UCD to play on Saturdays at 5:15 [Archive]

pineapple stu

04/03/2006, 8:54 AM

UCD are trying out 5:15pm kick-offs on Saturdays this season. The Pat's game will still be on Friday (Paddy's Day) at 7:45, a decision will be made on the Cork game shortly, but after that, it's 5:15. This will become a permanent fixture depending on what it does to crowds.

sonofstan

04/03/2006, 9:08 AM

pineapple stu

04/03/2006, 9:16 AM

I assume it's to make it easier for away fans to travel and increase the gate. If we can do this without hitting our home support, then it makes sense. I think Saturday 5:15 has been advocated by some here as the best time to maximise crowds.

I don't know the official reasoning behind it though. First I heard was when I was texted about it appearing in the Ireland programme on Wednesday!

sonofstan

04/03/2006, 11:04 AM

resisting the temptation to say 'what home support'? ..... ok I didn't resist it....- I'm in the library in Belfield at the moment, and campus is empty - it seems to me that whatever chance you have of attracting stray students on a Fri. you've none on a saturday - as for away fans, while it might help with Cork/ Derry/ Waterford/ Sligo, for the 4 other Dublin clubs you'll be facing plus Drogheda and Bray, it seem to me it might be counterproductive. I know I'm going to be busy on Fri nights for 8 months of the year and so no one expects me to turn up to anything - Saturday's a different story, with family commitments and what not, I think it could seriously hit numbers from the us, Pats and Shels - that said, I wish all football was on a saturday, but everyone would have to change (back) for it to work

feo123

04/03/2006, 11:23 AM

good! might make it up for the UCD games now its on a saturday!?

Poor Student

04/03/2006, 11:24 AM

Sonofstan, we say this often on the board. The club has given up on the students. For a number of reasons they are utterly apathetic and just can't be drawn in. None of us are over the moon about it but the club didn't bother to consult anyone even though the Irish programme article claims market research is being carried out. It seems simply that the club is copying Leinster as is said in the programme. The target group is local families. Apparently it's worked for Leinster and the club thinks it'll work for us. As you say it'll be convenient for the likes of Cork, Derry and Sligo. It's on a trial period so if it flops then it'll revert back to normal. I personally believe the Dublin games should be left on a Friday.

Dr.Nightdub

04/03/2006, 11:51 AM

I would've thought the Pats game would also be one that UCD would want to move. A 7:45 kick-off for that is bound to affect the crowd as a lot of people are simply gonna be too p1ssed to make the trek out to Belfield.

sonofstan

04/03/2006, 12:13 PM

BTW - and this may have been answered before - are you getting the horrible new college crest, or are you sticking to the old one?

Poor Student

04/03/2006, 12:16 PM

We're getting the new horrible one. The shack will continue to sell stuff with the old one though.

1 9 2 8

04/03/2006, 1:35 PM

Saturday night is the best time for EL games. More away supporters which makes a better atmosphere

Cosmo

04/03/2006, 3:06 PM

Good stuff, 5 hours drinking time before the match - should make the trip up there a bit more bearable :)

sligoman

04/03/2006, 4:04 PM

Yes, this means I'll be able to get to 2 away games this season so. I work til 7 on Friday's so gonna miss a load of away games this season but now I'll be able to get to Longford and UCD after all, god bless Saturday's :D.

Red4Eva

04/03/2006, 4:27 PM

good news for our supporters. if i had to sacrifice a friday away game because of work or sumthin i'd prob miss ucd game over shels, bohs & co. but now i'll defo go to belfield. 5.15 is handy enough too

John83

04/03/2006, 5:11 PM

resisting the temptation to say 'what home support'? ..... ok I didn't resist it....- I'm in the library in Belfield at the moment, and campus is empty - it seems to me that whatever chance you have of attracting stray students on a Fri. you've none on a saturday
We're based in Dublin. It's a city with well over a million people, of whom about 5000 go to eL games. We've got more or less no eL competition for about 1/4 of that city. **** the students - they wouldn't come if it meant skipping lectures on a sunny Tuesday afternoon, and they certainly won't come in the summer.

Student Mullet

05/03/2006, 12:15 AM

I agree with the move but making the decision this close to the start of the league means that all the fixture lists and other promotional material is already out of date.

I even had to pull the 2006 STIG canendar from the printers at very short notice.

sligoman

05/03/2006, 1:37 AM

So is this 5:15 Saturday kick-off definite then?

pete

05/03/2006, 11:20 AM

If UCD are going change their ko times then fair enough but the eL should not allow teams to keeo changing dates & times - pick one at the start of the season & stick to it!

Dr.Nightdub

05/03/2006, 5:11 PM

Drunkest game ever. :cool:

More like: most sobering-up experience ever. :rolleyes:

Conor H

05/03/2006, 5:36 PM

If UCD are going change their ko times then fair enough but the eL should not allow teams to keeo changing dates & times - pick one at the start of the season & stick to it!
Agree Pete.I mean Monaghan last year were changing every week.Other clubs then like Dundalk and GUFC changed onve or twice too.I remember for the FAI cup game between Galway and Cork alot of the Cork fans wanted the game changed to Saturday so they'd get a bigger crowd.That may be true but a club should pick a night and stick with it....home supporters then become aware that Friday night=GUFC....away support is important for the gate but home fans are more important.Pick a night and stick to it for all games.

John83

05/03/2006, 5:59 PM

More like: most sobering-up experience ever. :rolleyes:
True. UCD-Pats is the second most boring fixture on the calander, only bettered by Pats-UCD, which is a near-certain 0-0 snore-fest.

Macy

06/03/2006, 8:28 AM

Great to see someone playing Saturday afternoons, but UCD have only gone half way. Should've gone to 3pm Saturday.

Mark Breen

06/03/2006, 9:58 AM

Macy

06/03/2006, 10:08 AM

If i remember correctly , Sky gave some money into our league for clubs to invest in Floodlights so we WOULDN'T interfere with there 3 O'Clock kick off's when the premier league started over 10 years ago, So that may have been the reason beding the 17:15 kick off time.
The sky money was compensation because of them clashing with our Sunday 3.15 kick offs. Nothing to do with Saturday 3pm, as that's a protected kick off time meaning sky (or anyone else) can't broadcast in England, Scotland and Wales at that time. 3pm Saturday is therefore the time least likely to clash with high profile UK matches, since 3pm Saturday matches are rarely the pick of the premiership.

I'm not sure where the IFA stand on this, there was talk that they could block the setanta/RTE Saturday Afternoon live matches, but ultimately they didn't follow it through (are they blocked on Northern cable/satellite?)

David

06/03/2006, 10:10 AM

The sky money was compensation because of them clashing with our Sunday 3.15 kick offs. Nothing to do with Saturday 3pm, as that's a protected kick off time meaning sky (or anyone else) can't broadcast in England, Scotland and Wales at that time. 3pm Saturday is therefore the time least likely to clash with high profile UK matches, since 3pm Saturday matches are rarely the pick of the premiership.

I'm not sure where the IFA stand on this, there was talk that they could block the setanta/RTE Saturday Afternoon live matches, but ultimately they didn't follow it through (are they blocked on Northern cable/satellite?)

They are blocked on satellite in Northern Ireland. Usually games involving Derry City are blocked as well when they are on, for example last season's title decider at Cork. Must be something to do with Derry City being in Northern Ireland.

Poor Student

06/03/2006, 10:18 AM

3pm Saturday is therefore the time least likely to clash with high profile UK matches, since 3pm Saturday matches are rarely the pick of the premiership.

You do know that these days EPL games are shown at 3 in Ireland some weeks? Also there is Soccer Saturday. I'm disappointed we didn't give it a slightly wider berth from the end of matches in Britain. Say even 5:30. Gives people who are interested an opportunity to catch the final scoers before they head to the match.

Macy

06/03/2006, 10:27 AM

You do know that these days EPL games are shown at 3 in Ireland some weeks?
I did qualify it by saying high profile matches. 5.15 and 5.30 both clash with a game that's likely to be better than the 3pm options. If we're now trying to avoid competing with glorified teletext then we truely are fooked.

Hecko

06/03/2006, 10:40 AM

Seems a strange one to me. In relation to the students, I always thought a Thursday night made much more sense. But if the logic is that Saturday afternoons work for Leinster aren't they forgetting that now you'll actually be up against Leinster for a good number of Saturdays and against the Irish rugby team for others (d4 is rugby land after all)

Poor Student

06/03/2006, 10:45 AM

In relation to the students, I always thought a Thursday night made much more sense.

If we've said it here once we've said it a million times. Feck the students. The club has given up on the students. The target is the locals.

But if the logic is that Saturday afternoons work for Leinster aren't they forgetting that now you'll actually be up against Leinster for a good number of Saturdays and against the Irish rugby team for others (d4 is rugby land after all)

I've been thinking that myself.:confused:

BohDiddley

06/03/2006, 11:03 AM

3pm Saturday would clash with DDSL etc, if not directly then at least make it a very tight squeeze.

Schumi

06/03/2006, 12:28 PM

In relation to the students, I always thought a Thursday night made much more sense.
Tried and failed. Thursday is a $hit night for football.

Bald Student

06/03/2006, 12:31 PM

You're always going to clash with something. Instead of running away from competition you pick your target market and aim towards it. The main ligic behind the change is to suit young families. The local schoolboy clubs have been bringing teams of kids to games for a good while now so the natural next step is to try to get the parents to bring the kids.

When I was small (and the country was a bit poorer) a trip to belfield was a fun weekend activity. We'd kick a ball around a field, feed the ducks and climb a few trees. Now you can end that off with a trip to a football match.

junkie

07/03/2006, 1:15 PM

If we've said it here once we've said it a million times. Feck the students. The club has given up on the students. The target is the locals.

I've been studying in UCD since 2004 and I've never seen any promotion of the eL team towards students.

Out of pure interest have the club promoted their team to the students in the past and what methods did they use?

Poor Student

07/03/2006, 1:19 PM

I've been studying in UCD since 2004 and I've never seen any promotion of the eL team towards students.

Out of pure interest have the club promoted their team to the students in the past and what methods did they use?

When I started coming the place was postered. The lads tell me it made no difference. For the League Cup final I made an announcement to Theatre L and only got a mild slagging for my trouble and one response after the lecture. Both the college papers carry match reports of the team so everyone is quite aware of its existence. They simply cannot be bothered. Don't forget, most of the Irish public can't be bothered with the eL generally. Coupled with the club's unwarranted reputation as a bunch of students and a nothing club it's very hard to get people in.

Bald Student

07/03/2006, 1:25 PM

NY Hoop

07/03/2006, 2:53 PM

Tried and failed. Thursday is a $hit night for football.

Spot on. Thursday night is a disgrace and is symptomatic with what is wrong with the league. Football is a weekend activity and this obsession with friday night football is boring.

Fair play for moving it to saturday. However the k.o. time should be 7.45.

IMO only derbies should be on friday nights. Longford, Harps and Sligo have the right idea.

KOH

adamcarr

07/03/2006, 3:13 PM

Will our game agaisnt UCD next month be taking place on a Saturday so? I can definately make it then!

bigmac

07/03/2006, 4:05 PM

When I started in College (1999) I was invited onto the club's coordination committee as student rep and myself and a few of us would put up a hundred or so posters every forthnight and back before beer sponsorship was banned we would hand out free beer vouchers at the games. We even tried moving kick off to Thursday evening to suite the bogger students but you could count on one hand the number of extra punters that were attracted.

I'll give it a go again when we move to the bowl but I'm less than optimistic.

You'd be around my vintage so - definitely when I started in UCD there was a big effort to get students into the supporters club during freshers week. Despite the fact that most students would join just about anything for a free lollipop, there was no increase in attendance.
Tody incidentally, I have been pointing all those "Sure the EL is rubbish standard" naysayers towards footage of O'Callaghan's free-kick. More quality like that and we might start seeing a few converts.

Bald Student

07/03/2006, 4:13 PM

The supporters' club back then was a successfull college club which ran five-a-side football, football quizes and the like with big turnouts but none of that went any way towards achieving our main aim of getting more bums on seats. We abandoned that type of stuff about three years ago because there was no real point to it. We concentrate on match day activities now like running the program and the fanzine and running the merchandise shack. None of this increases the number of bums on seats either but at least it makes match day more fun.

I'm still at a loss as to how to improve attendances amoungst the students and I'll take any suggestions anyone has.

pineapple stu

07/03/2006, 4:37 PM

Will our game agaisnt UCD next month be taking place on a Saturday so? I can definately make it then!
Someone on the Cork forum pointed out that Munster are playing a rugby match in Lansdowne that same time. Last I heard, a decision had yet to be made on the Cork game. That's probably why.