FAI Invites First Division Expressions of Interest

Whatever about Salthill's dire performance in the LOI and their subsequent unsavoury role in the demise and half-baked ressurection of Galway United, they did earn their spot in the league on the football field and they provided the funding to do so. The real issue is they were promoted to a closed league they were, in the long-term, ill-equipped to compete in short of cannibalising football in the city. That was 100% the failing of the FAI and the League of Ireland and a failing that will probably never be properly rectified.

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Originally Posted by holidaysong

This topic has replaced the asterisk as the annual guaranteed talking point.

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Progression !

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Originally Posted by NeverFeltBetter

Galway cannot support more than one LOI team

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They can barely support one

Whats the average attendance when non LOI teams play each other in FAI cup first round?. My opinion is that any team who cannot guarantee a min attendance of 500 at home games has no business in joining LOI as they wont last. eg Kildare County.

If FAI are to go down route of making new teams, I would like that club to be allowed a year or 2 to set up proper sustainable structures in place, be given time to build a fan base so they can succeed, otherwise we will have another Sporting Fingal.

I would like to either see an non LOI team join the league, but unless its going to be a sustainable for the club in years to come its a waste of time & we should have 1 div.

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Originally Posted by Trainee

My opinion is that any team who cannot guarantee a min attendance of 500 at home games has no business in joining LOI as they wont last.

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..so...half the current First Division teams?

How the **** are you supposed to guarantee something like that? You could certainly hope and expect it but no more.

Coming from a Galway Utd fan as well, or the current reincarnation of them, tut tut :rolleyes:

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Originally Posted by Trainee

My opinion is that any team who cannot guarantee a min attendance of 500 at home games has no business in joining LOI as they wont last.

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The team leading the First Division can't get 500 at their home games.

Forget the first, several teams in the top tier can't get that.

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Originally Posted by NeverFeltBetter

Forget the first, several teams in the top tier can't get that.

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True, it's a silly suggestion.

Just to emphasise the point with nigel-harps' very appreciated stats, the average attendance for the First is actually under 500 a game: http://foot.ie/threads/187964-Attend...=1#post1780552

And it's actually up on the last two years to boot, probably because Salthill and Mervue's numbers are no longer being factored in.

Any new teams entering the LOI should have to sign say a 5 year contract stating there intent on staying in the league. The FAI entry fees over this 5 year period should be then gradually introduced year on year until the 5th year where they would have to pay the same as everyone else (E.g. if say the yearly fees were 50 grand, the 1st year the new club would have to pay 10 grand, the second year 20 grand etc.) This would at least give the new clubs a bit of leeway in laying a more solid foundation in the league. If the club that comes in cannot meet these requirements say come year 3, some sort of penalty could be applied (cash fines aimed at the board of the club and/or playing restrictions of the club in other leagues etc), so the pros and cons of the contract would be levelled out.

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Originally Posted by Olander

The team leading the First Division can't get 500 at their home games.

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We can, in fairness, and are lately but we couldn't guarantee it.

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Originally Posted by Longfordian

We can, in fairness, and are lately but we couldn't guarantee it.

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You're leading the Division and more than likely going to win it. You should be getting around the 1000 mark at most of your home games.

Both of our games against you at Flancare were very poorly attended. The game in April had barely 400 at it, I couldn't believe how poor the crowd was. You brought over half that to Terryland on the opening day.

Limerick's average the year they won the FD was something like 750, and that's a city with 90K (Wiki, includes suburbs). Don't be so quick to criticise Longford, who have less than a 10K population.

Edit: 734. That's 1 in 124. Longford are getting 1 in 22.

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Originally Posted by Olander

You're leading the Division and more than likely going to win it. You should be getting around the 1000 mark at most of your home games.

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I love these sort of statements. Who says what crowds clubs should be getting? As long as the club is sustainable they're grand. I'm sure they'd love to get more and are trying to do so, but the main thing is the club is in good shape.

Even when we were winning cups and in the top 5 in the league we weren't getting 1000 regularly. As pointed out above we're working with a very small population.

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Originally Posted by Longfordian

Even when we were winning cups and in the top 5 in the league we weren't getting 1000 regularly. As pointed out above we're working with a very small population.

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It's simple then isn't it. Clubs don't need to attract more fans in the gate, they need to attract more citizens to their home towns and the crowds will surely grow exponentially. :p

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Originally Posted by Longfordian

Even when we were winning cups and in the top 5 in the league we weren't getting 1000 regularly. As pointed out above we're working with a very small population.

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There's a pretty big group of people who used to go to matches back then every week, who don't live near Longford these days as well. The poor old town is fairly dead at the best of times. I think the highest average season attendance we had was somewhere in the region of 1,200, that'd be well over 10% of Longford Towns total population these days wouldn't it? This was also all during the winter seasons which suited our fan base better.

Pretty sure Longford won't be taking advice from Galway on how to run their club