Duh...:rolleyes: It's the cup final, not the final game of the season - the FAI's showpiece should be played in sunshine, not a howling gale with torrential rain!
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Football in this country was (even more so) on it's knees in the days of the winter league. There's still many who need to get the heads out of their arses who seem to view attendance ot LOI matches as some sort of obligation or noble suffering. It's not. It's entertainment and has to be presented to Joe Public as such on terms dictated by the market or it will die.
So go and offer Joe Public a return to frost-bitten Sunday afternoons standing around some godforesaken resemblance of a post apocalyptic nightmare feeling like an extra from Stalingrad and watching your team losing two nil at home to a junior side in an early round of the cup.
Offer it and see what your answer is ...if they'll get off their couch or barstool and be distracted from Celtic or the Mankies long enough to answer you that is.
As for atmosphere maybe just me but I think more people join in with the darker evenings.
I feel there are too many distractions to get the less devoted league of ireland fans out on a summers day then there would on winters evening.Even to Ballybofey.The die hards will always go!
But only diehards will go out on a cold and wet winter evening, and there aren't enough diehards. If there are more distractions in the summer then we need to make our distraction more attractive. I've been to Ballybofey (for example) in both January and June and it's a no-brainer determining which experience I prefer. Sunshine and warmth wins over sleet and cold every time.
If nothing else, the summer season makes it easier for the diehard. Away games in the summer are a joy while away games in winter are quite the opposite.
So when would you like the cup final to be played? It rains 12 months of the year in this country, and 50 days in a row last summer alone. It is right that it's at the end of the season.Quote:
Originally Posted by colblimp
For the winter fans, how many games would have been played this weekend, given the sleet, snow, gales, and heavy rain on sh!te pitches?? :confused: :rolleyes: That's before you consider frost, and fog. Furthermore, how many non ultras would have turned up at them??
Given some of the freezing cold days over the past month I can safely say that I don't miss winter football one bit.
No difference between night and daylight atmosphere really, if groups/people are willing to make the effort.
Rovers Vs. Pats from the summer:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=GS7D-bjGg4A
surprised nobody has mentioned the totty factor, due to summer football the level of good looking birds at games has increased by a massive amount
great if game is boring, gives a extra factor to enjoy, much prefer that to big coats in december;):D
I much prefer summer footie...
Also seeing as it is not clashing with the premiership as much it brings bigger crowds.
i prefer when its dark dont know why just do!
I also prefer night time matches.
I find that most people who are in favour of summer soccer like it for purely selfish reasons - "I don't like the cold so if I'm going to the game anyway, I'd like the weather to be nicer". 13,000 turned up to watch Leinster play a second-string Welsh team on one of the coldest nights of the year.
Taking a break in the middle of the season (the only date that has been confirmed so far) so the players can have a week in Lanzarote does not reflect well on a league that has supposedly become more professional. Running away from the EPL fixture list smacks of desparation but scheduling the season opposite the most popular spectator sports in the country looks downright foolish (not to mention the World Cup and Euro championships).
1 reason why I will never ever want to see a return to Winter football.
Friday, 26 January 1996, Waterford v Home Farm Everton at the RSC.
You ever see the movie Stalingrad......:eek:
you'll know what I mean.