games will be in lansdowneOriginally Posted by ifk101
Fan and "fan" - there's a difference. Figure it out for yourself.
Point is that it costs around €1.5 million to rent Croke Park a game. To break-even that's 30,000 paying €50 a ticket. I couldn't imagine more than 15,000 turning up for a friendly against NI.
Hopefully.
If NI (or Scotland, or Wales) and Brazil were the only choices and teams available, by all means book Brazil and get a bigger crowd.
They aren't the only choices.
b1) play it in Limerick or Tallaght(b) Games against NI would not cover the rental costs of Croke Park
b2) apart from Brazil, who else would cover Croke's costs? England, Spain, Germany, Argentina, maybe Netherlands or Portugal? I don't see that NI would attract a significiantly lower crowd than anyone else. If all the big boys are unavailable, you'd presumably prefer to have Scotland or Wales than an eastern European country who are no or little better and wouldn't draw many fans?
How do you know? They've turned out in number for recent friendlies and against weak oppo in qualifiers.(c) The "fans" won't pay to watch games against NI
Why not just explain it?
How many do you expect to turn up to watch eitherPoint is that it costs around €1.5 million to rent Croke Park a game. To break-even that's 30,000 paying €50 a ticket. I couldn't imagine more than 15,000 turning up for a friendly against NI
a) any one of the half dozen countries realistically likely to challenge for the World Cup, or
b) anyone else from Europe or a visiting N/S/American, African, Asian country?
If the answer to b) is a lot less than 30,000, you could be looking at a significant loss.
Last edited by Gather round; 04/12/2009 at 11:49 AM.
[QUOTE=Gather round;1287805]
OK, but presumably for reasons other than boredom. A friendly against a weak, defensive, unsupported Kazakhstan or Moldova might not be a bundle of laughs either.
I know anecdotally (basically from reading this forum and the Tartan Army MB equivalent) that there's plenty of opposition in the two bigger countries, but I've feeling it may be reasonably well supported come the time. I'd give it a chance [QUOTE]
Maybe not but if we draw them later in a campaign they might not be the unknown quantity they once were. what exactly are we going to learn about playing a team of similar style ?
I agree with the opposition, the only reason the irish games in LR will be well supported will because of fans afraid to lose their place in the BB scheme. If we are being forced to pay which we essentially are I would prefer to see something exotic/different than a Scotland B team (or a Scotland A team for that manner).
Games against Northern Ireland will most likely attact every village idiot from a 200 m radius
Games against Scotland - again due to Mageady/MaCarthy the Scots are not that enamoured with Ireland
Games against Wales - will not exactly set the pulses racing
Nothing to be gained from a footballing sense, potential difficculties off field - its a no brainer.
Last edited by Newryrep; 04/12/2009 at 11:48 AM.
The games against Australia and South Africa, both played in Thomond, attracted small crowds - something like 19,000 for Australia and 11,000 for South Africa.
The FAI also bundles ticket sales. For example, the matches for the Italian and Montenegro games were sold as a pair - ie to see the Italian game you had to purchase a ticket for the Montenegro game as well.
Based on my own observations, I'd guess that a competitive game (ie qualifier) against NI would attract a crowd of 40,000. For a friendly I'd imagine the crowd would be around 15,000.
Last edited by ifk101; 04/12/2009 at 12:03 PM.
surely a competitive game against northern ireland wud be a sell-out?
OK, I know you want exoticism, but only a few teams are really exotic (in the sense of attracting widespread interest rather than just being difficult to find on the map of Europe). None of the exotic teams may be available.
12,000 for the 1999 friendly I believe. Not sure of the idiot quotient. Although it clashed with the Scottish cup final (featuring Celtic) on TVGames against Northern Ireland will most likely attact every village idiot from a 200 m radius
I think your point might counter IFK's. Yes, trouble is a real possibility. But it (with other factors) would see a much higher crowd
I think the Glasgow media exaggerated this a bit. One top player and a promising youngster lost, they're over it.Games against Scotland - again due to Mageady/MaCarthy the Scots are not that enamoured with Ireland
That's the thing about friendlies. 3-4,000 Welsh fans in Dublin will move more lentils than an eastern u-21 side and a handful of fans.Games against Wales - will not exactly set the pulses racing
There's something to be gained from all friendlies. A sparkling win over Hungary might reveal more than a sterile 0-0 with the Maracana globetrotters.Nothing to be gained from a footballing sense, potential difficculties off field - its a no brainer
Point taken, you don't want to play NI and to a lesser extent Scotland. Not a problem- I doubt you'd be the first choice for us or them either.
I don't think so. If it was the last game in the group that decided qualification - maybe. Otherwise I think there'd be plenty of empty seats. For example, if you consider the home game against Bulgaria - a very important match in deciding the group outcome - it was far from a sell-out.
Fair enough, although I think you underrate 19,000- without knowing the background to publicising the game etc., I call it a decent crowd. I expect NI would attract a similar crowd to Limerick.
Correct me if wrong, but weren't the tickets for Georgia/ Cyprus/ Bulgaria sold individually to those without block bookings? Did all three games not draw decent crowds? NI would be at least an equal draw, as above.The FAI also bundles ticket sales. For example, the matches for the Italian and Montenegro games were sold as a pair - ie to see the Italian game you had to purchase a ticket for the Montenegro game as well
What are your observations (genuine question)? They just look like random figures to me.Based on my own observations, I'd guess that a competitive game (ie qualifier) against NI would attract a crowd of 40,000. For a friendly I'd imagine the crowd would be around 15,000
The 2011 tournament will be as good or as bad as the teams and supporters allow it to be.
If the players are motivated enough to try and win the competition and supporters "buy in" to some healthy competition between neighbours - it could prove a bit more valuable than an aribitrary friendly, where most of the opposition are half hearted anyway.
Sceptiscism and indifference will certainly kill it off before a ball is kicked. I'm not sure Trapp would subscribe to this attitiude.
Anyway, on a lighter note - there's bragging rights at stake here!!
Quoting years at random since 1975
Moldova are exotic as far as I am concerned
there werent that many for the first match at Croker may 4-6000 so dont think there would be anywhere near that number.
agreed
correct
36,000 went to the Montenegro game. As you have already quoted, 12,000 attended the last friendly between the two sides. 40,000 for a qualifier and 15,000 for a friendly seems about right to me, give or take a couple of thousand.
Team rivalry, if that exists on both sides of the fence, may help to increase crowd numbers for a game against NI. However certain groups of people that go to matches might be put off going to a game against NI as we can assume that the fixture would attract its fair share of village idiots (as Newryrep puts it).
I think a game against NI would be really interesting. They hold the bragging rights at the moment so we deserve a shot at getting them back.
They have been a consistently good performer in qualification over the last 2 campaigns and have the knack of punching above their weight while we have just recently got back to the standard that we - rightly or wrongly - expect.
It'd be an interesting contest if both teams take it seriously (and we don't adhere to patenaccio) and I'd look forward to it.
Maybe I'm naive, but I'd expect both sets of fans to get behind their team and treat it as the sporting contest it should be. I'm not sure the morons would be welcome among the better elements of both sets.
The best that could be said about the Celtic cup is that you could argue it's better than nothing but still not be worth the risk of one of our first team players getting injured for any of the Euro qualifiers.
Maybe at best, just a good audition for the fringe players trying to get into the first team.
There is no competition outside of a qualification campaign to get to the finals.
For those of you interested in the Celtic Cup:
Celtic Cup To Start in 2011
A new international tournament involving Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland will start in 2011, the four associations have agreed after meeting in Copenhagen at the UEFA Congress.
David Collins, the secretary of the FA of Wales, told his organisation’s website :
“(We) are delighted we have finally reached agreement on the tournament taking place in Dublin in 2011. After many months of work we are delighted that this has now come about. We look forward to a great tournament especially in the new stadium in Dublin and we trust it will be a huge success which will enable us to extend in future years.”
The tournament, which has yet to be named but could be called the Celtic Cup, will be held in Dublin at the new Aviva Stadium and the first two games will take place on 8 February and 9 February 2011. The remaining four matches are scheduled for 24, 25, 27 and 28 May.
The tournament will run on a league basis and will be held in each country in turn. It has not yet been decided if it will take place every year. The old Home International Championship, involving England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, was last played in 1984.
The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist thinks it will change; the realist adjusts the sails.
Doesn't look like England's group throws up much for us in terms of a friendly. Maybe the USA at a push, but they would be mostly familiar with England anyway. Slovenia away maybe? We'll probably have a boring Scadinavian team friendly. Wouldn't mind seeing Russia if the Brazil game isn't a runner.
'And Crouch must score'
i agree that russia would be a good match, but if we really were to make a big effort to climb the rankings and make sure we are not 3rd seeds for world cup 2014 we should play more friendlies away from home because under trap we seem to be more comfortable away from home and have got better results.
i'd rather see a friendly against norn iron,
the last two friendlies against brazil "b" were pure sh$£e
I agree. However, Germany have a friendly against Argentina on the 3rd of March, the date of the proposed Brazil friendly. Holland will be playing USA on the same night.
And as for Spain, I'd love to see Trap's bhoys take on the European Champions at Croker. Unfortunately on that night they will be playing against - you've guessed it - France. First they steal our World Cup place...
There will be a big interest amongst Northern Ireland fans for the Celtic Cup game versus the Republic in Dublin.
If the game is on a weekend, we'll bring somewhere between 5 and 10K to the game (assuming we get that allocation).
I would be amazed if less than 10K Republic Of Ireland fans were prepared to pay to watch the game.
It'll be no "friendly" in our eyes.
Last edited by Not Brazil; 09/12/2009 at 11:46 AM.
The Englishmen came over in the year 2005
But little did they know that we'd planned a wee surprise
Sir David scored the winner, and Windsor Park went wild
And this is what we sang...
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