Suggested change to 33 game league

This is just a thought that occurred to me, and I'd be interested to see what everyone thought about it. Its a radical proposal, unused in any other European league (AFAIK), so the initial reaction might me negative, so it would be good if you could think about it before dismissing it.

The idea comes from observing US sports and adapting an idea they use. The ways of US sports are mostly bonkers, so I'm broadly not in favour of replicating them, but this one has some merit. In Baseball for example, there are 6 conferences (mini-leagues) where teams within each conference play mostly against each other, but also to a lesser extent against teams from other conferences. Points (wins and losses) can be gained in any of these games, but the league is still only between the 5 or so teams within each conference.

My idea would be abolish the idea of having imbalanced home and away fixtures for teams in the Premier Division (33 games), so that teams would only play one home and one away fixture against each other Premier Division club (22 games). These games could be suplemented by 10 games against the teams in the First Division (either home or away), for a total of 32 games.

Obviously this replaces one imbalanced fixture list for another, but playing imbalanced games against First Division teams would not be as controversial as imbalanced games against the top Premier oposition.

It would also mean that all the clubs in the eL would play against every other club in the eL without having to resort to a single league structure. The First Division would no longer be such a graveyard, because small clubs would be guaranteed a few really large games a season. And there would be many more local derbies: Derry-Harps-Sligo, Waterford-Kilkenny, Cork-Cobh, Drogs-Dundalk, Limerick-Cork. These derbies would be played every year, rather than every couple of years as is currently the case.

You must of been really bored to come up with that :D

Maybe not the worst idea in the world but certainly couldn't work now.The 1st divison is ****e so lets say the leagues were united it would simply mean that after a couple of games teams like Monaghan etc who start geeting hammered would draw crowds of over 150 to games.That would do little towards promoting the league.Teams in the 1st Division need to get alot stronger and in alot of cases more adaquete facilities 1st.

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Originally Posted by joeraki

You must of been really bored to come up with that :D

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Slow day at work! ;)

That is actually an interesting concept for a league like this one. I think that a lot of Premier clubs would be against it because of the fact that they would be missing at least a couple of big gates a season though.

Sorry CRC but that sounds like an awful idea - 22 real games interspersed with 10 friendlies. What's the point in Premier teams playing First Div teams if the results don't count towards anything?

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Originally Posted by Dr.Nightdub

Sorry CRC but that sounds like an awful idea - 22 real games interspersed with 10 friendlies. What's the point in Premier teams playing First Div teams if the results don't count towards anything?

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The results would count the same as any other game.

This has been said many times but i think the only way forward for football in this country is an All-Ireland league and a major television contract to go with it if the powers decide to do it..The thought of Cork City,Shels,Rovers,Derry,Bohs,Linfield,Portadown,Gl entoran,Galway Utd,Waterford Utd,Limerick all in the same league a few years from now is a nice thought an a great way forward for football in this country..

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Originally Posted by RedX

This has been said many times but i think the only way forward for football in this country is an All-Ireland league and a major television contract to go with it if the powers decide to do it..The thought of Cork City,Shels,Rovers,Derry,Bohs,Linfield,Portadown,Gl entoran,Galway Utd,Waterford Utd,Limerick all in the same league a few years from now is a nice thought an a great way forward for football in this country..

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In a perfect world this is exactly what I would like, but if every debate descended to "we need an All-Ireland league" we would never have gotten summer football.

What's your opinion on the suggestion, in the absence of an all-Ireland league?

and what's the advantage for Dublin clubs??

Sure it might be good for Athlone's finances if they have Bohs, Pat's and the scum travelling down there once a season, but it doesn't do anything for us!!

Well my opinion is that the setanta cup is obviously a stepping stone to an All-Ireland league without a doubt..i would not be surprised if this does not happen within the next 3/5 years..something has to be done and i can see them just surprising us all with this someday out of the blue..

On your idea above it would be to complicated for the people that run this league but it seems a decent idea...not sure would it work here though..i dont think its time for that right now though and my reasons are simply because i think there are better options(again i refer back to an All-Ireland league..

One more thing...it sounds bad but the likes of UCD,Dublin City who could be back up are bad for the future of our league..they create no interest for new fans in any way..they hardly have any support but what can be done about clubs like these?.we can hardly dump clubs out of the league for lack of support but i think things have to change with clubs like these or else phase them out of our league..

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Originally Posted by crc

if every debate descended to "we need an All-Ireland league" we would never have gotten summer football.

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It didn't take long for it to descend to "too many Dublin clubs" either.

On the main topic, it's a novel idea. It might reduce the gap between the divisions a bit.

Why are we obcessed with changing league formats, team numbers & seasons in the vain hope of improving the eL?

I actually quite like this idea.

All-Ireland league it still my pref, but this at least offers up an exciting alternative.

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Originally Posted by pete

Why are we obcessed with changing league formats, team numbers & seasons in the vain hope of improving the eL?

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Because the irish are a nation of glory hunters and big game junkies, so we have to give them big games to go to.

No doubt there's no quick fix, but that doesn't mean there's not something better.

I'd also rather Saturday evening games rather then Friday evening to allow the attendence of more away fixtures!

The op suggestion is very similar to one that was knocking around in the old eL mb days, and I actually thought had merit.

It'd be a regional split of the entire league, each team in the west playing each other twice and then one inter conference series. Play off for the title ala super league RL. You could playoff down through the entire league with a finals day at Lansdowne (e.g. Championship, Shield, Trophy). That would mean everyone goes into the last weeks with something to play for.

Hopefully the next stage of the gensis report will do the research on what we need to do. I'd be sceptical even a huge marketing budget would do much on it's own tbh.

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Originally Posted by crc

This is just a thought that occurred to me, and I'd be interested to see what everyone thought about it. Its a radical proposal, unused in any other European league (AFAIK), so the initial reaction might me negative, so it would be good if you could think about it before dismissing it.

The idea comes from observing US sports and adapting an idea they use. The ways of US sports are mostly bonkers, so I'm broadly not in favour of replicating them, but this one has some merit. In Baseball for example, there are 6 conferences (mini-leagues) where teams within each conference play mostly against each other, but also to a lesser extent against teams from other conferences. Points (wins and losses) can be gained in any of these games, but the league is still only between the 5 or so teams within each conference.

My idea would be abolish the idea of having imbalanced home and away fixtures for teams in the Premier Division (33 games), so that teams would only play one home and one away fixture against each other Premier Division club (22 games). These games could be suplemented by 10 games against the teams in the First Division (either home or away), for a total of 32 games.

Obviously this replaces one imbalanced fixture list for another, but playing imbalanced games against First Division teams would not be as controversial as imbalanced games against the top Premier oposition.

It would also mean that all the clubs in the eL would play against every other club in the eL without having to resort to a single league structure. The First Division would no longer be such a graveyard, because small clubs would be guaranteed a few really large games a season. And there would be many more local derbies: Derry-Harps-Sligo, Waterford-Kilkenny, Cork-Cobh, Drogs-Dundalk, Limerick-Cork. These derbies would be played every year, rather than every couple of years as is currently the case.

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eh.. no

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Originally Posted by crc

This is just a thought that occurred to me

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Sweet Jaysus man, stop thinking ;)

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Originally Posted by Cop on

Dunno if it would be possible on regional grounds Macy. The likes of Connaught would be very easy to get out of & provide no real preparation for the play-off stages, whereas the 'Dublin section' would be extremely competitive (arguably). It might end up a bit like the hurling championship of old.

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Couldn't be arsed typing it all out again - but basically an east-west or north-south split, with the Dublin clubs split too.