Who is the owner?
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Who is the owner?
Jim Hanley.Quote:
Originally Posted by cláirseach
There would be no club without him, and if he ever goes there will not be a club, baring someone else willing to come in to lose a lot of money. I'm one of the many people who don't live near home, and getting to a match is as much hassle as most away matches honestly and I don't have multi hour round trips every weekend in me.
Thanks Acornvilla. I'd love to know who owns every club in the league, maybe that'll be my thread for the offseason!Quote:
Originally Posted by Acornvilla
No worries. We're in a tough spot. I personally think we need to invest in more full/part time off the field staff to build the club.
We've been in a bit of a tailspin since Cronin left for Bohs. There was a big gap in replacing him. Henderson came in very late, half the squad was already gone to Wexford, anyone worth signing had been signed, and we've been trying to rebuild ever since, but with bad performances comes smaller crowds and smaller budgets. There is forever the issue with the stadium location, you have to drive to it, which stops so many from even being able to get there if they wanted to, no shuttle bus from the town has ever been sustainable. I don't know what the solution is bar massive investment in the town and county itself, it's not great out there.
That's fairly grim reading, Acornvilla and Outspoken. Maybe if your teams trained in Longford it would improve things? GUFC have gained a lot of support from the parents and families of underage teams. We had womens teams last year for the first time and I think this has helped too. We don't have a training ground so our teams are spread all around the county, not ideal, but maybe it's contributing to a more inclusive county-wide community. Of course results help massively too.
When you break in down like that it really explains a lot. When you do get a boost in attendances, where does that generally come from?Quote:
Originally Posted by outspoken
I think the addition of underage and womens teams to clubs is helping with the attendances. You have a lot more boys and girls involved with clubs, their friends and families come to support them underage but they become fans of the club and end up going to support the mens first team games too.Quote:
Originally Posted by Buckett
Usually like most clubs you get a decent crowd first game of the season. About 1,600 at an Athlone game, I think last season, but we lost badly, and that was that. People make the effort to come and have a look out of interest. How that goes can determine how many come back, and we have been incredible at losing any match with a crowd for a number of years. It's very much a GAA county and there's no real culture of going to football every week there. When the Town got bigger crowds, the first team and economy was in better shape.Quote:
Originally Posted by ger121
A side effect of the move to summer football was a lot of fans in North Longford/Cavan (where I'm from) stopped going to games because the summer season doesn't suit a lot of people. I think the move to summer football was necessary, but we did lose a portion of the fan base overnight. That's a long time ago, and the club has never reached the mid 00's heights, it likely won't again, so no one from around there has really had much of a reason to reconnect.
I don't think people from big cities/towns who live relatively near their club quite understand the privilege of being able to just walk to or hop on a quick bus/dart/luas and go to a match, you can't do anything in Co. Longford without a car.
I can't speak in great depth about underage issues in Longford. My underage club would have been UCL harps which are a relatively large club with a lot of underage teams it takes in kids from Longford,Cavan and Leitrim. Outside of Tristin Noak Hoffman, I'm not sure many others have been brought in to the Longford setup let alone played first team. Longford have some sort of Partnership with Melvew, where James Abankwah (incredible that he never played for us) and Aodh Dervin came through. I constantly hear not enough kids from Longford clubs are brought in to the Longford underage setups, but that's all hear say and I can't comment because I have no idea who is playing underage in Longford, how extensive the scouting or how good the coaching is. People love to complain so I'd take it all with a pinch of salt.
Regarding training in Longford. The club does have a second pitch and a couple of 7 a side astros, I assume that's where the underage teams train. As for seniors, no players at the club live in Longford bar a couple of academy lads who have made a breakthrough this season, I don't know the ins and outs of how feasible it is to change how things work, if it was possible it'd probably have been done by now, I assume the club training nearer Dublin is a reason why some players stay with or sign for the club in the first place.
Everything that happened under Kenny/Matthews was a once in a lifetime freak occurrence, we got a lovely stadium and wonderful memories, but I'm not really sure how somewhere the size of Longford with the challenges the local area faces will be able to keep up as the league professionalizes without major investment to build the club outside of the first team. I know almost every club in the LOI is heavily driven by volunteers, but that takes people with energy and time, and the bgger your population the greater chance of finding them, we're really at a disadvantage there.
I've given some artwork to the club over the years, done match programme covers for a season, but that's about the height of what I'm able to contribute, Outspoken has given the club much more than I ever could, and still works for free every other week on match days among other stuff off the field. There's a very small team killing themselves to keep the show on the road, and only one full time employee. I'd rather we spent less on the first team and had a couple more in the background trying to find a way to sustain and grow the club.
I agree with mentions about underage sides growing fanbases, it will hopefully help everyone, but we will only ever have so many people knocking around with an interest in football, so our underage sides can only reach a certain level before they have to sign in kids from outside the county and the further afield you look the tougher it will be fore their family/friends to become a part of things.
2813 at Galway/Pats
Quote:
Originally Posted by Acornvilla
Great post outlinging the challenges at Longford Acornvilla,I will add on the volunteer part that volunteers in the LOI take an unbelieveable amount of abuse on SM,I really admire anyone that puts their time and effort in because its a totally thankless task that as far as I can see bring's mostly headache and abuse.....
Probably to an extent - but only to an extent. If someone doesn't give a feck about LOI football, they're not suddenly going to become a fan of the adult mens teams just because their 10yr old plays schoolboy there. I'm sure we've all seen kids teams play exhibition matches at an LOI games at half-time, or do a half-time tour of the pitch with a trophy they've won, only to then see a fair chunk of them leave straight afterwards with their parents who can't be arsed hanging around for the second half. Even with the pester power of children. It probably happens much more at First Division clubs, where there is less buzz/appeal around the clubs.Quote:
Originally Posted by redobit
The switch to Summer football was 2003 - which immediately coincided with the most successful spell Longford Town has ever had, and its biggest crowds (2003-5). So any impact of Summer football obviously wasn't felt in the first few years there, which is when you'd expect such a fundamental change to have had the most noticeable impact if therewas going to be one (?).Quote:
Originally Posted by Acornvilla
In my view people always have an excuse to justify not going to watch their local LOI team. Almost always it involves laying the blame on someone or something else other than themselves. Instead of just admitting 'They're sh!te now and I can't be fecked to go' they'll instead blame the time of year. Or that old rural club favourite of there'not being enough local players in the team any more'. Etc etc.
When you actually look at it, more than two-thirds of the Summer LOI seaon involves months that were also included in the Winter season. So how can someone go to a game in February, March or September under one format but not the other?
It's fine to think that, I'm sure plenty do make excuses, but anyone saying that stuff was probably never really going to be a fan anyway. I come from an area where I've said it happened. Where I grew up is about an hour round trip drive away from the stadium for games. I literally know people who continued to try going but couldn't make it work so gave up, us doing well just meant other new people started to go, they didn't stick around long term as often happens, every cub has fair weather fans and that's fine, it was literally the clubs most successful time in it's history, a complete outlier, those crowds are the exception not the rule.Quote:
Originally Posted by EatYerGreens
I vividly remember a packed stadium for a league cup final, and then playing in front of under 500 people the next week. We also often had very large away crowds in those days, something we obviously don't get in the first division today baring rare exceptions. Two things can be true at once.
And again, the critical point, the town and local economy was in a completely different place. The average crowds weren't even big by LOI standards today, and for us it was the peak. I don't think a lot of people outside the club appreciate just how uphil the struggle is to create consistent attendances when the town the club is from is dieing.
Cobh is bigger than Longford, Tralee over twice the size, Athlone too, it should be one of the weakest clubs, there's junior clubs from much bigger places. The fact we haven't been stuck to the bottom since Kenny came, and have a nice stadium has given everyone an unrealistic expectation of what Longford should have been doing all along, we don't have a lot to work with. There's a bigger conversation to be had about how the club could try to capture interest from the county/midlands and be called Longford FC or something, I hate that the crest is a cathedral, it doesn't represent me in any way. We should try and have more lads from Longford, but the catchment area is tiny, the odds are not good that we will be creating elite footballers with no money and no population any time soon. The best ones will leave right away anyway. it's not like Longford is excelling at other team sports.
It's the club I've supported since I was a child, I don't have any answers or the means to effect change. It's deeply depressing to watch something that gave you some of your best childhood memories slowly die. More money, and more people is the answer, you're all welcome to move here and invest :D
The best post I've seen on the entire LTFC debate. Well done.Quote:
Originally Posted by Acornvilla
What's the story with the economy in Longford town, AV? Back in the Celtic Tiger era the county was firmly in the extended Dublin commmuter zone. I know it ended up with a few ghost estates after the crash happened. Is it no longer getting the ripples from Dublin's success? Mullingar and Athlone are doing well, and even places like Kingsscourt in Cavan are part of the Dublin commuter zone now. Is it that Longford is just that little bit too far west? Just slightly beyond the ripples from Dublin (which is where it's at economically, for the east of the island anyway).Quote:
Originally Posted by Acornvilla
Some very interesting posts about LTFC plight. Sobering and a good insight into trying to make a LOI club work in rural Ireland.
Two observations, I know it can't be reversed now, but for the future stop building stadiums so far outside towns. I first starting going to matches on my own in mid teens, if I grew up in Longford town, how am I supposed to do that? It is an hours walk from the town centre to the grounds and not even footpath. This aside from the failure to build connections with local businesses etc that might benefit on match night all in all outweighs additional parking apces for me, everytime.
Secondly and this occurs across league but interested to see is there many success stories? Ireland has seen a lot of demographic change in the last 25-30 years, in particular in terms of ethnicity and heritage. Rural Ireland and indeed rural Irish towns including Longford have seen similar trends. It is clear that significant amount of people "new to the parish" want to be part of area they are living in and you can see that in many areas of irish life. However it is maybe a missed opportunity that LOI clubs haven't picked up extra supporter base from this. You would think it an attractive option, a universally understood game (as opposed to Gaelic football), clubs that clearly identify with place etc an opportunity for communal shared space. Perhaps some clubs have already developed strong supporter bases from this pool already, interested to see if so.
Outspoken mentioned this earlier, but most of the town fans I know don't even live in Longford any more. I'm a headcase doing a weird made up job, so I'm a terrible example, but I'm living hours away because it's where I could afford to live, others have moved because they wanted a better life and a better job.Quote:
Originally Posted by EatYerGreens
Longford has a few large factory/warehouse spots where people work, a lot of those working there are actually commuting in to the county, so they're not looking to necessarily become part of the community. Or even they're from the area I grew up, and they're doing an hour round trip in to work every day, and don't have the time/energy for Friday/Saturday night football by the end of the week. Driving around Longford town is a bit depressing, a lot of closed shops. Half a street burning down a few weeks ago certainly won't help, but that's another mad story that's by the by! There is a lot of people unemployed or in very low paying employment struggling to get by living in the area, I don't have any stats in front of me and explaining the greater socio economic issues are a bit beyond my pay grade, but there's an incredible amount of people living in Longford who don't come from Longford and are not really well off, probably don't have the means to get out to matches, probably don't have a car to drive out there anyway even if they wanted to.
There's plenty the club could be doing to reach out to people, give kids tickets, invite refugees, all sorts, and tons of initiatives have been tried, but circling back to other points already made, this stuff takes man power to do consistently over numbers of years, rather than one off gestures, and we don't have it.
I'm really trying to not **** on the people involved in the club, because I know they're doing the best they can
Longford is a truly bleak town at the minute. I took a drive in through the town the last time Harps played in Longford this summer. My young lad broke his glasses in the car on the way down, so we went into the town to try and find some sellotape, or anything that could provide a temporary fix until we got home again. We found nothing. Barely a shop open, boarded up houses and shops all over the place, and an insanely quiet main street for 6:30pm on a Saturday evening. Eventually went to the local Tesco, asked someone about sellotape, met with a shrug of the shoulders, and couldn't find any there even. Ended up being sorted out with medical tape off Harps phyiso at the ground.
I've been knocking about the midlands all my life, and been in and about Longford for as many years as I can remember, and it's genuinely as bleak as I've ever seen the town, in it's current state. It's a pity to see how it's gone, as it should be on the Dublin commuter belt, only an hour, or slightly above, to the M50 and should be a handy location for anyone working in any of the decent sized towns in the midlands.
Saying that, there's effectively zero Longford Town FC presence in the town. On a match night, you wouldn't know there was a game on ten minutes away. They could definitely be doing more in the town itself, but as pointed out, that's more manpower, and much the same could be said of any club in the LOI.
Longford gets a lot of attention for bad crowds but there’s other clubs attendances are equally disappointing,Bray/Wexford had less than 600 people there a couple of weeks ago,Wexford had less than 350 people on Friday,that’s just 2 examples of clubs in far bigger towns and are much better off economically.
Even our crowds are disappointing and tail off badly as the season goes on, though we’ve had issues with floodlights I don’t think we have the crowds that will go week after week in the First Division….
Bray is just a disaster.Quote:
Originally Posted by joey B
Wexford have similar issues to Longford in terms of ground placement, but that'll be sorted once they get their shiny new ground in Wexford Town.
Our crowds have been hammered by fixture changes this year. It's a miracle they've been a high as they were for a few games. 1,003 for our last fixture against Bray was excellent considering our form too. We could be doing so, so much more too, but getting near 1,000 average on a season where we've had 5pm Friday kickoffs, two Thursday games, and stupidly, just one home game in our regular 7:45pm Friday slot between 31st May to 30th August. We've been properly fcuked this year between fixtures being reversed, floodlight issues, and Euros changes.
I’m sure Longford are also missing the away crowds that years in the PD gave them.
100% last time we were in the top flight it didnt help matters at all with COVID. Think 2015 was the last time we had huge away crowds. Could stand corrected though.Quote:
Originally Posted by ger121
2,831 gufc v pats
As one of those Longford fans who was spoiled in the glory days, I am not from Longford but from across the Shannon in Roscommon and half those years I spent explaining that Longford Town was my nearest LOI club and should Strokestown Utd ever make the LOI I would be in a pickle.
in the Premier Division years it was easy to get to lots of away games as working as a civil servant on Stephens Green with no wife or kids, I could clock out at 4 on a Friday and be in Inchicore, Phibsboro, Drumcondra etc for a few prematch pints with the lads, watch the game and be back in town by 10/1030 and catch up with work colleagues for more pints. I am probably one of the unique fans who has been to more away than home games over my lifetime. Now married with 2 small kids, its hard to get away for a game and has to balanced against other priorities.
The summer season doesn't suit as well with clashing with GAA and I will be 100% honest and in any clash between Roscommon and Longford Town. I will be gone to the GAA. Saturday nights in Longford don't suit me at all.
It is sad to see, how things have gone. Its really disappointing to see in the 100th anniversary year as well.
Just on Longford, the club never really had big crowds in the first division, you could say the same about Wexford and UCD.
Catchment of most clubs is realistically places up to 30/40 minutes drive, so thats the town, newtown forbes, edgeworthstown, lanesborough etc.
its clearly a struggle for clubs as has been well explained...however, clubs have to try and engage...
In my opinion all clubs should be tieing in with local schoolboy/girl teams , getting them playing on the pitch, these kids bring parents who pay in and are potentially future fans of the clubs(their are allready into football if they play it). Open training sessions (meet & greets) and summer camps are good too.
As a fan for most of my life, and a volunteer for a number of years now it is sad to see attendances so low.
A number of reasons for this have been accurately discussed here - fortunes on the pitch, population, GAA season ongoing, supporters are no longer living in Town, family commitments etc etc.
It is something that people in the club are working on and hope to improve over the coming years to address and work this. There’s a whole lot of negativity online but a few good results change a lot of that. And in football that can happen very quickly.
As someone who was born, reared, live and work in Longford I hate the constant negativity associated with the Town (place) both from inside and outside. There’s an awful lot of good in Longford that’s not nearly publicised enough compared to some of the negativity, but that’s for another day and another post/time/forum.
I realise I haven’t posted on here for years but that’s my two cents anyway for what it’s worth.
I still can't get my head around why the town of Longford is in such a bad way given its location. I could understand if it was in the middle of nowhere out west, but it's only about 100km from the edge of Dublin.Quote:
Originally Posted by Cabs88
I could be wrong, but I think being grouped with Westmeath for elections means on occasion, no one from Longford has gotten elected in to Govt as Westmeath has a far larger population and a bigger share of the votes. It definitely has happened over the past few decades where there's been a 4-0 or 3-1 split, so there historically hasn't been whole lot of lobbying power for investment at govt level to help the town with some of it's issues. I could talk abut how I feel about the govt at large and how everything in the country works, but if we don't even have someone at govt level to say investment is needed, you're at a hiding to nothing, we currently have 1 and I wouldn't be overly confident on his competence.
Imo there is a divide between certain committee members and certain support base whose view is not being listened to. I know of at least 3 town fans that have refused to come to games since end of last season. The bad PR is driving fans away. I also think theres a very bad relationship between the local soccer leagues and Longford Town FC. I dont know what more can be done anymore but since what happened to me at end of last season Im not as interested. Any other year I would have went to the 100 year dinner dance but decided not to attend.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Martinho II
I think in order to try garner support the club has to tie in with the local schoolboy clubs - get them to play at half time at the league matches - kids bring their parents who pay in, brings in a few quid and these kids are potentially future fans and they are allready into football if they are playing. Cant understand why all clubs dont do this?
Is there anything to be said for a Foot.ie Jolly Boys day trip to Longford.
There's nothing jolly about that idea.Quote:
Originally Posted by ger121
Longford have a very nice ground/stadium and there is a nice spot on the canal few miles down the road for a stop pre match if the weather is decent. Only been to the town itself for 2 gaelic matches, both Saturdays afternoon and didn't hang around. Is the hotel open there?
The way things appear to be there, maybe the potential for new fans is in the rural and small towns within 40min drive. I see the point of being up against the Gaa but actually a lot of Gaa people are interested in soccer as well (there is very little hurling I take it). Why not enter a womens team and see how that goes.
Kick off a bit earlier at 6pm so its bright to drive home etc
I was thinking of this post on a long dog walk earlier (great for LOI thoughts), and could have just put myself in this guys shoes, lived in Dub for 4 years, probably only one year that Dundalk competed, but was still great to go to so many away games after work on a Friday, and then back to the city to join the work crew.Quote:
Originally Posted by ltfc_2004
It was also sad to hear of the clash of GAA now, and the overall challenges of summer football and the decline of Longford crowds. The same guy has now obv moved on, but just a pity there is not more tradition of going to games in Longford, guessing the guy's peak was around 02-06, but that's 20 years ago, time moves on, and people have families etc.
Still a good story to read, and hopefully he gets back to games soon. Keep the Faith.
Are the Jolly Boys an American right-wing militia? #MakeLongfordGreatAgainQuote:
Originally Posted by ger121
Alright Dave.Quote:
Originally Posted by ger121
Enjoying this thread even if it makes grim reading just to pick up on a few points made by Acornvilla and others I. Regards to why the town itself is struggling so badly, a quick Google of Longford will turn up any number of news articles and viral videos of serious incidents of disorder in the town, many in broad daylight.
There have been a number of long running family fueds that have spiraled to the point where there have been full brawls with weapons in the middle of the main street in the early afternoon.
I know my own. mother doesn't be that mad about going into the town to shop and certainly plenty of older people feel the same. Even when I'm down home the very odd time aside from matches I'd have little to no interest in going out for a few pints because I find the town very rough, there's very few decent boozers in it and above all else it's absolutely IMPOSSIBLE to get a taxi home. I know this is something local councilors have raised as I believe Longford was in line to be selected as one of the towns in the pilot scheme for extended opening nightlife hours.
The fact it's paid parking absolutely everywhere is also a huge deterrent for local shoppers, Roscommon who have free street parking appear to be thriving in contrast.
As for comments about relationships with local leagues and clubs, the club have an active partnership with Melview who are the leading schoolboy club who have produced Aodh Dervin and James Abankwah among others but as someone who played, refereed and coached locally I know for a fact there are clubs who will not allow their players to trial for LTFC. There's a distain for the club in certain quarters of the schoolboy ranks, how we fix that I don't know.
As I said on my podcast earlier this week, I would be in favor of scaling back on the playing budget over the next 4-5 years even if it means grim seasons like this in order to build the club off the pitch. We need full time club staff, especially a community officer. I think Acornvilla has said similar above but for me that's the only way we can grow the club.
Good man. Someone knows their tv.Quote:
Originally Posted by holidaysong
Very sensible points made Outspoken. I know we have had our differences of opinion over the years and I dont mean to make enemies but it doesnt help matters when posters advertising the match are at least 12 years old. We have to be imaginative in posters do what Bohs do for example. I would agree with scalin back the budget a bit and just try and get fans back on board. I know of one long serving steward who was a volunteer who stopped going to matches cos of the lack of respect from a certain club board member. This has to stop.Quote:
Originally Posted by outspoken
Thanks but you aren't adding anything to the conversation with the same boring posts about a "certain board member", everyone knows who you're talking about, time to build a bridge and get over it or stop the constant crying about it on here.Quote:
Originally Posted by Martinho II
As for match posters, we used to plaster the town in them, what difference did it make? I believe the council took issue with posters in the past and that's the main reason they aren't put up anymore. Comparing us to Bohs is a waste of time, the demographics couldn't be more different as highlighted above. But community is key, that's something we can learn from Bohs, we need to be getting into schools, the local leagues etc but without full time staff it's next to impossible to make a dent.
It's great the club has a full time employee as much as you hate him but one person trying to do socials, marketing, admin and god knows what else isn't sustainable if you want to grow the club. Shels recently advertised a videographer job of some sort with a 30k salary, it's great to see these clubs offering these kind of positions but it goes to show how far away we are from being able to compete off the pitch let along on it.