Summer Soccer V Winter Soccer

[osarusan]

Simply not true. The major factor is that Irish clubs are well into their season by the time European competition comes around.

I don't see how you can dismiss the idea that spending is not a major factor when so many of the clubs with good runs - Derry, Cork, Shels for example - suffered severe problems soon after.

[pineapple stu]

The good European runs started in 2000/01 - when clubs started going full-time. That's not a coincidence. I don't doubt the timing has helped too, but you simply can't dismiss the effects of full-time squads.

[sligored]

I think people are hanging on to old romantic memories (certainly the longford lads as they were sucessful) where they remember the good days with a cup a soup in the hands. And that's fair enough. I remember ATFC and Sligo going for Div 1 title in 94/95, gates a couple of thousand were common place at St Mels then and indeed the deceider against Sligo in Mels was a nite to remember for me. Cold March evening which sligo won two nil. (the Slgo lads will remeber signing whers the stand gone, where the stand gone to the tune of where's ya mama gone) as it had been blown down in the winter storms!
So... Anyway, Div 1 is back again in March and while looking forward to the game after the break i'm not looking forward to the cold, wet march evening, the same type of weather i fondly remember of the 90s, but only cos we ain't as good as we were!

For the record, i'd perfer winter football.

i remember hundreds of sligo supporters travelling down to mels that same year only for the game to be called off due to frost 45 minutes before kick-off. A scary journey home was all we got for our travails.
I was a pessimist at first about summer soccer but have to say it has been a great success so far.

[punkrocket]

The schedule in the IL has been decimated by the winter weather, no matches again this weekend. Most teams haven't played in weeks missing out on the boxing day derbies, the biggest money spinner for all of them which will now be replayed sometime during the week at a fraction of the gate. No matches = no income and clubs like Distillery are creaking under the pressure. I know that these conditions are not the norm and that the usual bumper crowds on boxing day could be used as an argument in favour on winter football, but it is only one fixture out of many.
And like it or not climate change and accompanying impacts will increasingly be a factor in everyone's lives all year round. Things will be different in time to come.
The only issue that I have with summer football is that the cup final is held too late in the year and it now too often makes for a dismal event. It should be started and finished earlier in the year, as it's no showcase at the moment.

[dcfcsteve]

but now that you mention it a lot of those lads i told you about have said that they would still be going but for the switch so meh..

25yrs as an LOI fan has taught me that many of those who used to go but don't any more will have a 'plausible' excuse to hand to justify it.

Usually such excuses portray them in a passive, almost victim, role - 'I'd still go, if only it wasn't for the (pick your favourite ) weather/harvest/kids/wife/college/cost/distance/manager/board/team etc etc etc'.

It's rare to hear a lapsed fan be honest and say : "I just lost interest and can't be arsed any more". Yet for many, that is the reason why.

At leats the builders you mentioned earlier on who couldn't come after the Summer switch now no longer have any excuse for not being available....

[dcfcsteve]

I think people are hanging on to old romantic memories (certainly the longford lads as they were sucessful) where they remember the good days with a cup a soup in the hands. And that's fair enough. I remember ATFC and Sligo going for Div 1 title in 94/95, gates a couple of thousand were common place at St Mels then and indeed the deceider against Sligo in Mels was a nite to remember for me. Cold March evening which sligo won two nil. (the Slgo lads will remeber signing whers the stand gone, where the stand gone to the tune of where's ya mama gone) as it had been blown down in the winter storms!

You can't rememebr it that well as it was the season before !

Both teams were in the Premier in 1994/5.

Maybe winter football numbs the brain cells/memory.....

i remember hundreds of sligo supporters travelling down to mels that same year only for the game to be called off due to frost 45 minutes before kick-off.

*cough*....

[dcfcsteve]

I think there is something unnatural about playing games in the middle of summer and the atmosphere at games imo are rubbish compared to floodlit games. Floodlit games i think provide tribal atmospheres and generally the placed is buzzing.

Was there also something unnatural about 3pm kick-offs on a Sunday ? As before the league got flooodlights from Sky, most games were played in daylight - even in Winter.

Either memories are very short on here, or people think the league only began a decade or so back.

Don't forget that the most succesful periods of LOI football for attendances almost entirely involved daylight games. Not that that fans at the time found it an unnatural experience.

[danthesaint]

The good European runs started in 2000/01 - when clubs started going full-time. That's not a coincidence. I don't doubt the timing has helped too, but you simply can't dismiss the effects of full-time squads.

Pats were part time last season,
i agree about the timing, its far better to be playing european footie in full flow in your season than to be play an opposition and both teams are coming back from preseason. we have more time to prepare

[Acornvilla]

25yrs as an LOI fan has taught me that many of those who used to go but don't any more will have a 'plausible' excuse to hand to justify it.

Usually such excuses portray them in a passive, almost victim, role - 'I'd still go, if only it wasn't for the (pick your favourite ) weather/harvest/kids/wife/college/cost/distance/manager/board/team etc etc etc'.

It's rare to hear a lapsed fan be honest and say : "I just lost interest and can't be arsed any more". Yet for many, that is the reason why.

At leats the builders you mentioned earlier on who couldn't come after the Summer switch now no longer have any excuse for not being available....

no money

[LK37oldskool]

The weather we're getting these last few summers it seems more like winter football!

[Fr Damo]

You can't rememebr it that well as it was the season before !

Both teams were in the Premier in 1994/5.

Maybe winter football numbs the brain cells/memory.....



*cough*....

Er....Thanks. Your right. Sligo did a double that year(93/94). But regardless, a good couple of years for us then and cold didn't bother us, nor the crap facilities but hostile atmosphere in mels, against the warm but atmospherless wollen!

[Macy]

In my experience, there's far more competition for time during the summer, and attendances being down during the height of summer appear to back that up, whether you see them as reasons or excuses.

[thischarmingman]

You'd swear our summers were balmy, tropical affairs from some of the posts in here...