2026 LOI Season Start Date

[nr637]

The 2026 LOI Season is due to kick-off on Friday February 6th. That is the same weekend as the 6 Nations rugby.
France v Ireland is on Thursday 5th and the other games are on Saturday 7th, all on TV.

Should the start date for the league be changed!
:confused:

[ForeForeToo]

The 2026 LOI Season is due to kick-off on Friday February 6th. That is the same weekend as the 6 Nations rugby.
France v Ireland is on Thursday 5th and the other games are on Saturday 7th, all on TV.

Should the start date for the league be changed!
:confused:

No pandering to egg chasing.

[2 Year Contract]

The 2026 LOI Season is due to kick-off on Friday February 6th. That is the same weekend as the 6 Nations rugby.
France v Ireland is on Thursday 5th and the other games are on Saturday 7th, all on TV.

Should the start date for the league be changed!
:confused:

I’d genuinely be interested to hear your logic on this one as it’s a completely ridiculous suggestion.

The rugby games being played in Italy, France and England are the day before or after the Friday night's opening day league fixtures. Seen as the 6 nations rugby will be on every weekend up to March, are you suggesting we postpone the league start until it finishes incase people would rather not attend a league of Ireland match so that they can watch a rugby match the day after?

[Nah Nah Nah Nah]

Even for here that’s one of the most ridiculous threads I’ve seen started

[TVFBLOCKF]

The 2026 LOI Season is due to kick-off on Friday February 6th. That is the same weekend as the 6 Nations rugby.
France v Ireland is on Thursday 5th and the other games are on Saturday 7th, all on TV.

Should the start date for the league be changed!
:confused:

Baffling suggestion! With that logic, we should just wait until the 6 nations is over.

[Longfordian]

There'll be Premier League games on until May. Then the World Cup is on. Best call the whole thing off.

[Nesta99]

Ah here cut the OP a break. ItS the off season, withdrawal from LoI hits us all. So yeah its not something we should consider is scheduling a league start based on another sport's schedule for that weekend. We need to have confidence in our own product. There will be less column inches in the sports pages as a result but I doubt it will have a significant impact on attendances, flipping Liverpool v Man Utd is more likely to knock number off if there was a clash with that fixture. It does mean a season launch at the national stadium wasnt possible but maybe we should be looking at part of the St Patricks weekend festival to have a double header in the Aviva or something, be it a derby day for all across the country with the Dublin one in the biggest ground, Pats Shels, Bohs Rovers, Cork and Cobh at a bigger neutral ground if there is one in Cork thats not PUiC.

[De Town]

Ya gotta hand it to nr637 - one of the best WUMs around here in years.

Almost every post winds me up. Fair play.

[Nesta99]

Well Nigel's agenda was more amusing. Oozing resentment of Dundalk's promotion, its entertaining rather than being effective wum. Is it worse than Rovers membership scheme is lazy fundraising, or lucky cub for having a council hand a stadium over, or Bohs primary function is no longer football, or Cork Foras failing at the only thing it was their job to do etc. Pops at Dundalk owneship are par for the course that you cant really get too wound up by facts. Jeex even Drogheda favourites for relegation ruffled a few Drogs. He is new to LoI i think, apprentice level wind up merchant!

Longford should drop in to junior ball for a season or 3 to get the money together for the new wall rather than getting the begging bowl out. Make a comeback in the third tier, in decline for 20 years after brief spell not stagnant bottom of the heap. Offer less than UCD to the league!!

[Buckett]

I've had a run-in with him once or twice and say what you like but you can't knock his enthusiasm in fairness.

Another 20 years watching Cobh(?) and he'll be as cynical as the rest of us!

[sbgawa]

Well Nigel's agenda was more amusing. Oozing resentment of Dundalk's promotion, its entertaining rather than being effective wum. Is it worse than Rovers membership scheme is lazy fundraising, or lucky cub for having a council hand a stadium over, or Bohs primary function is no longer football, or Cork Foras failing at the only thing it was their job to do etc. Pops at Dundalk owneship are par for the course that you cant really get too wound up by facts. Jeex even Drogheda favourites for relegation ruffled a few Drogs. He is new to LoI i think, apprentice level wind up merchant!

Longford should drop in to junior ball for a season or 3 to get the money together for the new wall rather than getting the begging bowl out. Make a comeback in the third tier, in decline for 20 years after brief spell not stagnant bottom of the heap. Offer less than UCD to the league!!

Jaysus thats fighting talk there

[nr637]

Even for here that’s one of the most ridiculous threads I’ve seen started

Your welcome m8, thanks for joining, reading and posting too!

[nr637]

Ya gotta hand it to nr637 - one of the best WUMs around here in years.

Almost every post winds me up. Fair play.

Happy to make you happy m8!

[nr637]

Ya gotta hand it to nr637 - one of the best WUMs around here in years.

Almost every post winds me up. Fair play.

It doesn't take much so!

[legendz]

A Sunday evening game in Tallaght wasn't ideal for Kerry supporters. Granted it was a semi final and falls into the event junkie category. A big crowd travelled.
Lol should rightly do it's own thing and get on with it. Friday nights are established, with a few clubs preferring Saturday evening home games.
One thing missing is a standalone slot for the standout game of the weekend.
People often put out reasons of other events for not going with a standalone game on a Saturday or Sunday.
1. Should LoI move on from letting other events sway it from having a standalone fixture, if they are?
2. It is often suggested that moving a game from a Friday can hit gate receipts. Can looking to establish a standalone fixture be something of an investment? The hit on gate receipts being something of an investment for the long term.

[nigel-harps1954]

Need to remind people, attack the post, not the poster.

[Shinkicker]

The 2026 LOI Season is due to kick-off on Friday February 6th. That is the same weekend as the 6 Nations rugby.
France v Ireland is on Thursday 5th and the other games are on Saturday 7th, all on TV.

Should the start date for the league be changed!
:confused:
It'll not bother Bohs, we'll be playing Pats on the Sunday!!

[Nesta99]

Jaysus thats fighting talk there

The only reason I picked Longford was I completely forgot about Harps....

[culloty82]

A Sunday evening game in Tallaght wasn't ideal for Kerry supporters. Granted it was a semi final and falls into the event junkie category. A big crowd travelled.
Lol should rightly do it's own thing and get on with it. Friday nights are established, with a few clubs preferring Saturday evening home games.
One thing missing is a standalone slot for the standout game of the weekend.
People often put out reasons of other events for not going with a standalone game on a Saturday or Sunday.
1. Should LoI move on from letting other events sway it from having a standalone fixture, if they are?
2. It is often suggested that moving a game from a Friday can hit gate receipts. Can looking to establish a standalone fixture be something of an investment? The hit on gate receipts being something of an investment for the long term.

It's become somewhat of a tradition for both Longford and Sligo to have home games on a Saturday, but does this make much difference to their gates compared with the rare occasions on which they have to play on a Friday?

[Martinho II]

It's become somewhat of a tradition for both Longford and Sligo to have home games on a Saturday, but does this make much difference to their gates compared with the rare occasions on which they have to play on a Friday?

I know with us Culloty that even if game was switched to a friday it wont even effect the attendance size. Winter football was the death bed for us as we had the highest home attendances in our history in 2000/01 season when we were top flight in first season back but season after crowds size dramatically dropped and hasnt recovered since!

[legendz]

The 2026 LOI Season is due to kick-off on Friday February 6th. That is the same weekend as the 6 Nations rugby.
France v Ireland is on Thursday 5th and the other games are on Saturday 7th, all on TV.

Should the start date for the league be changed!
:confused:
When the league was starting in March a few years back after an excessively long off season, I would have agreed with bringing it forward a few weeks to February at least. A gap week in the 6N would have suited purely for media coverage in the lead up to the opening weekend.

The league has moved on from that, which is great. The league now needs to be plotting its own course. Early February kick off is great. Off season shortened by a month from the March start from years ago.

[Nah Nah Nah Nah]

It's become somewhat of a tradition for both Longford and Sligo to have home games on a Saturday, but does this make much difference to their gates compared with the rare occasions on which they have to play on a Friday?

In general I’d say 15-20% for us. Friday nights unfortunately are not rare.

[Neish]

It's become somewhat of a tradition for both Longford and Sligo to have home games on a Saturday, but does this make much difference to their gates compared with the rare occasions on which they have to play on a Friday?

Harps tried Saturdays nights for one or two season, no significant increase in attendances was noticed. And I think players, staff & match day volunteers (most of who will be working mon-fri) prefer the Friday night games as they then have Saturday night free