Move to Fridays

[sligoman]

It wouldnt be as drastic as Friday night football, then returning to earlier kickoffs as the Autumn sets in.Don't know if the FAI would allow a constant changing of kick off times though. A team should decide what night they wanna play and leave it like that for the season, this changing half way through a season is nonsense imo.

[Rovers1]

does ANYONE have any links etc. to this story,i hate when people talk about these kind of things and you dont know if its true or not!! :mad:

[Rory H]

there is no confirmation yet

[sligoman]

Paraic was on here earlier, any chance you can check it with the club?:confused:.

[Paraic]

sligoman - i haven't heard anything other than murmurring and what's on the forum here - if there is any word, we'll put something on the site

[mypost]

So you're going to move to Fridays then, bang on time for upcoming home games against big crowd pullers; Home Farm and UCD. :D :D

On the back of that and your opposition to playing on Fridays, the only way your attendances are going in the near future, is down the plughole.

[SligoBrewer]

hear fcuking hear

[red_away]

Apparently its true and on the ocean fm website - personally for me its a disaster as I am not living in sligo i wouldnt make it - just like the dublin supporters and other rovers diaspora!

[nephin]

This is a very bad decision in my opinion.
Do the supporters of this club mean anything to this club. They had a vote at the start of the season on weather we wanted Friday or Saturday night football. Overwhelmingly we voted for Saturday night.
Listen to your fans Sligo Rovers.

[garykelly]

Trust are looking to gather information on this subject. A poll has been set-up at www.thebitored.org to give us feedback on what supporters think. If you want to add to your vote with comments email info@thebitored.org. We'll try including the best comments in the next issue of the supporters fanzine Saturday Night Live

[dublinred]

Because only 1200 people turned up for a match against Longford on the first day of summer on a bank holiday weekend which clashed with 3 nearby music festivals and the beaches , some members of the board have decided to move the games to Friday nights after no consultations with various fans groups and several polls against the change- the exact text of the Ocean FM site is a classic piece of arrogance Quote "Rovers fans are also reminded that the next 4 home games have been scheduled for Friday nights beginning with the fixture against Dublin City on Friday July 7th"

[nephin]

The thing is I don't think they care much about us the fans.
Have you ever noticed on match days that they never thank the supporters for coming and paying in to watch the team. They thank the sponors alright but never the fans. Its a small gripe i know but I'm in one of those moods that only the mc of Sligo Rovers can put me in!. They shouldn't p!ss off the fans and moving games to Friday will p!ss off a lot and many might not return. Thats my fear.

[mypost]

Because only 1200 people turned up for a match against Longford on the first day of summer on a bank holiday weekend which clashed with 3 nearby music festivals and the beaches "[Sligo] Rovers fans are also reminded that the next 4 home games have been scheduled for Friday nights beginning with the fixture against Dublin City on Friday July 7th"

Maybe it's because they think your first game is against a big club from Ireland's capital city, when in reality you're playing against a fanless, talentless, glorified junior club with a commercial title.

You'll be doing well to get 200 people at that fixture. 1200 will seem like a San Siro attendance by comparison.

[Poor Student]

Maybe it's because they think your first game is against a big club from Ireland's capital city, when in reality you're playing against a fanless, talentless, glorified junior club with a commercial title.



So talentless they took your Premier status off you in a playoff and sit seven places above you in the league ladder.:rolleyes:

[Paraic]

careful now lads - this is a sligo rovers forum -

gus / sligoman - can u keep an eye on this thread?

[SligoBrewer]

this is an issue that affects all eL fans as many Dubs will njot be able 2 travel 2 sligo on a friday...

51 signatures lads...

[red bellied]

The club have their eyes closed on this one, nothing on the official website only something on the local radio site oh by the way we are changing to Friday nights. If they think they are losing a few quid now wait till the 4 Friday nights hit them they will be lucky if they take in 2 Saturday nights for those games.

[gustavo]

Bit of a kick in the teeth to the fans alright , I mean didnt we just vote significantly in favour of Saturday Nights ? I hope there is some miracle and we get great crowds but i cant see it happening. Maybe though the crowd will be big next game but that wil only be because of the long gap between the next game and the preivious one.

[Poor Student]

careful now lads - this is a sligo rovers forum -

gus / sligoman - can u keep an eye on this thread?

Sorry Paraic, forgot about the trouble you have on here.:o

[Terry]

Just an idea for the trust or another supporters group, but how about printing out on A4 paper "Bring Back Saturday Nights" and handing them out at the gate for the first friday night fixture? If only a couple of hundred and were held up at the start, half time and end of the game it would get the point over very very quickly to the board.

[SligoBrewer]

nice idea...

i was thinking mayb if everyone who was oppposed to the move wore a certain colour and stand in a certain area together

[SligoBrewer]

gary whens the next trust meeting??

btw...i'd more than happy to give ye access to the signatures or the petition if ye want to push it

[The Stars]

well doen to Sligo Brewer and the Trust for getting the fans opinions on this matter.
Hopefully the Trust can get this point across to the board that we dont want friday football.If we were in the top 3 in the league we would probably have the best attendances in the league,because of Saturday Night Football but we dont stand a chance of this with Fridays.
The board should remember,we pay the wages,so it should be up to us if we want to change the day we play on.

[sligoman]

Has anyone decided to email the club yet? Somebody should type something out and put it here and we all can send the same thing?

[dfx-]

Looking neutrally at it, given the fact Sligo seem to be *ahem* a home team this season, it surely has to go down as a risky decision to now jeopardise the home form by messing around with attendances and dates for games...

[garykelly]

gary whens the next trust meeting??

btw...i'd more than happy to give ye access to the signatures or the petition if ye want to push it

Our meetings are Tuesdays at 7pm - Sligo City Hotel - In the lounge area. We'll be talking about friday night football amongst other things.

[gustavo]

There was some talk about it on Ocean this morning and they said that 90% of the calls they had about it people were against it .

[Red&White Rover]

wonder what sean connor has to say bout it...i cant think he'll be too happy...

[SligoBrewer]

in the paper 2day, he said he was behind the board....

[feo123]

im sure he'd say that anyway even if he wasn't happy about it!!

[Red&White Rover]

im sure he'd say that anyway even if he wasn't happy about it!!


no, no, no...its Sean Connor we're talking about...

[Mr A]

From the outside looking in Sligo's board have a responsibility to play games on whatever night they'll get the biggest numbers through the gates. If that proves to be the case then the move is justified and even if some individuals are put out you can't really argue if the overall crowd is bigger, if not then it is a mistake. If as has been mentioned on here the gates are not what were expected then your board are right to try to do something about it- it remains to be seen whether this is what should be done though, I personally think it won't make much difference either way.

We tried Friday nights for a season and it didn't really help, so we've returned to Saturdays. Overall it's form that decides the crowds, not the night you play on (unless you go completely mad and play on Mondays or Tuesdays of course). The only time I think every club should definately play on a Friday is on Good Friday- the lack of anything else to do always lifts the crowd considerably.

[mypost]

From the outside looking in Sligo's board have a responsibility to play games on whatever night they'll get the biggest numbers through the gates. If that proves to be the case then the move is justified.

The problem is the "experiment" coincides with Home Farm, and then UCD, visiting the Showgrounds. That, and widespread local opposition to it, will mean that crowds won't merely decrease at their Friday home games, they will nosedive, and struggle to recover.

[Rory H]

The problem is the "experiment" coincides with Home Farm, and then UCD, visiting the Showgrounds. That, and widespread local opposition to it, will mean that crowds won't merely decrease at their Friday home games, they will nosedive, and struggle to recover.



^^that be true

however if we beat get 2 good results vrs bohs and derry the people of sligo might come out in force in expectant mood in 8 days time

[akearins]

Just waited to see what the genral concensous was to Friday night football and so far I have not read or spoken to anyone who is in favour of it or can give a reasonable argument for the change.

At the weekend I spoke to many fans and basically what i found was it will not work because of many factors.

First off some fo the lads work shift work and would working Friday nights.MISS GAME

Others working earlier shifts (8-4) said lads they work with who are from outside town would not travel home after work to get cleaned up, eat etc. just to come back into town and have to travel home again.MISS GAME

Lads woking outside Sligo would be working up to 5 or six and wouldnt get trains or buses or make games even if at 8 on Friday evenings.MISS GAME

Apart from these reasons what about travelling support.
I have spoken to many fans from Dublin clubs at ireland games and one and main reason they wanted to see us back in the premier diviison is because we were really the only away game they could travel to with ease as we are on the rail line and many enjoyed the trip out of Dublin.

Now we have already seen the biggest travelling support has been Shels, Bohs and Drogheda.What will happen when we play them again.Will we have decreased numbers.I'd say so.So thats a loss in revenue straight away.
Also when Drogheda came a lot of fans they stayed in the radisson. Did the MC think what effect switching games to Friday evening may have on local economy such as hotels which have knock on effects to other businsses, taxis, pubs, shops etc..Just a consideration when looking for sponsorhip for next season.

Also what about the Astro pitch.Presumably it will be unavailable from 5-10 on match nights as access will be restricted due to any H&S restrictions as in the case of allowing people enter then leave the ground.Thats a big loss of revenue when the club is saying we need to switch to gain revenue.

Add this to the fact that a poll was taken in the champion which voted for Saturday night football, 2 polls online have voted unamimously to stay with Saturday night football and callers to Ocean have also said they want to stick with saturday night football,season tickets were sold under the precednce that fotball was being played on Saturdays too..

So can the club now give us the reason behind switching to Friday nights.A simple public meeting about the issue would have solved all this.

[SligoBrewer]

clap clap clap...well said!

[sligoman]

So can the club now give us the reason behind switching to Friday nights.A simple public meeting about the issue would have solved all this.I heard Richard Sutherland talking on Ocean FM last Friday and he was saying that people were saying to them why don't we move to Friday's and even desperately mentioned something about communions/confirmations on Saturday's so that was affecting the crowds etc.:rolleyes:.

I seriously doubt anyone asked them to move to Fridays and he obviously didn't know, communions are finished now until next year so that's no excuse:rolleyes:.

It's his job to be promoting the club, has he done anything yet? Apart from selling the wall(which isn't really promoting the club), the answer is no!:mad:.

[SligoBrewer]

communions...ah 4 fceks sake!!

they have really destroyed the club!

ffs..

[Redzer]

Lets all burn down the Bishops residance:D

[pineapple stu]

I have spoken to many fans from Dublin clubs at ireland games and one and main reason they wanted to see us back in the premier diviison is because we were really the only away game they could travel to with ease as we are on the rail line and many enjoyed the trip out of Dublin.
Echoed. Granted, UCD's hardly likely to be your biggest travelling support, but I'm much less likely to be able to head down on Friday now because all my holidays are taken up. And I'm sure I'm not the only Dublin-based fan - of Sligo or otherwise - that this is the case for. Very annoying.

I'm curious as to the reasoning though. (Haven't read all five pages other than to ascertain that youz are curious too). The attendances thread has Sligo up in third in the league in attendances, yet this move seems to be out of disappointment with crowds. So either the figures there are hugely overexaggerated or a newly promoted club is unhappy enough with being the third best-supported team in the country to annoy, it seems, at least a good chunk of its support. Any concrete reasons at all?

[gustavo]

I think they were expecting average crowds of around 3,000 this season and that hasnt materialized thats one of the reasons anyway

[pineapple stu]

Really? What a stupid expectation! There's no way Sligo will get those figures unless they start to mount a title challenge, which you're a fair way off doing at present. And they reckon changing to Friday will suddenly make everything better? They should work for the FAI! ;)

[sligoman]

The FAI are partly at fault here, if they want the league to become more professional then they wouldn't let teams change fixture days in the middle of a season.

[pineapple stu]

Is it on a trial basis then? I think we're playing youz at the start of August - is that game definitely moved to Friday?

[sligoman]

Is it on a trial basis then? I think we're playing youz at the start of August - is that game definitely moved to Friday?Trial basis yes. Our next four home games-Dublin City, Cork, UCD and Bray are all on Fridays. After that, if it hasn't worked, then they're moving back.

[red bellied]

I can see this trial lasting only one game everyone is complaining about it expect a brutal crowd for the home farm match doubt it will top 500.

[sligoman]

Well their will certainly be feck all Dub City fans down, no change there though:D.

[nephin]

I can see this trial lasting only one game everyone is complaining about it expect a brutal crowd for the home farm match doubt it will top 500.

The way they think I wouldn't be at all surprised if they made it a permanent thing.

[Rory H]

id say they will put it back to saturdays after the cork game....

[mypost]

I can see this trial lasting only one game everyone is complaining about it expect a brutal crowd for the home farm match doubt it will top 500.

Take a 0 off that figure! ;)