It's relevant to the point I responded to though :cool: Which is the limit to the number of fans that Dundalk seem able to attract.Quote:
Originally Posted by placid casual
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It's relevant to the point I responded to though :cool: Which is the limit to the number of fans that Dundalk seem able to attract.Quote:
Originally Posted by placid casual
Louth GAA play all their league fixtures on a Friday night this year and it's being played since March and with 5 GAA teams in the town and one in every parish just outside the town definitely impacts the attendances. I know lads who play gaelic who would be at Oriel every night there was no GAA on
Bohs have a maximum of 450 away fans this seasonQuote:
Originally Posted by oriel
304 in attendance at UCD.
4754 at Pats Shels in Inchicore. The usual home end sellout with around 700 away fans
https://twitter.com/stpatsfc/status/...413562883?s=46
1,004 in Finn Park.
You said there would be under 1000 , not like you to be so out of touch with whats happening in Harps..Quote:
Originally Posted by nigel-harps1954
Brandywell sold out as usual but definitely loads of season ticket holders not there. 3,400 est.
I have let everyone down and need to apologise.Quote:
Originally Posted by sbgawa
3,274 given on FAI Connect.Quote:
Originally Posted by Candystripe
I was near enough Nigel. If we keep playing like we did in the first half it'll drop below, 3000 during the summer. A terrible 1st half of football.Quote:
Originally Posted by nigel-harps1954
Still not playing well? From the outside it would have looked like a routine home win.Quote:
Originally Posted by Candystripe
The covered all seated stand on the east side had a lot of empty seats. It's capacity is approx. 2,500+ and it looked as if 1,500+ were in attendance!Quote:
Originally Posted by Candystripe
At least it was more than my expectation of 999, if it went under the 1,000 mark!Quote:
Originally Posted by sbgawa
There was at least 4 Sligo Rovers flags on display, maybe only 4 away fans as well! :confused:Quote:
Originally Posted by culloty82
Well all the College students are gone now as the Campus shuts down generally at this time!
Remember Derry started selling terrace tickets this season for either side of the Mark Farren stand. Unless you've a Southend stand ticket you can't get past the gate to get access to it. They only started doing that 4 weeks ago.Quote:
Originally Posted by nr637
Its not irrelevant but there is definitely a tendency to overestimate a fanbase and what expectations are. I would say that Dundalk FC have a solid/consistant fanbase of about 2500. To get over 3k regularly a good away crowd is needed. A bumper crowd over 3.5-4k needs to have a side that is competing for the league, against a fellow rival or a big cup tie. A sellout circa 5k would be a winner takes all last night of the season or a cup semi depending on opposition.Quote:
Originally Posted by placid casual
The reasons for not having a bigger average attendance are pretty obvious and done to death, ranging from facilities, weather, holidays, current cost of living pressures maybe even LoITV, (of course other clubs also have some or all of these issues too) and clashing with other events - mainly Horse/Dog racing at Dundalk Stadium to the mentioned GAA scheduling, which has been deliberate and targeted ie GAA fixtures between 2 larger Dundalk sides on the same night as a 'Cat A' game in Oriel and similar but to a lesser extent United Park. This isnt a paranoid anti GAA assumption but a genuine openly spoken about issue. When Louth GAA open their new stadium and can play actual home games rather than having to go to Navan eg its already planned to play inter-county league games on the same night. Championship games are scheduled by Croke Park but there will still be some local push to be the Friday night game. As Louth seem to be improving rather than being a basketcase for 40 odd yeays its is an issue of concern for Dundalk and Drogheda United. It will be necessary to counter this with planning fixtures with the FAI either by moving matchnight like S Rovers or looking at the 2 sports home and away sechedules. Local games I cant see much to be done, as Louth GAA have set targets for their own attendance growth to help pay for the County Ground and theyve had green eyes the the potential crowds, seen at LoI games in the 2 towns over the years. Its now less a soccer v GAA thing and more a pragmatic 'we have to come up with new income for this new and now €25million costing stadium (and growing). The County Board and Fitzer may yet rue campaigning against the proposed, costed and Dept of Sport accepted groundshare at/with DkIT!!
Then theres the very Irish bandwagoner who will follow the success rather than their passion for a club or county. LoI fans do seem to like to turn attendances in to some sort of p1ssing match as if it was worth actual league points and I think PC with your stated love for Dundalk FC you are falling in to this puddle of pish - The Kenny Era was over 2018 and the Bradley era and your current norm will end one day also so not sure what that point is? Stats on % of population attendances at games suggest that LoI punches quite well relatively in general as does Dundalk. Averages could and maybe should be better though so we, as a club, should be looking at what can be done and mitigate the plethora of excuses made by the floating fan that is not just the Oriel is a kip laziness. There are probably more pressing issues the club needs to deal with but Id like to see a real push on season tickets during the close season, Id even go as far as employig people to go door to door, look at instalment based payments, and see if there is anything else that could be offered as a season ticket holder bar the overall reduced cost in to games - many people may have €15 a week to go to games but not the guts of €200 in one go and during the expensive christmas period. Are there half season tickets on sale now for example? The very patchy form isnt a help of course, even when winning its a tough watch at the moment and a subsequent drop in crowd does show a fickle side to the Dundalk fanbase. Its hard to break the cycle of a team not inspiring crowds yet the crowds are needed to resource the better calibre of player. The club have been very open about this transition phase, rebuilding, and trying to balance things with qualifying for Europe. Yr1 achieved, great chance to maximise that income with a favourable draw, Yr2 is anyones guess with the way the league is this season but if its success then Yr3 the chips will be down for the squad to get the crowds enthused again!
Very interesting post- As someone who worked in Louth over the years unlike many other provincal towns I would always have considered Dundalk & Drogheda staunch soccer towns . In saying that Dundalk in particular used baffle me with the amount of GAA clubs in the town 6 or 7 from recollection compared to a staunch gaelic football town like Tralee with only 4 or Portlaoise with only 1 gaa club. The one other thing about Dundalk was those coming into the town for work or college came from big GAA areas like Mid Louth, Monaghan & Armagh so we ended up talking more about football than soccer often in the workplace we were in . The Gaelic top 2 league divisions in Louth were also more competitive & well ran than i expected and they used play fri or sat evening to avoid junior soccer on sundays when i was there.With regard to fixtures clashing , there seems to be 3 good times to draw a crowd or play a match , fri evening, sat evening or Sunday but with TV games sundays are used less & Less by all sports so fri & Sat evening only 2 runners for all to play games.
It varies across the country what sports are strongest , in Limerick where i live both Treaty FC & Limerick Footballers struggle to get a 1,000 supporters where as the Hurlers & Munster rugby are massive operations in comparison & could pull anything from 10,000 to 40,000 supporters depending on competition stages, be thankful Rugby & Hurling arent big in Louth !
Don't forget that Dundak is one a half times bigger than either Tralee or Portlaoise. And Drogheda is a decent big bigger again.Quote:
Originally Posted by Abbeyman
That may be the case but it is true, imo, that there are too many GAA clubs in Dundalk and the county as a whole for its size. Some of the clubs in Dundalk are as a result of fallings out and one club becoming two back in the day. Catchments are strictly divided where one side of a street is one club and the other side another club. Dundalk Gaels looked to sell their ground to Tesco and move to a better purpose built facility but the plan was binned as anywere they could secure as a new home infringed on another clubs catchment area. Most of the clubs are intermediate or junior level in Dundalk itself whiich is due to the diluted talent pool. I dont recall the last Dundalk county champion.Quote:
Originally Posted by EatYerGreens
All the club GAA games in Louth have been moved to Saturday nights over the next few weeks as they are having midweek rounds of games too. Pity we have no games at home other than Rovers to compare attendances with other games as we always get a bumper crowd V Rovers and they usually sell out the away end.Quote:
Originally Posted by Nesta99
5800 tonight in Tallaght , not bad for a monday
Not up on LOI Connect yet but 2,300 and something was announced as the attendance at Dundalk Pats tonight with around 500ish being away fans. One of the local GAA teams must’ve had a training session or something on tonight ;)
2371 was the official number tonight @ OP as you blow your flute over a LOI side currentlly doing less well than your side! YOU THE BOSS BUDDY!! You fkning rock bud.Quote:
Originally Posted by 2 Year Contract
It was only a joke cheer up :)Quote:
Originally Posted by ToberonaTornado
Derry support is always poor enough compared to say Sligo or soe of the other "country" clubs especially when you consider this was a top of the table clash.
I understand its a monday but i was still surprised.
I know a good few Dublin based Sligo lads who go to the Rovers (there is only one rovers;) ) matches in Dublin, is there a "Derry contingent" in Dublin or do Derry people gravitate to Belfast? Genuinely curious , maybe one of the Derry guys could throw a bit of light on it?
I dont think Pats had 500, but to be fair it was a more than decent away crowd for a Monday, defo 400 anyway and fair play to them. With 2,400 turning up on a Monday for 5th v 3rd, its another disappointing crowd by DFC, once again absolutely no PR, nothing with schools or youth clubs getting them up, the club has got to be doing more in this regard. Twitter updates seem to be their limit these days.Quote:
Originally Posted by 2 Year Contract
Only saying to a mate at HT, it seems up to 500-750 just stopped going regularly as the league challenging era has ended, and that's fine on success as it goes in cycles, but its back to the club then to come up with initiatives to tap into the lapsed support.
Suppose there was the awful year of 2021 with P6 in full metal jacket madness, Jim Magilton, crazy signings, all probably played a part in alienating a lot of support but its still a decent year, in 4th, a good chance of progression in europe, a good game at home in FAI Cup to look forward to (or not) v Rovers etc etc.
Lazy attitude really by a lot of local fans.
There tend not to be too many Nordys at university in the south anyway, despite it being a lot cheaper for them on the fees. There are obviously some, but not as many as you'd expect to encounter. I've never understood this really. With obvious exceptions (especially in the border areas itself) I guess people tend to largely stick to their own side of the border for study and for work?Quote:
Originally Posted by sbgawa
There are certainly more Derry people in Belfast than Dublin, but the bulk of our away support will be travelling from Derry and around.Quote:
Originally Posted by sbgawa
Tallaght is a particularly time-consuming Dublin away trip, and we are the club furthest from there. Coupled with a Monday and a more convenient away on Friday (Tolka), it was never going to be a big crowd.
It was top of the table, yes, but there aren't (m)any fans who believe we're going to winning the league this year.
Currently watching the big Lithuanian derby here in Kaunas in their newly redeveloped 15k stadium, maybe 1k here.. atmosphere is very good however, quality similar enough to a mid table LOI game, gosh I do miss the RSC!
Total attendances have now surpassed the 2019 season, with Premier Division total now higher than the total for both divisions in 2018.
PREMIER DIVISION
Bohs - 4,269 (3,209 {2022};2,878{19}; 2,148; 2,006; 1,627; 1,724; 1,395; 1,597; 1,496; 1,488)
Cork - 4,199 (3,517 FD; 2,505; 4,245; 4,559; 2,533; 3,263; 3,777; 1,965; 2,786; 2,128 FD)
Derry - 3,480 (3,184; 2,049; 2,297; 1,517; 1,563; 1,124; 1,106; 1,446; 1,460; 2,135)
Drogheda - 1,931 (1,941; 721 FD; ; 377 FD; 850; 583 FD; 813; 1,064; 817; 977; 811)
Dundalk - 2,710 (2,689; 2,775; 2,738; 2,674; 2,738; 3,158; 2,534; 1,997; 949; 1,355)
Pat's - 4,355 (3,489; 1,919; 1,621; 1,504; 1,088; 1,321; 1,386; 1,687; 1,474; 1,346)
Rovers - 6,011 (5,379; 3,384; 2,749; 2,809; 2,041; 2,890; 2,269; 2,763; 3,127; 3,779)
Shels - 3,096 (2,913; 1,071 FD; 654 FD; 496 FD; 554 FD; 596 FD; 713 FD; 1,114; 1,187; 781 FD)
Sligo - 2,899 (2,166; 1,995; 1,853; 1,717; 1,750; 1,750; 1,959; 2,342; 3,007; 2,103)
UCD - 848 (953; 739; 365 FD; 236 FD; 297 FD; 216 FD; 397; 487; 506; 558; 610)
FIRST DIVISION
Athlone - 835 (307; 382; 130; 154; 156; 314; 653 PD; 754; 271; 200)
Bray - 784 (482; 773; 643 PD; 966 PD; 957 PD; 769 PD; 718 PD; 891 PD; 965 PD; 1,121 PD)
Cobh - 1,116 (872; 268; 236; 358; 403; 366; 223; 439; 2008 - 1,122 PD; 681)
Galway - 2,179 (2,081; 780; 746; 1,376 PD; 1,169 PD; 1,290 PD; 975)
Harps - 1,370 (1,293 PD; 1,154 PD; 708; 1,202 PD; 1,216 PD; 784; 449; 479; 429; 433; 644)
Kerry - 939 (No previous)
Longford - 697 (500; 610; 449; 342; 488 PD; 803 PD; 567; 379; 365; 315)
Treaty - 708 (695)
Waterford - 2,118 (1,705; 1,496 PD; 2,329 PD; 1,550; 314; 460; 470; 478; 453; 466)
Wexford - 730 (445; 235; 181; 338; 585 PD; 553; 331; 227; 302; 216)
PREMIER AVERAGE: 3,424 (2,687; 2,185; 2,170; 1,902; 1,476; 1,681; 1,502; 1,566; 1,630; 1,547)
FIRST DIVISION AVERAGE: 1,148 (1,193; 586; 413; 477; 476; 486; 495; 391; 372; 578)
OVERALL AVERAGE: 2,335 (2,051; 1,500; 1,249; 1,387; 1,117; 1,249; 1,160; 1,140; 1,125; 1,110)
OVERALL PREMIER ATTENDANCE: 373,248 (486,365; 393,238; 316,515; 376,627; 292,204; 332,805; 297,334)
OVERALL FIRST ATTENDANCE: 114,754 (178,000; 79,115; 55,756; 53,461; 52,807; 54,474; 55,408)
OVERALL COMBINED ATTENDANCE: 488,002 (664,365; 472,353; 372,271; 430,088; 345,011; 387,279; 352,742)
The Cobh average this season is phenomenal when you conider what they were getting in the years up to and including 2021. They had a decent average last season too - though being their Centenary year may have helped in that.
Anyone know why they're doing so much better this year (apart from not being whipping boys for a change)?
Not all fans have the opportunity to come. If 500 people were absent, it is not a tragedy. But the tragedy is that little is being done to promote it. You correctly point out that Twitter updates are their limit today. And that's not a good thing. I remember a time without Twitter :) It must be expensive for them to do some other PR. It's cheaper on Twitter.Quote:
Originally Posted by oriel
Hi all :)
I suppose a decent average last season gave them confidence. And it's generally a good thing that the level of play is rising.Quote:
Originally Posted by EatYerGreens
I think the main reason is that they are no longer in the same division of Cork City.
If Cork City aren't playing at home that Friday I think they can expect a few hundred more on their gate.
They also are not competing with Cork for players any more which has helped their squad and results improve this year.
As always there's probably a bit more nuance to it but it's a big factor I think.
Huge amount of kids at games, the main stand is like a creche, can be a bit annoying watching a game, a lot of them seem to be just dropped off and let run wild for a few hours but hopefully they'll be there for years to come.Quote:
Originally Posted by EatYerGreens
Think another reason why their gates have increased in Cobh is that they have a bar inside the ground and when I was there recently there was a serious crowd in it after the match there was musicians in there!Quote:
Originally Posted by outspoken
They've always had that but they've a marquee outside now which is a great job in the summer and as you say they've made an effort with music etc after games, it's a night out as much as anything now which is a great idea.Quote:
Originally Posted by Martinho II
1,507 at the RSC v Finn Harp tonight.
3,156 at Dundalk v Rovers.
Decent away support to be fair as usual by Rovers.
2108 at Sligo/Bohs
3851 at Cork/Drogs
722 at Athlone/Cobh
531 at Treaty/Bray