Attendances 2019

[marinobohs]

Not being facetious marinobohs, are you proposing adding 5 weeks to the season to avoid the need for Monday night games, reducing the number of games or another solution?

extend the season or reduce the number of games if necessary (although most clubs have spare Fridays later in the season). Monday night fixtures add nothing to the league and in my opinion bring it to near disrepute. expecting fans and (sometimes part time) players and officials to travel large distances on a work day is, at the very least, unhelpful.

[marinobohs]

These Johnny come lately Dundalk fans do seem to have an obsession with Shamrock Rovers. They seemed way sounder when they were getting a couple of hundred to games and threatening to set themselves on fire over DVDs.

Whereas Cork City fans haven't changed, constantly moaning and totally fickle

[seand]

I propose playing all FAI Cup games on a week night until the semis, all league games to be played on the scheduled weekend irrespective of European commitments the same as other Euro countries and adding to the season as required. No club should be expected not to have a home league game for nigh on 3 months as we did last year.

What happened to Sligo (and to a lesser extent other clubs) was outrageous and shouldn't be allowed to happen. I'm warmly in favour of helping our teams in Europe, but not at the expense of everyone else. Bohs were badly messed around to facilitate Dundalk in 2016 too. I like the idea of prioritising league games on weekends over FAI Cup games. Obviously you'd have the same issue with travel etc in the cup you would in the league, but having the cup midweek would at least allow everyone to have a guaranteed home league game every 2 (or 3) weeks.

[dundalkfc10]

These Johnny come lately Dundalk fans do seem to have an obsession with Shamrock Rovers. They seemed way sounder when they were getting a couple of hundred to games and threatening to set themselves on fire over DVDs.

Cork fans were far sounder when they were one of their 20 previous clubs!

[joey B]

Are you suggesting that the SDCC would have told UEFA to feck off with their money if Rovers had been down to play someone else?!

No! I'm suggesting that senior football should not be messed around to accommodate U17s, however they wanted to work it,it could have been handled better.......

[sbgawa]

The season should be extended by 4 or 5 weeks.
That may mean additional costs for the clubs not on 52 week contracts but the higher gates from no midweek matches would close the gap to some degree and its crazy that the league season is so short.

I can understand why the FAI keep weekends exclusively for the cup as the sponsor probably doesn't want their sponsorship to be of an event that takes place midweek to which nobody go's.
Would Harps agree to a 4 week season extension to avoid all the midweek trips? I'm not picking on Harps btw just as they are the most recent example of the problem of crazy scheduling

[bohsmug]

This is something I often wonder about. I suspect for a lot of clubs it's something that the board and manager/coaches/players wouldn't necessarily agree on. Most managers would presumably prefer more time between games but can clubs stretch contracts for longer on the back of slightly higher attendances over a longer period of time?

[Mr A]

The vast majority of clubs end up with a load of blank weekends towards the end of the season any way. If we managed the time we had better, there would be no huge need to extend.

[blueblood]

The league fixtures around the time of the start of europe should have the teams who play in Europe scheduled to play each other, then let's say dundalk v shams and cork v Waterford being moved only effects 2 games instead of the 4 teams effecting 4 games and moving games should suit all involved theoretically anyway, is this solution too obvious or am I missing something?

[nigel-harps1954]

You'd get another two weekends in if they didn't cancel all league games for FAI Cup quarter and semi finals.

Ridiculous that no other games go ahead those weekends.

[Ezeikial]

Would Harps agree to a 4 week season extension to avoid all the midweek trips? I'm not picking on Harps btw just as they are the most recent example of the problem of crazy scheduling

I don't know about Harps, but the clubs generally have repeatedly rejected this on the basis of cost, according to Fran Gavin

For example a club with a €6,000 budget would obviously add €24,000 to their costs and would get the benefit of 2 home games being weekend instead of midweek. This would need in the region of 1,000 extra people to attend on the weekend slot over the current midweek fixtures. Naturally the number of extra punters required rise along with any budget. Clubs have this won't work

The answer lies elsewhere - such as some of the suggestions above on better use of the current calendar

[seand]

It doesn't necessarily have to cost more to play a little longer. If we're playing for 44 weeks instead of 40 everyone gets 10% less pay every week/month and gets the same amount per year or a small fraction more. The only real problem with that is it impinges on certain players' ability to claim the dole, but if we're going to factor that into our decision making process we might as well just jack it in now.

[marinobohs]

I think last year something like two thirds of League games were played half way through the season so a better spread and utilizing some of the suggestions above could lead to no Mondays (except replays or postponed games) without extending the season by 5 weeks.But that would require somebody in the FAIlure to actually care and put some thought into it.

[sbgawa]

We could move stuff around , play on FAI cup weekends etc etc but i honestly think that is just fiddling around without really solving the problem.
We need to extend the season by 4 weeks AND schedule things better to allow for postponements due to weather / Europe/ Internationals or whatever.

I have no idea what budget Harps have but if i was playing for harps and was told i was getting the same money (in total) for an extra 4 weeks of training / playing but i wouldn't have to play midweek matches and look for two half days from work in the same week i would be happy with that compromise. With better attendances you could probably pay for 2 weeks of the 4....

[Nesta99]

I think last year something like two thirds of League games were played half way through the season so a better spread and utilizing some of the suggestions above could lead to no Mondays (except replays or postponed games) without extending the season by 5 weeks.But that would require somebody in the FAIlure to actually care and put some thought into it.

While it cant be organised in advance, if two teams are out of the cup then allowing leagues go ahead on Cup weekend, where possible, could help with fixture congestion or reduce midweek games later in the sseasom.