Full-time setup

[DmanDmythDledge]

Pete mentioned in his interview after the game that the club were hoping to move to full time "in the next year or two". He also said that we don't have a proper training schedule due to being part time. Said something about contacts in England to get 1 or 2 players so that we would be able to make the switch to full time.

Personally I would love to see us make the move to full time as it would make a massive difference to our performances. The only reservation I would have obviously is whether or not we can afford it but knowing the people that run our club I doubt we would take a financial risk as big as this.

In order to compete with the top teams in the league, which our club has ambitions to do so, full time training is necessary to improve fitness and skills. Training with full time coaches means that the players can work on certain skills more and thus improve. Towards the end of the game Pats's superior fitness began to show and they had their best spell of the game. I feel that our team is as good as Pats' (I'd only have 2, maybe 3 of their players from last night in our team) so I see no reason why we can't be pushing for Europe if we moved full time. The only thing I'd be wary about is can we afford the switch as we don't want to end up losing our best players if we end up unable to pay their wages. Rovers have managed to do very well with part-time setup but I wouldn't be surprised if their performances start to drop towards the end of the season.

Still it could only turn out to be a pipe-dream of Pete's as it seems like he's the one raising the bar in terms of our ambitions. We'll wait and see.

[pete]

Heard this too on tv & was surprised. How could this be funded on lowest crowds in the Premier given clubs with double the crowds can't fund fulltime setup...

I mentioned this to other eL fan & instant reply was feeder club...

[Poor Student]

Don't forget when Shels came sniffing around Pete he was given the role of Director of Football. The club will soon be rolling out their coaching in the community scheme to broaden the structure of the club. It won't be quite as an academy as was claimed as the club won't just be cherry picking the best kids from the area but offering broad coaching to the community. I assume Pete will oversee this eventually? There are plans and efforts afoot to expand the club's support and stature in the community just like the one I've just mentioned. Also, the club is better funded than a lot of people believe. I'm still not sure how likely a change to full time would be and what it would mean given that a chunk of our squad are on student scholarships. I also don't think full time is the be all and end all of things e.g. Shams doing excellent with a part time set up and Galways doing poor will a full time one.

[DmanDmythDledge]

I also don't think full time is the be all and end all of things e.g. Shams doing excellent with a part time set up and Galways doing poor will a full time one.

It isn't but we would be a hell of a lot better if we were full time. In Galway's case there's no point in going full time if you don't have good players as it's turns out to be a waste of money.

[pineapple stu]

I can only assume the main way we'd be funding this is by virtue of still having a pretty much full-student team, who'd be much cheaper to pay. Still, it'll be interesting to talk to the lads and see how this is going to work.

I'd love to see how much of a difference it'd make to the team, and Pete's talking sounds like he could get in better players if we went full time. However, it could just be a ruse to keep the FAI on side. Still, let's see what happens on Friday.

[John83]

...How could this be funded on lowest crowds in the Premier given clubs with double the crowds can't fund fulltime setup...

If there's anything in it, it's because no one in the league makes more than a small percentage of their turnover from the gate. Pats for example had a gate of about 1.3k last year, which is still less than 350k per year in income when you allow for concessions. That we've a third of that impacts our budget less than you'd think. Still, I'd be very surprised if we could manage this.

[pineapple stu]

Actually, I think I remember one of the officials saying that we weren't looking at increasing our wage budget in the next couple of years while a few other projects came on stream?

[pete]

If there's anything in it, it's because no one in the league makes more than a small percentage of their turnover from the gate. Pats for example had a gate of about 1.3k last year, which is still less than 350k per year in income when you allow for concessions. That we've a third of that impacts our budget less than you'd think. Still, I'd be very surprised if we could manage this.

Pats could not go fulltime on gates of 1,300, in fact if they did not have a wealth benefactor they would not be able to do so this season. Where do UCD extra funds come from?

[DmanDmythDledge]

I can only assume the main way we'd be funding this is by virtue of still having a pretty much full-student team, who'd be much cheaper to pay. Still, it'll be interesting to talk to the lads and see how this is going to work.

How could they still be students if they would be training full time? Training morning and afternoon Monday-Friday seems to rule out college.

Where do UCD extra funds come from?

Player sponsorship, golf classic, alumni dinner and other fundraising.

[John83]

How could they still be students if they would be training full time? Training morning and afternoon Monday-Friday seems to rule out college.

You've clearly never seen a sports management timetable.

Player sponsorship, golf classic, alumni dinner and other fundraising.

Thing is, we already have all of that stuff (as does every other club), so we'd need to increase this substantially to go full time, or find some other source of funding.

Pete, I'm asking myself the same about Sligo. I really don't think the league here can currently support full time pros without investment. Still, it's nice to talk.

[pineapple stu]

How could they still be students if they would be training full time? Training morning and afternoon Monday-Friday seems to rule out college.

What John83 said.

Professional football is not a 9-5 job.

[Bald Student]

How could they still be students if they would be training full time?

I would presume that they'd do separate fitness work during the day, worked around the timetables and have a common session in the evenings. You have to remember that being a student isn't a nine to five job either.

[DmanDmythDledge]

Then that would be part time football.

[John83]

Then that would be part time football.

With exactly the same quantity of training as a pro team? Pull the other one.

[DmanDmythDledge]

With exactly the same quantity of training as a pro team?

Yes.