Clubs divided over future LOI format?

Haven't posted on here in a good while, but from a personal point of view the last few pages really make me wish that Kildare County were still around. Many towns/clubs are being mentioned as possibilities to enter the league at some point in the future, but I really do not understand what it takes for a club to be successful, in my opinion, under current structures it is near impossible for a new club to be formed and sustainable at League of Ireland level.

Looking at Kildare as an example, a county of over 200,000 people yet no LoI representative team anymore. Admittedly it is a predominantly gaelic football county, but soccer is also quite popular around the county. Station Road is a ground perfectly suitable for a LoI first division club, around 850(ish) seats, stands on either side of the pitch (only one covered), a bar in the clubhouse, easily accessible by rail/road/bus, not more than a 10 minute walk from Newbridge town centre, located in a town of 20,000+ with Naas only 10 minutes away. Now I'm sure there is much more to justify entering a team, but it really seems like the perfect area to have a league of Ireland team.

However as you are all aware, Kildare County failed despite the best efforts of everyone involved with the club. Initially crowds were good and results were decent, but both fell significantly by the end. It honestly wrecks my brain regularly (3 years later) why the club was unsustainable. As I said, I believe under current structures it is very unlikely a team will form and be sustainable. The FAI at the very minimum need to lower costs for teams entering the league and assist in helping new clubs get their act together, in order for the league to be taken seriously it needs to be ran much better.

Good post from Kildare.

Ultimately clubs need a significant core fan base and the support of the wider local community to survive the inevitable hard times.

There were enough people in Cork, Derry, Drogheda, Dundalk etc that would not and could not accept the prospect of their town losing their football team.

However, in Monaghan, Fingal, Kilkenny, and Kildare there weren't.

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Originally Posted by nigel-harps1954

Personally, I'd love to see Kilkenny back. Fantastic little ground, great memories of our last promotion season down there. Lovely city, great place to spend a weekend, lovely people.

It's a real shame however, that I just don't see it happening. The only way forward for Kilkenny city is if they applied to be part of the league and ran an all amateur side with local players from the likes of Freebooters and Evergreen.

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The problem with that idea is that with an amateur side of local based players would just want to play against each other than on the same team as each other. The majority of players in the city have a background in either club and the rivalry is fierce. The last time both teams had sets of players willing to put aside the club rivalries the KDL won or had deep runs in the Oscar Traynor competition. I'm not sure if a LOI club would have enough pull for a lot of the better/necessary players to forfeit playing junior of a Sunday to play on a Tuesday evening in Ballybofey or Galway. Possibly if the games were only ever on guaranteed to be played on Sat/Sun (even Friday is a stretch) do I think it would work.

There is the talent for a local team already playing within the LOI - Dave Mulcahy, Sean McGuire, Graham Doyle, Aidan Keenan, Dean Broaders, Chris Browne, Ben Ryan, Lee Delaney, Peter Higgins, Packie Holden, Billy Brennan and couple of others are all locals. Plus there are plenty who have played in the LOI at some stage that would still be good enough.

I just don't think the draw would be enough to be sustainable from a player perspective but would definitely from a huge boost from an interest perspective.

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Originally Posted by White Horse

Good post from Kildare.

Ultimately clubs need a significant core fan base and the support of the wider local community to survive the inevitable hard times.

There were enough people in Cork, Derry, Drogheda, Dundalk etc that would not and could not accept the prospect of their town losing their football team.

However, in Monaghan, Fingal, Kilkenny, and Kildare there weren't.

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Agree with the core fan base point. Kilkenny nearly reached that point in that glorious 1st time getting promoted. If the following season hadn't been so abysmal I think that a solid core could indeed have been maintained and developed. Over half the regular crowd at the time was in the 12-18 age bracket and it's around this age that I think someone will still be a little bit of a glory hunter (esp the younger of that group) and once we were pummelled week after week, the interest died out a lot quicker than anticipated. Even going down on the last day/week would have been a totally different story. Relegation with 4 or 5 games left to play (mathematically even though in reality it was more 10 games left) was tough to take. I think the 2000-2001 season was the nail in the coffin in terms of developing a core fan base. Fickle I know but in terms of pulling power versus the GAA here, the split is approx. 85% hurling, 10% soccer, 5% the rest. And plenty of that 10% crosses over to the hurling too.

Another case of what could have been.

Hopefully someday it will be a case of what it can be again.

Read somewhere that today is the deadline for new applications to the league .

I thought "expressions of interest" had to be in weeks ago.

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Originally Posted by Kildare Lad

However as you are all aware, Kildare County failed despite the best efforts of everyone involved with the club. Initially crowds were good and results were decent, but both fell significantly by the end. It honestly wrecks my brain regularly (3 years later) why the club was unsustainable. As I said, I believe under current structures it is very unlikely a team will form and be sustainable. The FAI at the very minimum need to lower costs for teams entering the league and assist in helping new clubs get their act together, in order for the league to be taken seriously it needs to be ran much better.

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Was a Station road 2 or 3 times and always enjoyed the trips there(especially the the last away game in 2004) great club with good facilities. But unfortunately the average Irish (so-called) football fan has more interest in watching foreign teams on the TV then they do for watching their own local club live. And under the current regime in the FAI I can't see that changing or any major effort to do so

Salthill have called an EGM for next week - rumor is they could decide to pull out of the league

http://www.salthilldevon.ie/news/183...ecember-8-00pm

Also please note: The EGM will be followed immediately, the same night by a General meeting to Review the LOI season and discuss next season

That says the EGM is over changing the date of AGM's. Whose saying SD are pulling out?

Maybe they're having a general meeting to talk about how well the LOI season went.