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Was down at a match last season and was around town for a while beforehand . There was little or nothing around town to suggest there was a game on that evening , plus with the ground so far out of town you don't get fans drinking in town before the game and then walking to the ground like you would in Sligo or Drogheda or Dundalk etc.Quote:
Originally Posted by outspoken
The town itself is in a bad state these days. Empty premises everywhere and not much signs of life. There isn't much in the way of disposable income floating around.
Yeah that's true enough , sad to seeQuote:
Originally Posted by Longfordian
Longford Leader was always very bad for coverage of Longford Town. Since the Longford News went belly up over a decade ago press coverage is extremely poor to say the least.Quote:
Originally Posted by culloty82
In regards to attendances in Bishopsgate think there is a huge disconnect between LTFC and the local soccer clubs. Also it doesnt help that Longford is a GAA county and always will be.
Strangely enough our crowds were always better with winter football. I remember when Stephen Kenny was in charge there was a huge connection between the club and Longford town in particular but since then it has declined majorly badly.
The massive crowds we got over 20 years ago we will never get again Im afraid to say!
It might not be coincidence that both Midland clubs are struggling.
As Stu says, you're always going to get some clubs whose attendances go down, meaning it's the bigger picture which counts.Quote:
Originally Posted by Kiki Balboa
I was referring to Rugby League, which has always been a professional sport. They're worried that some of their f-t clubs may now have to go p-t.Quote:
Originally Posted by Kiki Balboa
Whereas with Rugby Union, the (relatiuvely recent) transition to professional status has, with a few exceptions (Irish provinces, France), been a disaster for the game domestically throughout Eng/Scot/Wales/Ire in terms of finances and participation, with attendances none too clever either.
It could always be both (Covid and disillusionment etc). Though I suspect that if there is a drop-off in interest in Ireland for the EPL, also Celtic/Rangers, it may be down to the difficulty and expense of getting match tickets for trips over?0Quote:
Originally Posted by Kiki Balboa
It would be interesting to know how TV subscriptions are holding up - maybe folk are still watching their Eng/Scot team on the box at home or in the pub AND going out to their local LOI/IL team a bit more often?
While in England itself, EPL crowds are as high as ever, with almost all games being sold out, which is why virtually all the clubs are expanding their stadia (if they've not recently done so).
I daresay if you can persuade new people to give it a try, many will be impressed and come back again.Quote:
Originally Posted by Kiki Balboa
But having an attractive product is one thing, getting them in in the first place is quite another.
Therein lies a problem. In a rural region, it's important to have the local clubs on board.Quote:
Originally Posted by Martinho II
Has the club not worked on divide between themselves and local clubs though? They've a partnership with Melview and have invited loads of kids out to ground this season, players took pics and signed stuff for them, it was great to see. I agree with Nigel, you wouldn't know there's a game on in the town but how do you change that? Club put posters up for years, zero impact.Quote:
Originally Posted by Martinho II
It's been raised above and correctly that Longford Town is in an awful state, I was down home recently and I couldn't believe the amount of boarded up units. When you see bookmakers even shutting down you know things are bad. Not to mention the fueding and general ****e that has plauged the town in recent years, people dont want to go into longford and shop, times are tough.
Personally, I think the club missed a huge trick when we had Aodh Dervin, should have made him full-time and when he's not training he's in schools, he's getting pictures outside sponsors businesses etc
It's clear we've been raided by other clubs and we've turned to young unproven players. I'd gladly accept a few years of that if it meant the club invested off the field by hiring more full time staff. We don't even have merchandise to buy for xmas, small stuff like that really ****es supporters off.
you need to invite more of these clubs to the games, get them to meet the players etc. in time it will feed into the numbers as these kids get older
one thing that is counter productive is giving out loads of free tickets... if people get stuff for free they think its worthless, years ago at my club we gave out free tickets to first time visitors and we tracked them to see if they came again, and sure enough hardly any were used.
Yeah they've always had at least some merchandise available at Christmas. Shame they haven't this year. Wouldn't have made a fortune but every little helps. It's very hard to keep a LOI team going nowadays. If they need to cut the budget to keep the show on the road then that's something we have to live with.
I properly didnt explain myself right I appreciate that my club have ties with Melview FC which is a start but I am on about the senior CCFL sides based in Longford like Longford Celtic, Mostrim Athletic. I dont think that has being tapped into. Surely that could be given a go?
I'm not really sure what good that would do. It's a bog standard level of football that you'll never recruit players from and it's grown adults who've already got other commitments and interests so they aren't overly marketable. It's the kids we need to be trying to target. We definitely should be doing more but then again I've been told of clubs banning people involved with LTFC from attending their games. Players being told if they go on trial with LTFC they won't be on representative sides. Even when I was involved in the LDSL I always found there was an animosity towards LTFC.Quote:
Originally Posted by Martinho II
Some really big increases at quite a few clubs too, which is very encouraging. The league is definitely going through a growth spurt at the moment. Such that the capacity and state of some stadiums is now a real limitation on further growth.Quote:
Originally Posted by 2 Year Contract
Have you tried appointing a Climate Officer, or a 'Poet in Residence' ?Quote:
Originally Posted by outspoken
First Division Twitter followers:
Finn Harps 22500
Waterford 21100
Bray 20200
Galway 17700
Cobh 14300
Longford 13500
Wexford 12300
Treaty 8983
Kerry 5147
Athlone 5132
Probably more for the "Promotional Activities" thread, so will post more on same anon.
Is it, though?Quote:
Originally Posted by legendz
You could argue that they are actually in competition, at least when it comes to attracting volunteers to fill the various off-field roles, also sponsors to an extent. While when it comes to players, they will likely be competing for kids (though not adult players, obviously) for their Academy etc.
Looking eg at Fermanagh, you have a senior club, Ballinamallard, and you have 20-odd junior clubs in a rural county of 50k people. Essentially the Mallards operate at a remove from those others. This is because you have some people who are fans of Senior football, and some who are fans of Junior football via their local club. And while some of the latter may go to watch the Mallards when circumstances permit, especially if eg some of the big Belfast clubs are in town, basically these are separate activities.
At its extreme, you see this in England, where the fans of EPL clubs look down on local EFL clubs and vice versa, while further on down the pyramid, fans of non-league clubs consider theirs is "real football" while league fans consider it to be "pub football" etc - and this rivalry can apply to clubs which in are in the very same town or region!
Meaning that in the end, clubs like Longford Town should surely be looking to manage by their own resources, and not hope merely to survive by drawing on the (scant) resources of other, separate, clubs, solely because they're from the same county/area/region.
And to do that they need to be offering something that local clubs in their region cannot.
Interesting numbers (at least for a sad old statto like myself!).Quote:
Originally Posted by Kiki Balboa
In the above context, LOI figures (664k) stack up weill against GAA (880k) and Rugby (390k), But with these last two both being all-Ireland sports, you arguably might throw in another 400k-odd from the IL into the total figure for football, to contend that it is actually the "biggest" sport on the island overall.
So we are saying that there are more bums on seats at Football on this island when compared to Gaa County games. I would never have thought that its made my Chrimbo ;)
President cup final, Derry city v Shamrock rovers. Home tickets sold out with 600 away fans (guessing they'll sell out too). Took 8 mins to sell out home tickets online ?*??
More terrace tickets this season so probably just over 4k per game at the Ryan Mc Bride Brandywell stadium for next season.