View Full Version : What day should the games be played?
IMO saturday evening bad option is most peoples big night out of the week & football support dress code isn't usually appreciated in bars & clubs.
Now there's a great criterion on which to organise football fixtures. :rolleyes:
Early indications from the poll shows that Saturday nights are going to win hands down. So why do most clubs insist on playing at home on Friday nights?? :confused:
Because thanks be to God, a gang of 14 nerds don't run the eircom League or any of its clubs.
The Stars
06/10/2005, 3:57 PM
Stupid post.We play on a friday because it's when we get our biggest home crowds.With the exception of Sligo no other 1st Division team has brought an away support to terryland,therefore the club will not change the games to allocate for the possibilty that some clubs might bring a handfull of fans.Saturday night would have to be considered if we got promoted because large away supports would definitely travel to galway but i'm not sure would that suit the home fans.If you look at the poll it doesn't look like it.
How is it a stupid post when you have just agreed with me in regaurds to saturday nights???:confused:
Block G Raptor
06/10/2005, 3:58 PM
Saturday afternoon wud be ok i suppose frm a selfish p.o.v. coz I could bring me daughter she's only three and has been to a couple of games at the home of irish footie and luved it (v's Dreamteam and the intertoto game this season)
But I think if it aint broke dont fix it gates are down at the moment and i feel that the wrong decision could bring them down further
the league needs to maket itself better to get people out of the boozers and and into their local clubs changing the day of the game is just papering over the cracks
Conor H
06/10/2005, 4:01 PM
How is it a stupid post when you have just agreed with me in regaurds to saturday nights???:confused:
I agree with Saturday been better in general for the league but your post implied that all clubs should play then.For GUFC Saturday would be ****e!
Drumcondra Red
06/10/2005, 4:06 PM
Its a pain in the hole trying to constently get time off work, Saturday evening would be best imo, plenty of time to travel to away games! As someone posted before, some Rovers fan (Shamrock) Fridays be used for local derbies!
The Stars
06/10/2005, 4:08 PM
Ok,point noted.
BTW i think all clubs should play on the same day,in both divisions and therefore creating more media coverage the next day in the papers.This will sell the Eircom League to the barstoolers,who lets face it will be reading to see what their LOCAL english team had for lunch yesterday and all the other sh!te that tabloids talk.
holidaysong
06/10/2005, 5:48 PM
What a nonsense poll with no Thursday option... Off to Oriel Park in half an hour for my Thursday night football :)
Although given the choice I would pick Friday! :D
sligoman
06/10/2005, 6:00 PM
Off to Oriel Park in half an hour for my Thursday night football :)Ya good luck with that, hopefully you'll come back dissapointed:)
holidaysong
06/10/2005, 6:04 PM
Ya good luck with that, hopefully you'll come back dissapointed:)
I don't think so, you are due a good whipping! :) ;)
Friday night works. Friday brings the crowds. 'Setting a day aside' like some people say is just pie in the sky nonsense. The Eircom League is not developed for that. Friday night is the unique time for football here. Saturday is automatically associated with the Premiership. Sunday GAA/Premiership/La Liga. Who/where else plays on a Friday night that can compete...?
Let's walk before we can run lads. There is an awful lot more important stuff to be changing than the day of the matches in the EL. Fixing it though it's not broken doesn't help and only distracts us from more important stuff.
So what if we can't travel to Derry or Cork or to the Sligs? That's our tough luck - that's the advantage of being at home. Spanish sides play with very little away support - you don't see them changing their match days..
It is not a 'mé féin mentality' either..it is plausible, rational thinking to keep the status quo on at least one or two things in the league. ::) Playing on Saturdays/Sunday evenings is at best an experiment and a potentially costly experiment as some people from Cork might have already said with Dublin teams. It'd just be another mess we'd have to clear up.
Playing late at night is ridiculous. How late do you want to leave it?? What chance of any coverage the day after of a match late at night? What chance of attracting families? Young children would have to be up until the late late hours if you're away and 11ish if you're at home. That's simply not going to happen. This is the mé féin mentality, imo - play it when it suits me and people like me. I won't be able to get to the game then, so change it.
I prefer Sunday afternoon matches, but I know Friday works. So that's when it should be on. All matches should be on at the same time, imo. We can then get a concentrated amount of people going the same day, the same time. It creates impetus in the media the next day - plenty of stories rather a game with a 1,000 played one night, a game with 1.5k the next and a game between Dundalk and Monaghan played in front of three dogs and four sweet wrappers and a steward the next. Where is the incentive to report those games?
The most important thing is: Let's try and build the EL on foundations...stop moving the goalposts. This needs to be changed; that needs to be changed etc. We can't change everything just to experiment with something else untested.
Battery Rover
06/10/2005, 8:57 PM
Saturday night. Makes it a lot easier for travelling
Total agreement with that
Because thanks be to God, a gang of 14 nerds don't run the eircom League or any of its clubs.
Are you sure they couldn't do a better job? :confused: :D
Are you sure they couldn't do a better job? :confused: :D
I could think of a few clubs where they could! :(
Very selfish point of view - saturday afternoons at 5 - give plenty of time for pre match boozing and post match boozing :) .
Though seen as we get our best gates friday nights, ill stick to fridays but with a change to 8pm kick offs (might be tough on some away supporters but clubs have to look at maximising their overall gates)
Very selfish point of view - saturday afternoons at 5 - give plenty of time for pre match boozing and post match boozing :) .
Though seen as we get our best gates friday nights, ill stick to fridays but with a change to 8pm kick offs (might be tough on some away supporters but clubs have to look at maximising their overall gates)
Don't see how 15 minutes would make that much of a difference. :confused:
Wiseguy
07/10/2005, 8:55 AM
Don't see how 15 minutes would make that much of a difference. :confused:
It would give the away fans more time to run around Dalymount looking for a fcuking ticket:D
For me i would prefer Saturday night games as you can make a day out of an away trip and have a few pints before hand in comfort.I know that this would suit a lot of my friends aswell instead of the friday ritual of driving the wheels of the car back to Longford to get on a bus and go without a smoke until we arrive at the destination then having to drink 2 pints at once just to get them in.
At the end of the day i will happily go along with whatever is best for the league and that's what's important in all this.
Don't see how 15 minutes would make that much of a difference. :confused:
Sorry might've come across wrong - doent make a difference to crowd attendances- was just making the point that 8pm ko's make a big difference for drogs supporters that travel home from dublin (which is alot), have to sort out the family and then rush up the ground.
For a young single guy like me, it gives me time for an extra pint :)
So it's settled then. Every team will play their home games on Friday night, and their away games on Saturday evening. Flawless.
It would give the away fans more time to run around Dalymount looking for a fcuking ticket:D
:D :D :D
So it's settled then. Every team will play their home games on Friday night, and their away games on Saturday evening. Flawless.
The only viable solution.
NY Hoop
07/10/2005, 10:06 AM
So what if we can't travel to Derry or Cork or to the Sligs? That's our tough luck - that's the advantage of being at home. Spanish sides play with very little away support - you don't see them changing their match days..
There is no tradition of away support in Spain. I've seen a few games out there and you could hear a pin drop when the away side scores so that comparison is meaningless.
It should'nt be our tough luck if we cant travel. Football is a weekend game. I'm all for friday night as long as its derbies. Asking Derry, Cork and Waterford players and fans to travel all day friday to play each other on a friday night just cos it suits the home side is typical of this league. Ask the clubs who play their home games saturday and it has been a success. I know I've seen it.
KOH
bigmac
07/10/2005, 10:24 AM
YOU have no problem making a game in Dublin but what about the regular 9 to 5 joe schmo who cant make it?
My point there was that leaving Waterford at 5 is plenty of time to get to a 7.45 kick off in Dublin, not just me - any other 9 to 5er as well.
No eL games attract enough away support to ensure ko times changed.
Sure Shels send 300 fans to Dalymount which is less than mile away so having ko at 12noon, 3pm, 10pm or any other timne won't make a difference.
mypost
07/10/2005, 1:17 PM
There is no tradition of away support in Spain. I've seen a few games out there and you could hear a pin drop when the away side scores so that comparison is meaningless.
It should'nt be our tough luck if we cant travel. Football is a weekend game. I'm all for friday night as long as its derbies. Asking Derry, Cork and Waterford players and fans to travel all day friday to play each other on a friday night just cos it suits the home side is typical of this league. Ask the clubs who play their home games saturday and it has been a success. I know I've seen it.
The comparison with Spain is pointless, because unlike here, Primera games are sold out every week. Are any NL games sold out??
Personally, I'm against Friday night games, even for derbies. The amount of fans you get in a derby on Fridays is still less than on Saturdays, where early ko's, work commitments, and traffic, all contribute to the poor attendances at derbies on Fridays. Playing on Saturdays makes things easier for everybody, and is better all round.
It would give the away fans more time to run around Dalymount looking for a fcuking ticket:D
The ticket vans are a thing of the past, so no more walking all the way around to the Shed to buy a Stand ticket anymore. :)
The Spanish away fans comparison is also pointless because
A) It's a country about 5 times the size of ours
B) Bus and rail costs are around the same price as here in a country with much lower wage levels / higher unemployment
C) Stadia are massively bigger that here; hence hearing the pin drop.
D) Not ALL Spanish games have poor away support. Many fixtures attract lots of away fans, usually fixtures between teams based close to each other.
Imagine you are a Celta Vigo fan. Tell me how you would get to a Mallorca away game, and how many people you think you make the trip. :rolleyes:
mypost
07/10/2005, 2:03 PM
Imagine you are a Celta Vigo fan. Tell me how you would get to a Mallorca away game,
Well, you'd go there by the Longford travel route: Coach to Madrid, take the train to Valencia, and get the boat to Mallorca!! :D :D Then lose!!
NY Hoop
07/10/2005, 2:34 PM
No probs. My bus is waiting downstairs. I can see it from the balcony of my penthouse suite here in Milltown .................
I can see my tractor from my shed in Carmarthen
KOH
mypost
07/10/2005, 2:51 PM
No probs. My bus is waiting downstairs. I can see it from the balcony of my penthouse suite here in Milltown.
Longford people, living in, and Penthouse suite are not words that you link in the same sentence, I notice. More along the lines of Longford people, living in, and cottage.
Jeez, got kicked out of every ground on this island for thuggery or what?
What?? :confused:
I can see my tractor from my shed in Carmarthen
:D :D
No eL games attract enough away support to ensure ko times changed.
Sure Shels send 300 fans to Dalymount which is less than mile away so having ko at 12noon, 3pm, 10pm or any other timne won't make a difference.
Ah I'm not the only one who sees it...:)
Derry in the FAI cup 1/4 final is the most recent situation that proved to me further that this Saturday night thing is a non-runner. A game on tv, the biggest match of the final stages, the much herladed Saturday night match between the biggest club in the league and Derry unbeaten in 21 matches.....and it couldn't be sold out. The weather is no longer a suitable excuse. I know for a fact there were Rovers' fans who did not go simply because they thought they'd lose and for no other reason.
This, imo, is what determines crowds in the EL. Apart from woeful Shels support regardless, the size of the crowd depends on how well the two teams are doing. Back in Inchicore a few years ago, I remember seeing literally about 6-7 Derry fans following them. On a Friday night. This year on a Friday night, there were *substantially more* in Dalymount. Whether it is a Saturday or Friday or Monday morning, a considerable amount of fans (please note not just Derry :) )follow success, not anything else
A fair proportion of the argument for Saturdays from some people seems to resonate on the the making a day of it and fitting more pints in. We'd never get the league finished then..."when can we play you? Are you able to bring those extra 100 fans if we play you on that day rather than this one?":rolleyes: :D
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