If we lose to Cork on Friday or beat them and get an away draw in the Cup, we have no home game scheduled from the 28th of August until the 16th of October.
Printable View
If we lose to Cork on Friday or beat them and get an away draw in the Cup, we have no home game scheduled from the 28th of August until the 16th of October.
While our own attendance have improved from last year we've only gone up by maybe 100 or so in terms of home support, the rest is all big away supports. Only a cup run will bring the people of Longford out these days
Some really good attendances by League of Ireland standards for the monday night fixtures. Nearly 4,000 at Oriel, nearer 2,000 at Limerick according to home fans, close to 2,000 for an improving Sligo, a TV game at Tallaght getting 2,500+ and maybe an extra 1,000 more only for the cameras, Bray would have only expected their usual hardcore 500+ while Galways attendance was the only disappointed attendance on the nite.
Not being an advocate for midweek games, but I was pleasantly surprised by the attendances, just goes to show that there is a market and audience out there for our league and all the promotion & advertisements by the clubs can only help.
Now we need the FAI to employ some professional group to show how best to promote this league and get the maximum audiences through the turnstiles, an extra few hundred people at games is a start as Dundalk did with the €5 offer.
Re-think the league format, less league games I think would allow more competitive weekend games and times to suit most fans routines.
Awful attendance.
That's the only league game we've got under 1,000 at this year, which says a lot about our supporters, considering how poorly we've performed at home consistently and the amount of stupid goals we ship.
We've only really played well in one home league game all year (v Bohs 5-3). The other league games we won v Limerick and Drogheda, we made very hard work of. Watching us at home this year hasn't been enjoyable. It's not too much of a surprise to see our attendances plummet. We have a worse home record than Limerick FFS. 9 losses in 13 home league games, conceding 29 goals.
761 in Galway tonight.
urgghhh
The ground is less than a mile from Eyre Square so that distance excuse is just piffle. The club does zero promotion, apart from the odd social media plug, which is poor form. Our home record has been shocking, so that doesn't help, but the club's lack of promotion doesn't help either. Apparently there is a marketing sub-committee in place. Only the members and God him/herself know what they do as marketing/promotion has been non existent
Our season has sort of petered out badly. I wouldn't agree with woodquayboy totally. I'd point the blame more on our atrocious home form.
As the season went on, the attendances gradually got worse. We were on an average of 1,500 for most of the season, which I think most United fans would've accepted as an average attendance. That has taken a huge hit in recent times with two attendances under 800. People want to see a team that's competitive and we have been awful at home all year. The league cup final doesn't make up for it. We're a harmless team.
Too late for signings now, our only hope is that we can get some of our influential players back from injury.
I'd say away teams must love visiting Terryland Park. There isn't one pig in our team (apart from maybe Stephen Walsh). We've got such a quiet squad.
Galway's a nice city to vist, Terryland is a nice little stadium, with a lovely pitch and nice dressing/facilities. Away supporters are well looked after.
You're almost guaranteed that our team will concede a few goals from set pieces (2 free headers tonight).
We are in deep trouble.
1,778 at Cork v Pat's.
I think it was the clubs who agreed with the FAI that ST are not valid for cup games, besides it would make things messy anyway as the gate is something like 40/40/20 split with home side paying officials.
This arrangement sees a reduction in Dundalk's recent seasons cup crowds also as we have around 1,200 ST holders, possibly a little more (and up to 500 free u12 ones), and a lot of these pick their cup matches also. I'm not sure what the ST figure is for Galway, but that was a desperately disappointing attendance, and worse if they said there was 250 or so from Dundalk.
I think the recent crowds indicate that the Galway core support is around 500. Another 500-700 would turn up if the team could win more than the odd game (esp home) and not get regularly outclassed like Derry recently. Agree that Barrett and Manning would really improve the team, I mean we are talking about a group of players that finished 3rd in the 1st division behind Shels last year. I understand the "local player" policy but maybe it could be implemented over a number of seasons.
The Galway public are not great at supporting teams, I go to hurling/football games and it is the same story. Also ST not valid is a factor, by the way I missed the game last night so partly to blame.
The GUST lads do a bit of promotions by putting some signs up on routes into the city, maybe the other stakeholders could do a bit also? Location of ground not a factor I think.
Adjusting Season Tickets is hardly the answer
If cup matches were to be included in a season ticket, it would either add to the cost of the ticket for the supporter, or reduce the retained revenue for the club (if 40% of the match ticket cost is due to the visiting club).
Couple hundred at Cockhill v Longford.
Supposedly around 1,500 at Cobh Wanderers v Sligo Rovers
Would put Cockhill Longford at 300ish.
I'd say about 1.000 at the Cobh game, and when it went 3-0 to Sligo after about 35 mins, many went to the bar in the club house and it was closer to 500 when the second half started. A lot of kids in the crowd helped swell the attendance.
Pity Wanderers season only started last week as it was really a miss match to be honest, which is the same I reckon for any of the non-league clubs that played league sides. Really its unreasonable to expect these junior clubs to be able to put up a fair challenge. The days of great cup up sets are well and truly gone in this competition now and for the future unless all leagues are run on similar seasons.
I wouldn't say that's true - the last two attendances have been shocking but we averaged nearly 1000 the year we got 6 points all season.
I think the team's dip in form hasn't helped at all with injuries etc. and the Drogheda game wasn't exactly an attractive fixture on Monday. Friday's was more disappointing but I suppose there wasn't much expectation of a win (the midweek league game against Dundalk saw a pretty decent crowd for the 4-2 loss about a month ago)
I would be expecting the League Cup Final to be close to a sell out and I think when we get Ryan Connolly back from injury we'll start to move the right direction - we've a huge game against Longford in two weeks and he's due back for that. We're a better team than Drogheda, Longford and Bray so I'm not too concerned about the relegation battle just yet!!
845 at Derry-Drogheda.
Our attendances are going to stay like that for the rest of the season.
Let's save the bragging rites until the season is over shall we boys. it's probabley odds on at least one of us will be fighting the relegation battle
if Longford lose to Bray next week, and the teams below them win, Longford will be joint 2nd last in the table
Frightens the life out of me
FAI Cup 3rd round fixtures & estimated attendances?
Friday
Bohemian FC v Bray W. 7.45pm 1,000+ Att. 1,218
Cork City v St.Pats (LIVE ON RTE) 7.25pm 2,000+ Att. 1,778
Derry City v Drogheda United 7.45pm 1,000+ Att. 845
Galway United v Dundalk FC 7.45pm 1,000+ Att. 761
Sheriff YC v Athlone Town 7.30pm 100-200+ Att. 350 est.
Tolka Rovers v Killester FC 7.45pm 100-200+ Att. 200 est.
Saturday
Cockhill Celtic v Longford Town 5pm 250+ Att. 300 est.
Cobh Wanderers v Sligo Rovers 7pm 250+ Att. 1,100 est.
Not much interest in the Cup really!
Which is sad. Back when I started going to games interest in the cup was very high- crowds would improve on their normal levels, even playing a team from the same division. But we seem to have followed the English mindset that has seen less and less value in cups.
It is sad if disinterest in the cups in a growing trend. Bit daft too considering the teams that are out and a potential draw opening up to a final. Making no assumptions on results potentially Dundalk and Cork drawing each other opens up a decent chance for a day out in the Aviva for others even the non league sides. If the current form guide sticks and Dundalk win the league and then the cup, do the cup runners up get the European slot or does it add to the league qualifiers? If it goes to the cup runners up, and nothing is a cert in a one off game, that is incentive enough for supporters to get out and help their side in the cup ties!