petty or not, the last thing any League of Ireland fan should be doing is giving people a reason not to go.Quote:
Originally Posted by bennocelt
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petty or not, the last thing any League of Ireland fan should be doing is giving people a reason not to go.Quote:
Originally Posted by bennocelt
Well said.
I think you're placing too much responsibility on the average LOI fan there. The letters page of a newspaper is a place to point out hypocrisy and double standards, and while it may not warm people's cockles to hear it, there is a certain hypocrisy to fans and the FAI basking in the adulation of UEFA while the domestic league is struggling as badly as ever, mainly due to lack of interest.Quote:
Originally Posted by tetsujin1979
It would have been a far better letter if, instead of having a pop at the fans in Poland, the writer had invited them to attend an LoI game this weekend, and suggested that they might find a way to keep the good cheer going just a little longer. The writer struck me as being far too snide and not a little bitter. This is the letter, by the way:
Sir, – According to figures in The Irish Times on Saturday, the overall attendance at five Airtricity League of Ireland games on Friday night last amounted to a meagre 7,754.
The majority of the “wonderful” Irish supporters who caused so much merriment when celebrating the defeats at Euro 2012 obviously have not recovered from their exertions and long travelling to go out and support local soccer.
But, no doubt, these dedicated fans will soon turn out in big numbers, as they did thousands of miles away, to boost crowds at League of Ireland matches. – Yours, etc, (http://www.irishtimes.com/letters/in...#1224319264653)
Somebody who would use that letter as a reason not to go to a game would have a whole host of other reasons not to go even if that letter hadn't been written, ranging from the distance they are from the nearest LOI club, or the cost of a ticket, to their having other plans on a Friday night.Quote:
Originally Posted by tetsujin1979
Is the letter snide and bsically pointless? Yes, definitely. But I honestly don't believe that people with a genuine interest in going along to a LOI game for the first time would be put off by it.
All too true - excuses are legion for those with no interest. But the league needs a constant stream of good publicity if it is ever to change people's perceptions, and pandering to the stereotype of the bitter, parochial LoI fan is not the best way to achieve it. It might seem inconsequential compared to clubs disappearing annually, or TV3-hyped small-fry hooligans, but over time lots of seemingly insignificant messages can contribute to building a better reputation for the league. At the moment, it's more 'great aches from little toecorns grow' than the proverb proper.Quote:
Originally Posted by osarusan
True, one letter isn't going to be the reason someone doesn't go to a game, but it could very well be the straw that breaks the camel's back. I changed jobs last year, after nine years in my previous position. Had a whole host of issues with the job, but it wasn't any one of them that made me leave, it was all of them together.Quote:
Originally Posted by osarusan
Like I said above, the last thing any League of Ireland fan should be doing is giving people another reason not to go to games. On top of that, is that letter really the public face the League of Ireland fans want to put out?
I think letters are published to stir debate or to offer another perspective, rather than to be seen to be representative of all opinion. I don't think one guy toeing the same "local football is more worthy than international football" line expressed by some here is going to have any effect.
The FAI should post a questionnaire to everyone attending the Germany home game in October (presumably a big crowd) detailing a list of questions about the LOI and what ROI fans' attitudes are towards it, and what would make them attend LOI more regularly. Offer a range of half-decent prizes to encourage people to participate and preface the questionnaire with a statement like "strengthening support for the domestic game is an important ingredient in ultimately sercuring international success. Every response received will be invaluable". Each ROI ticket sold could come with a free voucher for one or more LOI games - the FAI to rebate each club for every voucher redeemed (OK, there may be issues about ROI and LOI regulars but not insurmountable).
Given that we're on the topic of The Irish Times, I think they are a culprit in the context of Eminence Grice's point about publicity. For years they allowed Tom Humphries run ripshod over the League and even the national team, and have bowed at the altar of England's league. What chance does any kid who reads the sports pages (as I used to) have of forming any opinion other than "English football is everything even to an Irishman, our own league is just a peripheral detail"?
That’s a good point. Although I do think that some of their LoI coverage from their staffers (not their columnists/colour writers) is quite good. But it's buried beneath a pile of British football and rugby articles. Maybe equally problematic, though, is that the IT readership is less starry-eyed lads dreaming of being the next Irish legend, and more ABs (JICNARS scale) who influence sponsorship, advertising and marketing budgets in their businesses. They, as much as paying fans, are the people who need to see positive message about the league.Quote:
Originally Posted by Stuttgart88
If people don't want to attend matches, that's their business. But there's a number of current senior internationals that have a LOI background, and there is likely to be a number of future senior internationals currently plying their trade in the LOI. If you are an Irish fan isn't that reason enough to attend games? If you are a football fan do you really need a reason to attend games?
What would be the prize be? 2 tickets to UCD v Shels in November?Quote:
Originally Posted by Stuttgart88
Those not interested in the LOI, see it the same way as LOI fans see the LSL. If someone offered me a questionnaire during a Rovers - bohs game in Tallaght, asking what I think could improve the LSL, I would find the nearest bin to put it in, after I stopped laughing.
The LOI has to sell itself to new customers, but the LOI still operates on the same lines it always did. "Me fein".
Yeah, you're right. There's no point tapping into the temporary surge in interest in Irish football to even try and get a marketeer's perspective on what a huge block of Irish football stakeholders think of the LOI and what could attract some of them to it.
Just as there's no point in using the disappointing performances in Poland to take stock and ask where we can improve anything.
You didn't work on the board at Kodak at any point did you?
Very well played sir.Quote:
Originally Posted by Stuttgart88
I see someone takes a different view, one I happen to share as it happens, in today's letter's page. Perhaps a letters page is also a place to point out flawed thinking?Quote:
Originally Posted by Charlie Darwin
Sir, – While I share Noel Coogan’s frustration that the League of Ireland is not better supported, it should be recognised that Irish football is a broad church, the league being just one member. Huge numbers participate in football in Ireland at many levels and in many ways. All are valid stakeholders in our game, as are the many ex-pats who travelled to Poland, and are entitled to support our national team without attracting criticism.
In December 2011, The Irish Times cited a survey showing football to be the country’s most popular sport. But unlike rugby, where the Irish can watch Europe’s best players and teams on their doorsteps, the structure and economics of European football dictate against anything like this being possible and conspire against the League of Ireland being more popular. As far as the higher levels of the professional game are involved, the Irish are usually on the outside of the party looking in, so on those rare occasions when we get an invitation, we gladly accept. Unfortunately we left this one early. – Yours, etc,
What temporary surge? There is none, not in domestic football anyway.Quote:
Originally Posted by Stuttgart88
Not someone with a genuine interest, but I know from firsthand experience that the kind of tone that letter has - snide, condescending, holier-than-thou - doesn't help with a lot of people. I know several people, who just support English clubs, who dismiss the LoI as a league with a very cliquey atmosphere, due to their own (mostly online) interactions with people who only support an Irish club. No one wants to be lectured, looked down on or made to feel that their way of choosing/supporting a team is "wrong". It encourages nobody. I don’t want to be classed in the same group as the very bitter person who wrote that missive.Quote:
Originally Posted by osarusan
I'm guessing there is probably a large amount of people who support a team here and in England. I'm not sure what kind of promotion/marketing you could do to try and attract more support for the LoI of that variety. "Support your local team!" is all fine to say, but I think a message that emphasises the existence of a middle road between exclusively following one side of the Irish Sea or the other would be beneficial.
This one, presumably.Quote:
Originally Posted by mypost
https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net...55777271_n.jpg
Very good post by NFB.
Personally ambivalent towards the LOI though have numerous pals who're 'exclusive' or 'joint' fans of current member clubs. I don't think any of them were expecting a surge of interest based on the Euros;personally I'm unsure why a national team should have any profound effect on its domestic league.
Especially when they played as poorly as we did.
Anyway, this thread was about how others, outside Ireland, saw us. Mainly during the Euros, not our own sometimes tedious introspection...
And despite the usual predictable begrudger on here, the external feedback has been shown to be about 95% positive?
Which is surely no bad thing.
have we all seen the thank you ad from Poznan on Stephen's Green - http://www.balls.ie/2012/07/05/have-...tephens-green/
I think it's fair to say our qualification for the Euros caused a huge surge in interest in our international team not seen since 2002. What I would like to see is the FAI, through promotional work, somehow exploiting this whilst still in the public spotlight by linking increasing interest in the League of Ireland to the league's future development and, in turn, a potentially stronger and more secure international side in the long term.Quote:
Originally Posted by ArdeeBhoy
There's another on O'Connell Bridge.Quote:
Originally Posted by tetsujin1979
http://www.joe.ie/uploads/story/26638/26638-xlarge.jpg
The spelling is better on Stephen's Green.
Quote:
Originally Posted by geysir
Now, I'm no expert on the English language and on spelling, but, aren't they the exact same?
I don't think the spelling looks the exact same.
Do you really want to pedantically discuss the vagaries of layout perceptions?
Wow people really cannot lie to a boss anymore and go somewhere. Or lie to a spouse, etc... Between the seemingly thousand youtubes of Irish fans and billboards and signs, was anyone there not captured at least one time?
lol I was in Berlin this week fro the PJ gig. on tuesday I was in my irish attire and got a few looks. on the tube there a number of germans mention that we had world class fans and i could only laugh. My dundalk shirt got more looks lol as they where trying to figure out who it was
met a poor irish soul yesterday on the way home from poland who stopped over to catch the same flight back home. been there for 4 weeks and 3 days he said,
It was an unfortunate mistake on behalf of the sign designers to stick the i on a fold on the flip sign. There's a remnants of a tittle there if you look hard enough.Quote:
Originally Posted by geysir
And we all know how we like to look hard for tittles.
Speak for yourself Bonnie.
I remember years ago I was sitting with a pal at a wedding and we were reminiscing about Italia 90. His own wedding was the same day at the Q/F in Rome, so he hadn't gone out for any of the games. I was at all the games and I got on to talking about the Q/F and that how after the game X, Y and myself were just too disappointed to have more than a couple of drinks afterwards. "X and Y?" he fumed. "They were supposed to be at my wedding but said their dad was sick"! It took 12 years for them to be rumbled.Quote:
Originally Posted by Crosby87
I think I did. :)
well done stutta i can certainlt believe hand and foot and mouth from you. :D
Sort that typing out, please!
What will the rest of the world think?
:rolleyes:
Someone else agrees:Quote:
Originally Posted by DannyInvincible
Lets cash in on the spirit of Poland before it evaporates
by a sports sponsorship guy in yesterday's Indo.
And there's more...
http://agroundhoppersdiary.blogspot....&max-results=4
Nothing to do with LOI.Quote:
Originally Posted by DannyInvincible
nothing stopping clubs from working on getting it associated with the LOI eitherQuote:
Originally Posted by mypost
That's the point. It would be great if LOI clubs could somehow try and make a connection with this temporary surge in interest in the national team in order to promote the league and draw in more supporters. Make sure Irish football fans know there's a stadium down the road where they can get their "football fix"; somewhere where they can see potential future internationals on their doorsteps. Maybe even seek the assistance of former LOI players like Doyle, Fahey, Long, Coleman, Ward and McClean in doing some promotional stuff. The article to which Stutts linked also outlines some possible initiatives clubs could take. If it doesn't work out, so be it, but surely it's worth trying?Quote:
Originally Posted by mypost
---
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...Team_Badge.png
Badge of the week ~ Republic of Ireland
You can almost hear the haunting tin-whistle, can't you. The vivacious swirls and broken lines of the new Irish logo add a contemporary playfulness to the plain iconography of a football on a plain background. The circular lines are not quite closed, are they? The line leaves its home and roams around chirpily, but does it actually return to its starting place? Will it return for the wild rose that's waiting for it, in the place where the dark Mourne sweeps down to the sea, one wonders. This, like so many emigrant dreams, must remain unresolved.
The sparky nature of this image was designed to entice people to spend a weekend in Ireland pursuing "the craic". But you won't find it everywhere. It looks like you will in the Tourist Information films but establishments such as newsagents, dry cleaners, builders merchants, hospitals and back-street boxing clubs don't necessarily recognise the craic. Cameron Carter
From WSC.
THE Cameron Carter?
Im too lazy to put up a lil wayne thing.
People know there is local football down the road, but they don't want to know. Poles and other nationalities have been coming here for years, but the vast majority of them don't want to know either. They don't put up with "weekend" league games held two hours after a full working day, poor quality stadia, expensive ticket prices, and taking holidays from work as we have to do to watch away games, because that's the way it was always done.Quote:
Originally Posted by DannyInvincible
LOI clubs have to attract people, instead of adopting the "our way or the highway" approach. Refusing to cater for your customers is a sure way of not attracting them.