am i the only one

hey,
being irish and being a huge football fan, i am obviously a huge fan of our national team, but i absolutly resent the fact that i can never go to see our national team play competitivly (and even friendlies). i've tried every avenue i can think of and have ended up banging my head off the wall every time i speak with the fai. i live in the dun laoighaire area and i don't know of any local clubs that get tickets. the closest club i know of with a fan club is bray wanderers and i'd feel kind of lousy joining a club just to get international tickets ( i would like to join a club if it was local because at least i would have an attachment to it). i rang an international supporters club and to be honest they were less than friendly and didn't seem too eager to invite new members to join. the fai said there is a 900 strong waiting list for season tickets:rolleyes: and touts well you know yourself (120 euro for republic of ireland vs georgia) :eek:. i go to all the friendly matches (sold through ticketmaster) but i want to go to every match i can so i'd really appreciate if anyone could suggest anything to me. im really sorry for the rant and for whining, i'm just a bit fed up with the fact i can't go see the lads play and have to watch them on sky sport:mad:

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Originally posted by greg o brien
i'm just a bit fed up with the fact i can't go see the lads play and have to watch them on sky sport:mad:

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It's just a pity your not watching them exclusively on Sky Sports...

very little sympathy for you mate. It's hard for everyone to get tickets. The fans idea just benefits a few thousand, pitance in the larger scheme of things and it's just a little loyalty bonus attached to supporting the eL.

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Originally posted by greg o brien
hey,
being irish and being a huge football fan,

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Without wanting to stir up the hornet’s nest again, maybe a huge football fan like yourself should be going to the Carlisle Grounds anyway. I mean, 10 minutes on the dart and you're there.... Then you wouldn't feel guilty about joining the supporters club, and hey you might even enjoy it and have fun....

If you're in Dún Laoghaire, UCD is as close to you, if not closer, than Bray. Our supporters club is happy to take new members. We distribute what international tickets we get as evenly amoungst our members as we can.

You can join by talking to anyone in the program shop in Belfield Park. If you feel bad about joining a supporters club of a club you dont support, you'll find that season tickets to Belfield Park are quite reasonably priced.

Hardly a lecture.... I personally think it is a fair point if someone's a "huge football fan" to suggest going to live local games...

They should increase the number of block bookers and have less to go on general sale.Then you'd get larger crowds at games against every oppostion.I am on the BB waiting list but there's like 900 ahead of me and it's moving very slow.I don't think I can be guarenteed a ticket for at least 8 or 10 years.
Can't wait!:D

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Originally posted by Macy
I personally think it is a fair point if someone's a "huge football fan" to suggest going to live local games...

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Some might suggest that going to eircom League games would be enough to turn anyone off football :D :D :D .


On a more serious note, the FAI have administered a block-booking scheme for over a decade. Supporters who joined then and remained on the list have no problems. Many of those on the block booking list get quite a few tickets per game. I get five per game but I have heard of one person who gets 18 (!!) per game. This is fair enough as the purchaser agrees to buy the same amount of tickets for every game. (In practice this does not seem to be strictly enforced as those who do not take tickets for every friendly game are still offered tickets for competitive matches.)

The major problem is with 'new' supporters like Greg. As the FAI refuse to accept new names on the waiting list (and also refuse to increase the allocation of current block-bookers) it is a difficult situation for those who want to go to all matches.

I would have said that the official Republic of Ireland supporters club would gladly accept new members and would be the best source of tickets for newer supporters such as Greg. See the Evening Herald every Thursday evening for contact details.

Greg,

It can be difficult to get tickets to the higher profile matches at Lansdowne but don't be put off...i understand you don't have a real interest in local football but you can look for a team to support as it is is indeed needed. If not ask to be put on the waiting list for the block booking system... info@fai.ie ..talk to a Mary Byrne....she will put you on the list and at least you will know that in the future you will be able to get tickets..i myself am one of the 900+ and we got tickets to the Brazil game if thats the game that has you annoyed......there are ways around the ticket issue if you keep looking...just because you are a huge fan does not mean you have an aytomatic right to tickets...so many of them are corporate tickets etc..etc..

keep puggin....

Check out these A holes who are selling theres for profit....


http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...category=58740

The problem really comes with young or 'new' fans. People with a genuine interest can only add their names to the block booking list and wait like everybody else.

Greg, i'd suggest you take Bald Student up on his offer, you'd never know, you might grow to like it.

Hopefully the redevelopment of landsdowne will create an extra few thousand block booking places, that'll help the 900 out.

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Originally posted by tiktok
Hopefully the redevelopment of landsdowne will create an extra few thousand block booking places

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It's likely that they'll sell 10 year tickets as they had planned to do for eircom Park. In the event of this happening, many people may be put off by the cost of a lump sum payment.
Not sure if they'll maintain the block booking scheme.
They may develop a ticket registration scheme where by registered members can apply for tickets before they go on general sale.
The offer to join UCD is genuine and at the very least you may even make some contacts.

thanks for all the suggestion, they are much appreciated. this thread is really adressed to anyone who feels you should support a specific irish club to see the international team. (the truth be known, our national team is the only team in the world i'd call myself a supporter of and i don't think that makes me any less of a football supporter). one thing i would like to clear up is that i am actually interested in the el and i do keep an eye the results, comings and going. i would like to join a club and be actively support and contribute to a local club. But it is a bit ridiculous that i HAVE to support a club to see my national team. a strong argument against this is the fact that many people i know live in the back end of nowhere and it isnt so easy to get to a club, so are these people not intitled to see the national team, are the people living on the aran islands not entitled to see the national team because they arent affiliated with an el club? and granted its easier for me to get to el clubs than others but i shouldnt have to join a club or make corperate friends to see the international team. if it getting to see the international team is a bonus for supporting the eircom league (as suggested above) then i would see the fai as being completely elitist and they are also discriminating against those who are not in a position to be an active supporter at an el club.

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Originally posted by greg o brien
if it getting to see the international team is a bonus for supporting the eircom league (as suggested above) then i would see the fai as being completely elitist and they are also discriminating against those who are not in a position to be an active supporter at an el club.

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you don't understand, do you...

say eL clubs get an average of 200 tickets each, and really it's little or none... thats 4,400 and the fans initive to bring colour and noise to Landsdowne road gets in 1000 tickets, that's only 5,400 tickets, where are the other 27,000 tickets going and to whose affiliation are those supporters connected to... How can you say it's an elitist to grant 1,000 tickets in the name of a colourful and noisy support? We're helping to sustain the senior game in Ireland. Nobody else is...

What about the tickets junior clubs and schoolboy clubs get?

Getting tickets for senior internationals in any game is difficult. You need insider contacts to get tickets for the rugby matches as well.

no i obviously don't understand xlex, i don't understand where 27000 tickets go, i don't understand why fans are being left out in the cold with out any oppurtunity of being allowed in. i don't understand why i'm being forced to pay the touts (who have no problem getting tickets apparently) ridiculous amounts of money to see my national team. i don't understand why the taxes of the irish people should pay for a stadium that they will never be allowed into. i don't understand how anyone living in a remote area or with no links to an eL club or a block bocker goes about getting a ticket, so no i dont understand....

thats why i posted this thread. having said that you seem to think i have something against the eL clubs or there reciept of tickets, of course i don't. i think it is absolutely incredible how the eL has grown in the last decade and this growth is invaluable to the national team. all i want to know is why i'm not allowed to see my national team, surely my money is as good as anyone elses. surely there is a better way of distributing tickets rather than the block booking system. even if they released 10,000 to the general public (5000 to ticket master and 5000 on the day at the stadium to cut down touting). i have been to many hurling and gaelic football games and i have never had a problem getting tickets, dispite the fact that clubs all over country are provided with tickets. i got tickets to the leinster final between kilkenny and wexford last summer no bother, they just sold a number to the general public outside Croke park and you can't say fairer, because atleast you were given a decent oppurtunity. first come first served everyone has a chance. but the way international football is dealt with the general public is never afforded any real oppurtunity.

also the fact that is the same in international rugby doesn't make it any better. just makes more disappointed fans not being given an equal oppurtunity.

I know it's a cliche to say that tons of tickets are going to corporate tossers who know sweet FA about football, but just for the record...............a mate of mine who works in a Continental European bank in Dublin is being taken to the Brazil game, along with 8 other lads (including Irish, Belgians, French and Germans) he works with courtesey of an American broker based in London!

What makes it more galling is that my mate has zero interest in football, and claims very few of the rest of the lads he works with have any interest in Ireland, only Brazil.

Made me choke on my pint when he told me. I'm sure we can expect a less than frenetic welcome for the Irish team when they emerge from that segment of the ground....

That's the annoying sickening thing about the way tickets are being handed out. It seem's you've got more chance of getting a ticket for game's if your in a golf club not a football club. They go on about the lack of atmosphere @ lansdowne over the last ten years, well look @ the thousands of suit's and people dressed for the golf course to see where that problem started. Ticket's should'nt be going on mass to coperate company's for big game's they should be going to fan's i'm sick of going to match's and hav'in to listen to personality bypass's giving out just because fan's are behaving like you do @ game's like signing, shouting and celabrating goal's.

system at old traf seems quite fair.supporter membership is open to join from end of season til end of sept apply and send payment for particular game and your name is put in lottery.i know people who attend 4-5 games per season 1 from denmark.it allows access to long distance supporters who couldnt attend regularly even if they could get a season ticket.maybe early petitioning of fai to implement similar scheme would wake the fockers up.totally symphatise with you greg

thanks for the positive feed back on it. i really think (as i'm sure most irish fans do) that there is a better way of distributing the tickets. it really is very discouraging and disheartening when your not given the oppurtunity to support your national team.

and on people who get tickets and no sweet Feck all. last march i was at the norway friendly and two lads were going on about our chances of winning the game, (and i probably wouldn't believe this if i hadnt heard it with my own ears) one asked the other whether or not ROY Keane was playing, the other replied he wasn't sure. i can only presume they had been out of the country a long time. i'm not saying you have to be a complete football buff to get a ticket now but come on. do they sound like suppoerters to you?

Blockbooking from the FAI's point of view makes sense. It ensures that each competitive home game is sold out regardless of opposition. If 10,000 or so tickets were to go on general sale outside the ground there is no guarantee that these would be sold. It's fine for the bigger games but are the fair weather "supporters" going to go along to see the likes of the Faroe Islands or Cyprus? These are the kind of people who would take into account whether or not it's raining when deciding if they should go and see there country play in WC/EC qualifier. In the event of a big match you could have people travelling to Lansdowne from all parts of the country left outside the ground due to lack of tickets so it's hardly a runner. As a block-booker I know it's easy for me say this but I genuinely feel that there are not any other feasible options that will guarantee the FAI all tickets are sold for every competitive game and we all know that ,especially now with the new stadium, the FAI will need every penny they can get.

There are corporate tickets for all sports and in all countries. The F.A.I. are no better or worse than any others. It will get worse for the new Lansdowne when you'll have lots of 10 year tickets (mainly corporate) and sponsors seats. They do however provide muchneeded revenue for the association

The F.A.I.'s system is actually quite fair with the block bookings and they have been open on a few occasions in the past 12 years. There are also tickets for EL fans and clubs.

The Man Utd scheme is designed to get as many people as possible to visit OT during a season - increase Megastore sales etc. average spend of a first time visitor to OT excluding ticket is £100+ - your average season ticket holder might buy a programme, a prawn sandwich and a chardonnay. :)