd yeays its is an issue of concern for Dundalk and Drogheda United. It will be necessary to counter this with planning fixtures with the FAI either by moving matchnight like S Rovers or looking at the 2 sports home and away sechedules. Local games I cant see much to be done, as Louth GAA have set targets for their own attendance growth to help pay for the County Ground and theyve had green eyes the the potential crowds, seen at LoI games in the 2 towns over the years. Its now less a soccer v GAA thing and more a pragmatic 'we have to come up with new income for this new and now €25million costing stadium (and growing). The County Board and Fitzer may yet rue campaigning against the proposed, costed and Dept of Sport accepted groundshare at/with DkIT!!

Then theres the very Irish bandwagoner who will follow the success rather than their passion for a club or county. LoI fans do seem to like to turn attendances in to some sort of p1ssing match as if it was worth actual league points and I think PC with your stated love for Dundalk FC you are falling in to this puddle of pish - The Kenny Era was over 2018 and the Bradley era and your current norm will end one day also so not sure what that point is? Stats on % of population attendances at games suggest that LoI punches quite well relatively in general as does Dundalk. Averages could and maybe should be better though so we, as a club, should be looking at what can be done and mitigate the plethora of excuses made by the floating fan that is not just the Oriel is a kip laziness. There are probably more pressing issues the club needs to deal with but Id like to see a real push on season tickets during the close season, Id even go as far as employig people to go door to door, look at instalment based payments, and see if there is anything else that could be offered as a season ticket holder bar the overall reduced cost in to games - many people may have €15 a week to go to games but not the guts of €200 in one go and during the expensive christmas period. Are there half season tickets on sale now for example? The very patchy form isnt a help of course, even when winning its a tough watch at the moment and a subsequent drop in crowd does show a fickle side to the Dundalk fanbase. Its hard to break the cycle of a team not inspiring crowds yet the crowds are needed to resource the better calibre of player. The club have been very open about this transition phase, rebuilding, and trying to balance things with qualifying for Europe. Yr1 achieved, great chance to maximise that income with a favourable draw, Yr2 is anyones guess with the way the league is this season but if its success then Yr3 the chips will be down for the squad to get the crowds enthused again!

All the club GAA games in Louth have been moved to Saturday nights over the next few weeks as they are having midweek rounds of games too. Pity we have no games at home other than Rovers to compare attendances with other games as we always get a bumper crowd V Rovers and they usually sell out the away end.