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.
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.
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.
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.
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....
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.
The weather we're getting these last few summers it seems more like winter football!
"We've had a lot of good times, but you don't know how good they are until you have the bad ones" Tony Adams
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.
If you attack me with stupidity, I'll be forced to defend myself with sarcasm.
You'd swear our summers were balmy, tropical affairs from some of the posts in here...
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