Attendances 2019

The season should be extended by 4 or 5 weeks.
That may mean additional costs for the clubs not on 52 week contracts but the higher gates from no midweek matches would close the gap to some degree and its crazy that the league season is so short.

I can understand why the FAI keep weekends exclusively for the cup as the sponsor probably doesn't want their sponsorship to be of an event that takes place midweek to which nobody go's.
Would Harps agree to a 4 week season extension to avoid all the midweek trips? I'm not picking on Harps btw just as they are the most recent example of the problem of crazy scheduling

This is something I often wonder about. I suspect for a lot of clubs it's something that the board and manager/coaches/players wouldn't necessarily agree on. Most managers would presumably prefer more time between games but can clubs stretch contracts for longer on the back of slightly higher attendances over a longer period of time?

The vast majority of clubs end up with a load of blank weekends towards the end of the season any way. If we managed the time we had better, there would be no huge need to extend.

The league fixtures around the time of the start of europe should have the teams who play in Europe scheduled to play each other, then let's say dundalk v shams and cork v Waterford being moved only effects 2 games instead of the 4 teams effecting 4 games and moving games should suit all involved theoretically anyway, is this solution too obvious or am I missing something?

You'd get another two weekends in if they didn't cancel all league games for FAI Cup quarter and semi finals.

Ridiculous that no other games go ahead those weekends.

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Originally Posted by sbgawa

Would Harps agree to a 4 week season extension to avoid all the midweek trips? I'm not picking on Harps btw just as they are the most recent example of the problem of crazy scheduling

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I don't know about Harps, but the clubs generally have repeatedly rejected this on the basis of cost, according to Fran Gavin

For example a club with a €6,000 budget would obviously add €24,000 to their costs and would get the benefit of 2 home games being weekend instead of midweek. This would need in the region of 1,000 extra people to attend on the weekend slot over the current midweek fixtures. Naturally the number of extra punters required rise along with any budget. Clubs have this won't work

The answer lies elsewhere - such as some of the suggestions above on better use of the current calendar

It doesn't necessarily have to cost more to play a little longer. If we're playing for 44 weeks instead of 40 everyone gets 10% less pay every week/month and gets the same amount per year or a small fraction more. The only real problem with that is it impinges on certain players' ability to claim the dole, but if we're going to factor that into our decision making process we might as well just jack it in now.

I think last year something like two thirds of League games were played half way through the season so a better spread and utilizing some of the suggestions above could lead to no Mondays (except replays or postponed games) without extending the season by 5 weeks.But that would require somebody in the FAIlure to actually care and put some thought into it.

We could move stuff around , play on FAI cup weekends etc etc but i honestly think that is just fiddling around without really solving the problem.
We need to extend the season by 4 weeks AND schedule things better to allow for postponements due to weather / Europe/ Internationals or whatever.

I have no idea what budget Harps have but if i was playing for harps and was told i was getting the same money (in total) for an extra 4 weeks of training / playing but i wouldn't have to play midweek matches and look for two half days from work in the same week i would be happy with that compromise. With better attendances you could probably pay for 2 weeks of the 4....

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Originally Posted by marinobohs

I think last year something like two thirds of League games were played half way through the season so a better spread and utilizing some of the suggestions above could lead to no Mondays (except replays or postponed games) without extending the season by 5 weeks.But that would require somebody in the FAIlure to actually care and put some thought into it.

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While it cant be organised in advance, if two teams are out of the cup then allowing leagues go ahead on Cup weekend, where possible, could help with fixture congestion or reduce midweek games later in the sseasom.

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Originally Posted by dundalkfc10

Cork fans were far sounder when they were one of their 20 previous clubs!

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Good one. *thumbs up*.

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Originally Posted by sullanefc

Good one. *thumbs up*.

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If only there was some sort of thanks button on this forum...

420 at Limerick and Drogs, lol.

2832 @ Oriel

Don't think there were any more than 1,000 in Finn Park. Maybe less.

2940 in Dalyer officially. Home end sold out

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Originally Posted by nigel-harps1954

Don't think there were any more than 1,000 in Finn Park. Maybe less.

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Was surprised by how small the crowd was myself. Thought the visit of Cork would have been a lot busier.

Anyone know why we have a mid-season break in years where there are no big international tournaments - like 2019 ?

Healthy crowd of 1,216 at Terryland Park tonight.

A decent hit off the opening night, but still quiet good for First Division. That's two home losses though, we need to start getting a few results at home or our next attendance will drop to 800-900 or worse even.

TBF to Bray, they brought a decent away support, maybe 50ish.

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Originally Posted by Shearer

420 at Limerick and Drogs, lol.

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Half the attendance of the previous game. Everyone pre match expected no goals due to the lack of any scoring threat.

16 in the away section.

1215 in Finn Park,felt less tbh and very disappointing really.

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Originally Posted by joey B

1215 in Finn Park,felt less tbh and very disappointing really.

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Half the crowd of the previous week v a club that see themselves as a glamour outfit. It is tempting to call ye the most fickle support in the league but I would guess that the mean travel distance for the average Harps fan might be double that of any of the Leinster clubs. It would take half a dozen seasons of relative success to bed down a core of 1300/1500 per week for the next half dozen given the commitment required from yeer support.

In fairness, the weather was brutal all week in Donegal. Many didn't see the game going ahead at all tonight. Flooding all across the county. I'm surprised we broke 1,000 at all.

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Originally Posted by redarmyfaction

Half the crowd of the previous week v a club that see themselves as a glamour outfit. It is tempting to call ye the most fickle support in the league but I would guess that the mean travel distance for the average Harps fan might be double that of any of the Leinster clubs. It would take half a dozen seasons of relative success to bed down a core of 1300/1500 per week for the next half dozen given the commitment required from yeer support.

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There's plenty of reasons you could give for a drop off I suppose,the weather being paticularly brutal,Cork bringing bar UCD and probably Waterford the least away fans of the season,the fact it's the third Friday in a row that we've a home game and maybe the casual fan won't fork out 3 weeks in a row the worry of course is that if the results continue as they are it could fall even further.

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Originally Posted by joey B

There's plenty of reasons you could give for a drop off I suppose,the weather being paticularly brutal,Cork bringing bar UCD and probably Waterford the least away fans of the season,the fact it's the third Friday in a row that we've a home game and maybe the casual fan won't fork out 3 weeks in a row the worry of course is that if the results continue as they are it could fall even further.

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It isn't only travel distances ye have been against ye there's a big differ from rolling out on the Luas or cruising down the motorway to a game than going clutch gear clutch, turn turn, turn, mirror to milimetre mirror with the oncoming for 20k in the driving sleet/snow/rain before u you hit the good road, a road the a of the country would call a dirt track. The asks are a lot different and when you think that larger urban centres like Ennis, Tralee, Carlow etc could not imagine putting a team in our league then the Harps support is pretty good.

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Originally Posted by redarmyfaction

It isn't only travel distances ye have been against ye there's a big differ from rolling out on the Luas or cruising down the motorway to a game than going clutch gear clutch, turn turn, turn, mirror to milimetre mirror with the oncoming for 20k in the driving sleet/snow/rain before u you hit the good road, a road the a of the country would call a dirt track. The asks are a lot different and when you think that larger urban centres like Ennis, Tralee, Carlow etc could not imagine putting a team in our league then the Harps support is pretty good.

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Tralee and Carlow did try to plot a course through the A Championship. I travelled from the environs of Ennis to the Markets Field last night. People will travel when they want to.

2,103 at the Showgrounds.

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Originally Posted by legendz

Tralee and Carlow did try to plot a course through the A Championship. I travelled from the environs of Ennis to the Markets Field last night. People will travel when they want to.

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Ennis to Limerick is Motorway, Donegal roads with black ice on them are a different prospect on a winter's night.

Decent crowd in the Showgs, nearly 20 from UCD which is a 600% increase on their normal average.

That is an impressive attendance in Sligo last night given and the oppo, no disrespect and all that and the weather, roughly 13 k at games so this series of matches.

The game had been in doubt earlier in the day and with another downpour an hour before kick off combined with a couple of poor displays and our poor facilities it was always going to hit the crowd badly.

They missed a cracker all the same.

4,389 in Inchicore.

Wow. Didn't think Inchicore held remotely close to that

Great crowds. The loi is cool you know

I’ve said to friends that I’d love to see the league getting 20k through the door per match series. Rovers have the biggest scope for improvement in numbers, and I think it’s a matter of time.

It’s a real pity that we simply don’t get enough buy-in from the govt for support for the infrastructure around the league such as sufficient public transport targeted towards match day league of Ireland supporters. I think if we were regularly pulling in 20k a week, it’s a good sign.

I know the Friday night time slot suits a lot of clubs for home games, but I can’t help feeling it’s a limiter.

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Originally Posted by pineapple stu

Wow. Didn't think Inchicore held remotely close to that

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Officially a sell out. We had more for the Newcastle friendly last year it was much closer to 5,000 but no need for segregation or an away allocation for that game.

3 Home games so far this season and our average attendance has been 3200, obviously that will drop but a great start.

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Originally Posted by PartySaint

Officially a sell out. We had more for the Newcastle friendly last year it was much closer to 5,000 but no need for segregation or an away allocation for that game.

3 Home games so far this season and our average attendance has been 3200, obviously that will drop but a great start.

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Great to see crowds across the league up. Early days but there certainly seems to be a lot more interest in LOI this season (not sure why TBH), amazed the number of people who previously were disinterested who have commented on LOI in recent weeks.It definitely is more 'cool' :cool: for some reason.

Still a lot of work to be done, but great start to the season.

Pats Rovers last season after 5 or 6 games would have attracted far less as both sets of supporters wouldn't have had the same optimism about the league even at that early stage, both had potential ro go top of the league with a win.
Bohs v Derry would have been hugely lower as well, Bohs went in to the match top of the league.

A side benefit of the "potential" of the top two not being the same again is bringing more people out and the early season optimism is lasting longer.
Cork crowds are down which is hurting a bit.
If Rovers and or Pats/Bohs can keep winning a few matches the Dublin derbys will attract decent crowds.

Lots of reasons to be optimistic in general , hopefully those nice people in Dundalk will wait a few more matches before turning on the afterburners.
That Derry v Dundalk game next week has a big feel about it, if Derry can get a result other teams will take heart , if Dundalk steamroller them a la Waterford it will start to look ominous.

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Originally Posted by marinobohs

Great to see crowds across the league up. Early days but there certainly seems to be a lot more interest in LOI this season (not sure why TBH), amazed the number of people who previously were disinterested who have commented on LOI in recent weeks.It definitely is more ':cool:cool' for some reason.

Still a lot of work to be done, but great start to the season.

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It is obviously all to do with the profile Dundalk has brought to the league and the media waxing lyrical about the way we play - sure even Dunphy gave us a shout out!

I can only speak for myself. On here I've always been an Ireland poster, but I've always been interested in the League of Ireland. Our school had a huge St Pats following. However in the last year, maybe two years, I would say that my priority is checking the League section first, followed by the Ireland section.

I would never have felt suitably qualified to talk about the ins and outs of domestic football before, and still don't now.

I don't think so much that it's cool to support the league suddenly, I think the underage structures are bringing the domestic league a lot more into focus, and the Dublin clubs are definitely stepping up their efforts at attracting fans.

Personally I just want football on this island to be the best it can be, from crowds, the facilities, standard of football. That will all impact on the senior team.

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Originally Posted by Nesta99

It is obviously all to do with the profile Dundalk has brought to the league and the media waxing lyrical about the way we play - sure even Dunphy gave us a shout out!

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We all know the fact is the LOI needs a successful Rovers to thrive.... common factor over first 5 series of games is that Rovers were involved in the match that had the highest attendance and we’re top of the league QED