Sligo Rovers Chairman

[sullanefc]

What a disgrace. Blaming Sligo's financial woes and his woeful budgeting on Summer soccer.

Pleading for a return to Winter football on Six one neas. :rolleyes: When the evidence suggests that attendances are up (albeit marginally).

Talk about trying to deflect blame from himself.

[Rovers Maniac]

What a disgrace. Blaming Sligo's financial woes and his woeful budgeting on Summer soccer.

Pleading for a return to Winter football on Six one neas. :rolleyes: When the evidence suggests that attendances are up (albeit marginally).

Talk about trying to deflect blame from himself.

I can smell a court case with that header :eek: :)

[brianw82]

He is far too quick to put the blame on summer football, and not the (admittedly, good-intentioned) amateurs running the club.

[cheech]

Cork, Drogs, Derry and the Dublin clubs. Doesn't work for anyone else. Especially GAA strongholds.

[OneRedArmy]

Cork, Drogs, Derry and the Dublin clubs. Doesn't work for anyone else. Especially GAA strongholds.So it doesn't work, apart from most of the Premier Division.....sounds like a case of tough titties....

[Terry]

obviously it is the summer football thats to blame and not the contracts given to their players by him that have sligo rovers in the financial state it finds itself !

[cheech]

So it doesn't work, apart from most of the Premier Division.....sounds like a case of tough titties....

22 teams in Ireland.

[sullanefc]

22 teams in Ireland.

And if all of them ran their clubs properly......

[ramsfan]

reality is times change if we went back to winter football, nothing but diehards would attend, people are not going to come out on a rainy wintery windy night in january for loi, if we had grounds like premiership then maybe but we can not offer same level as england so todays modern punter is not going to pay to stand in a field in january looking at fellas running around in mud, summer football suits as times have changed

[Demoshield]

What a disgrace. Blaming Sligo's financial woes and his woeful budgeting on Summer soccer.
And don't forget all the mothers who bring their children to th beach at
8 o'clock on a Saturday night just as Sligo home games kicK off :eek:

[TonyD]

Cork, Drogs, Derry and the Dublin clubs. Doesn't work for anyone else. Especially GAA strongholds.

Didn't think Sligo was a particular GAA stronghold, is it ? We've always been told how Sligo is a "soccer town". In fairness I do think crowds are down, but I'm far from sure it's because of summer football. It's had a lot of positives. Better pitches, and consequently better football being played, and of course it's also played a significant part in better European results, along with the fact that more players are full time.

[dcfcsteve]

This is laughable.

If we weren't playing Sumemr football he'd be blaming somethign else. most probably the weather.

Surely if a business plans for the coming year and finds that its core assumptions in those plans were incorrect (i.e. re income, attendances etc), the main responsibility for that rests with the business ?

[deecay]

Didn't think Sligo was a particular GAA stronghold, is it ? We've always been told how Sligo is a "soccer town". In fairness I do think crowds are down, but I'm far from sure it's because of summer football. It's had a lot of positives. Better pitches, and consequently better football being played, and of course it's also played a significant part in better European results, along with the fact that more players are full time.
Its a funny town,young fella's who play football all day long dont go to the Showgrounds but go to the 'big' championship games

[dcfcsteve]

Its a funny town,young fella's who play football all day long dont go to the Showgrounds but go to the 'big' championship games

Sligo is one of the few genuine soccer towns in the Republic though Deecay.

Along with Dundalk and Athlone, it's a town where soccer has traditionally been the number one game since garrison days.

[srfc1928]

Didn't think Sligo was a particular GAA stronghold, is it ? We've always been told how Sligo is a "soccer town". In fairness I do think crowds are down, but I'm far from sure it's because of summer football. It's had a lot of positives. Better pitches, and consequently better football being played, and of course it's also played a significant part in better European results, along with the fact that more players are full time.
Sligo Borough and its district would be predominently "soccer"
south county Sligo, where Toolan is from would be Gah country.
Easy to blame all our woes on summer football, but i think it has contributed to a degree. Our crowds arent that bad, its just that we arent generating enough income from other sources. We are a full time professional club run by ametures on a part time basis.

[Rovers Maniac]

I agree with Steve it is to easy to blame summer soccer, we all know the budget was way to high at the start of the year ! Whatever your opinion on the which season is best.

[srfc1928]

Its a funny town,young fella's who play football all day long dont go to the Showgrounds but go to the 'big' championship games
Dont agree with this at all. I come from town and i'd say 75% of my mates would attend The Showgrounds. The other 25% dont go but your allways going to get a certain amount of people who just wont go no matter what. 2 or 3 went to the Sligo v Galway final last year, the first time they have ever attended a gaa game. i myself have never been to a gaa chapionship/league game. (Not saying there is anything wrong with attending gaa games) there is a deep rooted tradition of football in Sligo, My grandfather went to The Rovers, my father went to the Rovers and I'll take my kids to thee Rovers when they are old enough,thats a fair bit of tradition

[Patrick Dunne]

Sligo were beaten by a city in the UK at Gaelic Football last weekend, hardly a GAA stronghold.

In fairness to Sligo Rovers, Sligo is not large town - population approx 25,000 ?
Getting crowds of 2,000 + to league matches is difficult.

GUFC managed 2,200 last season, but 80,000 people live within five miles of Terryland, and there are another 140,000 living within the county boundaries.

[deecay]

Dont agree with this at all. I come from town and i'd say 75% of my mates would attend The Showgrounds. The other 25% dont go but your allways going to get a certain amount of people who just wont go no matter what. 2 or 3 went to the Sligo v Galway final last year, the first time they have ever attended a gaa game. i myself have never been to a gaa chapionship/league game. (Not saying there is anything wrong with attending gaa games) there is a deep rooted tradition of football in Sligo, My grandfather went to The Rovers, my father went to the Rovers and I'll take my kids to thee Rovers when they are old enough,thats a fair bit of tradition
I know a big group of football lads (play for junior clubs/interfirm sides/coach football/on football coarse's) and they dont go to the Showgrounds but do go to Sligo games.My father is from the country and he's been going for over 40yrs,he knows people from Swinford/Dromore West who have been going for over 50yrs.I was brought in a buggie at an awful young age.There are many diehards in the county but id always count us as being a predominately town based club


It is not a GAA stronghold.
They are a disgrace but they have alot of 'fans'

[celticV3]

Shocking!!! He's a buff in the ealry 30's, "soccer" and "housewives taking the kids to the beach"? Cringe the whole way through it!

[dfx-]

reality is times change if we went back to winter football, nothing but diehards would attend, people are not going to come out on a rainy wintery windy night in january for loi, if we had grounds like premiership then maybe but we can not offer same level as england so todays modern punter is not going to pay to stand in a field in january looking at fellas running around in mud, summer football suits as times have changed

There must have been 3,500-4,000 fans at the Sligo-Rovers game this season..so when it suits them, they have no trouble coming out for Summer football.

[Rovers Maniac]

I know a big group of football lads (play for junior clubs/interfirm sides/coach football/on football coarse's) and they dont go to the Showgrounds but do go to Sligo games.My father is from the country and he's been going for over 40yrs,he knows people from Swinford/Dromore West who have been going for over 50yrs.I was brought in a buggie at an awful young age.There are many diehards in the county but id always count use as being a predominately town based club


They are a disgrace but they have alot of 'fans'

oops nearly said something i should not have :D

[deecay]

There must have been 4,000 fans at the Sligo-Rovers game this season..so when it suits them, they have no trouble coming out for Summer football.
Shams in the cup is a big game,old-timers and sunshiners come out.We wont have a great crowd tomorrow because of it being on tg4:rolleyes:

[Rovers fan]

There must have been 3,500-4,000 fans at the Sligo-Rovers game this season..so when it suits them, they have no trouble coming out for Summer football.

It's usually during the actual summer months that our attendances drop off.

[srfc1928]

I know a big group of football lads (play for junior clubs/interfirm sides/coach football/on football coarse's) and they dont go to the Showgrounds but do go to Sligo games.My father is from the country and he's been going for over 40yrs,he knows people from Swinford/Dromore West who have been going for over 50yrs.I was brought in a buggie at an awful young age.There are many diehards in the county but id always count use as being a predominately town based club


They are a disgrace but they have alot of 'fans'
Deecay dont get me wrong, i know and appreciate that there are a lot of diehard Rovers fans from the county, some of the best infact and without them Rovers would be long gone out of football. Just sharing my personnel experince of following the Bit O'Red.

[finnpark]

It's usually during the actual summer months that our attendances drop off.

Does anyone have the attendance figures before summer soccer and after summer soccer for Sligo?

[deecay]

Does anyone have the attendance figures before summer soccer and after summer soccer for Sligo?
Offical attendances are not released

[Nah Nah Nah Nah]

Does anyone have the attendance figures before summer soccer and after summer soccer for Sligo?

Would be hard to compare seeing as we were in Division 1 for a lot of the time but considering we're consistent top 6 at this stage our average of about 2000 is not what we used to get in the mid 90s when we were around the same.

I used to love cold, windy, wet, Saturday nights in the Showgrounds

[Ceirtlis]

"Housewives bringing the kids to the beach", mother of god, is this the guy that said something about crowds being down because farmers were cutting hay a few years ago.

[Rovers Maniac]

"Housewives bringing the kids to the beach", mother of god, is this the guy that said something about crowds being down because farmers were cutting hay a few years ago.

I am not sure it could have been him but funny i think it was Richard Sutherland who is now youth team coach at Bohs, i think poor auld Richard may have been prompted by somebody:D as he had just arrived from Scotland. Funny thing is they made a €50 k profit that season.

[GuisaSaigon]

Very embarrassing for the league having this farmer on the telly blaming low attendances on housewives bringing kids to the beach and Shligo Gaa's non existent championship run. Put a muzzle on him :o

[gspain]

Sligo has always been a football town. While I know very little about GAA I think their GAA team is one of the worst. Ditto for their rugby team.

There is a strong football tradition in the town and generally they have attracted big crowds. i think being out of the cup and mid table is probably the main reason here rather than summer football.

As a tourist town Sligo could also pick up casual support during the summer months.

[Rovers Maniac]

Very embarrassing for the league having this farmer on the telly blaming low attendances on housewives bringing kids to the beach and Shligo Gaa's non existent championship run. Put a muzzle on him :o

Oh know another Galway fan obsessed with us, we will send you some season tickets next year as you seem to care more about us than your own team :D

Nice sig by the way :D

[dublinred]

Summer football is a factor for us but there are obviously other reasons which we can't identify , everyone in the region knows when the matches are on they are reasonably well promoted , faciliites are good , we have one of the best rovers teams in years playing a very attractive brand of football scoring plenty of goals and providing good value for money but yet attendances are way down when compared to even 10 years ago. This years running cost budget was reasonable and should of been reached easily the current problems are due to shortfalls in predicted revenues not massive overspending , the 130k will be found and more if required the club has been in much worse situations in the past and pulled though this one will be no different.Waht bugs me is why aren't there more people going to matchs its is not just us who have this problem perhaps someone here has the answers.

[Macy]

"Housewives bringing the kids to the beach", mother of god, is this the guy that said something about crowds being down because farmers were cutting hay a few years ago.
I didn't see it, and I'm sure it was probably embarrassing, but there is more to do during the summer months. Whether that's going for days out with the family or doing stuff around the house/garden/ farm. Then you also have to factor in clashes with the GAA, including local games which does impact on attendances for the rural teams. Obviously this is going to impact more on the country clubs rather than the city clubs. It's a lot easier to get out at for an 8pm kick off when it's been dark for 3 hours imo - and if I recall correctly last season it was shown that attendances dropped off during the summer months - they were higher at the start and end of the season rather than actually during the summer months.

I'm not sure it's viable to change back, but it's sure as hell shows up the initial decision wasn't properly thought through and analysed. Interesting that the great white hope, well according to some on here anyway, of Irish football proposes a return to Winter football...

[dcfcsteve]

I didn't see it, and I'm sure it was probably embarrassing, but there is more to do during the summer months. Whether that's going for days out with the family or doing stuff around the house/garden/ farm.

There is indeed more to do in Summer months. But there's also a need for more to do - with longer nights, warmer weather and kids on holiday.

Parents want a range of things for their kids to do in the holidays - not just the usual cinema, swimming pool, park routine.

There's no reason why live football couldn't become part of families' Summer activity 'rota', and thereby provide a huge boost to league attendances.

[jebus]

Re: Winter vs Summer football, I think the simple answer is that it is easier to get non-LoI fans to go in the summer than in the winter. Ask a non-LoI supporting friend of yours to a game on a sunny day and they just might go along, ask them to go a day when it is cold and lashing rain and they'll probably laugh in your face

[GuisaSaigon]

Oh know another Galway fan obsessed with us, we will send you some season tickets next year as you seem to care more about us than your own team :D

Nice sig by the way :D
Haha,
I couldn't give a toss about your shower of moaning farmers, If you read me original post you would have noticed that I felt embarrassed for the League not Shligo Rovers. The moaning out of you lot is unreal. You paid too much to players and have nothing to play for so your fans have deserted you. It's got nothing to do with housewives taking kids to the beach, or glamour GAA games against London. Do us all a favour, stop moaning and get on with sorting your club out.

[gustavo]

Haha,
I couldn't give a toss about your shower of moaning farmers, If you read me original post you would have noticed that I felt embarrassed for the League not Shligo Rovers. The moaning out of you lot is unreal. You paid too much to players and have nothing to play for so your fans have deserted you. It's got nothing to do with housewives taking kids to the beach, or glamour GAA games against London. Do us all a favour, stop moaning and get on with sorting your club out.

You seem to care enough about us to come up with a vareity of "hilarious" nicknames and phrases for us, Well done you!

[Macy]

Parents want a range of things for their kids to do in the holidays - not just the usual cinema, swimming pool, park routine.

There's no reason why live football couldn't become part of families' Summer activity 'rota', and thereby provide a huge boost to league attendances.
I disagree, from the experience of friends, but sure I'll tell you myself when my little one is older. There's different priorities for many people (obviously not all) when they have a house & family.

[Macy]

There's no reason why live football couldn't become part of families' Summer activity 'rota', and thereby provide a huge boost to league attendances.
btw, P1 seem to think different as they propose the AIPL to be a winter season and I thought they were the bees knee's when it came to marketing, if they're going to deliver their 150% attendance increases.

[GuisaSaigon]

You seem to care enough about us to come up with a vareity of "hilarious" nicknames and phrases for us, Well done you!
Well you are a fairly "hilarious" bunch. Thanks!

[sullanefc]

Haha,
I couldn't give a toss about your shower of moaning farmers, If you read me original post you would have noticed that I felt embarrassed for the League not Shligo Rovers. The moaning out of you lot is unreal. You paid too much to players and have nothing to play for so your fans have deserted you. It's got nothing to do with housewives taking kids to the beach, or glamour GAA games against London. Do us all a favour, stop moaning and get on with sorting your club out.

Well said that man.

[dcfcsteve]

btw, P1 seem to think different as they propose the AIPL to be a winter season and I thought they were the bees knee's when it came to marketing, if they're going to deliver their 150% attendance increases.

I prefer Summer football personally, but that's not to say that Winter football couldn't work as part of a properly marketed league.

Most of Europe sems to make winter football work.

The worst of both worlds would be a return to Winter football with a continuance of the FAI's non-marketing of our league. In other words - we continue to be viewed as the equivalent of a second-hand 1970's Skoda, so no-one new is attracted, and we make it more diffiuclt for our current small pool of fans to tolerate weatching our league. Worst of both.

[Macy]

They obviously believe it would be easier to market in a winter season, though, so it turns out the sligo chairman, and other provincial clubs have a point. If it was purely marketing levels, then P1 would do so for a summer season rather than make the majority of clubs the propose for their league change back to winter.

[Dodge]

Re: Winter vs Summer football, I think the simple answer is that it is easier to get non-LoI fans to go in the summer than in the winter. Ask a non-LoI supporting friend of yours to a game on a sunny day and they just might go along, ask them to go a day when it is cold and lashing rain and they'll probably laugh in your face

As macy said, there's more option on a Friday in July than there are in a Friday in November. I know people who used to go to games because there literally wans't anything else to do (bar drink but that’s taken care of anyway)

Speaking form personal experience, a few years ago I missed about 2 games in about 4 years. Last few seasons I've missed 3/4 per season. Now if the only thing I actually want to do is go to Pats games but I still have to miss them, just imagine the blokes who don't really care about them

I prefer summer football, mainly because the weather's nicer but I don't think it has improved crowds at all. Another point to remember is that most fans here had been wildly overestimating their crowds for years and with the absience of actual figures a kind of rose tinted view may be had of these "thousands" who turned up 5-10 years ago.

[Fivesilver]

It's funny to see the common thread of Cork fans going on about proper running of clubs. During the existence of Sligo Rovers, how many teams have disappeared in the city with the second-largest population in the country? Not to mention Cork losing one of the country's best soccer grounds, followed by the Bishopstown debacle. Only last season there was plenty of crying about taxes owed and the danger to the existence of the club in the post-fish & chips man era. And in recent days it's been suggested that Arkaga will take their ball and go home if Drury doesn't get his way.

[90minutes]

Sligo Borough and its district would be predominently "soccer"
south county Sligo, where Toolan is from would be Gah country.


id agree that south sligo is mainly GAA. but there is still a good few that head to the showgrounds every week. As well as that Real Tubber have 2 former players in the senior squad

[paudie]

btw, P1 seem to think different as they propose the AIPL to be a winter season and I thought they were the bees knee's when it came to marketing, if they're going to deliver their 150% attendance increases.

I'd imagine a big factor in the proposed winter season for the AIPL is the fact that matches in NI during the marching season would be a security "issue" to say the least.

Linfield v Shamrock Rovers in mid July might be a problem.

[Dodge]

I'd imagine a big factor in the proposed winter season for the AIPL is the fact that matches in NI during the marching season would be a security "issue" to say the least.

Linfield v Shamrock Rovers in mid July might be a problem.

easily avoided. Just make sure that game doesn't happen in July