2010 attendances

[Schumi]

And one major bonus about the Bowl, it does the best chips in the LOI! I'd a friend's kid with me and I figured I'd keep him busy for a while, and bought a tray for myself, and man alive, they were good. None of your manky Burdocks stuff. (manky in comparison to the Bowl fries).

LOL, someone else was moaning about the chips on here earlier.

[Spudulika]

No way! I thought they were class. It threw my mind back to the late 70's and quality chips. The match day experience needs to be ramped up a bit though, it was good to see young local kids playing, however there was not a great deal else for the punters to get built up with.

[legendz]

On crowds, when looking at the support clubs get, it should be noted what Gaelic Games club games can attract. There's a county this weekend where the Football County final between the two biggest urban areas of the county attracted a crowd over 10,000. Last week in that same county, the hurling final, the third sport behind Gaelic Football and Association Football, attracted a crowd of 5,000. The county doesn't even play in the top tier of hurling.
If Gaelic clubs are attracting these crowds, questions have to be asked of Association Football club structures in the country that it does not ignite the same interest. Gaelic clubs do benefit from a pyramid system in that all clubs can dream of playing in Croke Park on St. Patrick's day some year. I think Spudulika is right on his call for a pyramid system from top to bottom. Something drastic will be needed to raise the profile of the League and improve the attendances we've seen this season.

[culloty82]

True, but as well as two of the best players in the country against each other in that final, the rivalry between Tralee and Killarney also helped. The main lesson to be drawn from it is one of quality - GAA gets the crowds because people know the best players in the sport will be in action on the day, and likewise with rugby, all the Irish players are contracted to their provinces. The barstoolers would probably find an excuse to stay away anyway, but if young players can be kept in the country until aged 18-21, fans would see promising players at the start of their career, those good enough to succeed abroad would have a greater likelihood of a breakthrough, and the attendances would rise accordingly.

[legendz]

Most of what you say is true but Intermediate and Junior Championships attract big crowds as well. The GAA under Sean Kelly had a great initiative to create an Intermediate and Junior All-Ireland C'ship. These games attract big crowds as well and it's not all down to star names.

[Big Chief]

Well here is one to ponder, why can Gaelic attract these crowds when soccer can't?

[legendz]

One reason would be structure and a pyramid system.
I'd want clarity on this but I think there's about 32 District Leagues in the country and then 3 Senior League in Ulster, Leinster and Munster.
They could work on a system where 32 District Leagues feed into 16 Regional Divisions, which would then feed into 8 -> 4 -> 2 and then to the national league.

Rough Draft Pyramid Structure:
Level 1: Premier Division
Level 2: Division One
Level 3: Division Two North & South (2 Divisions)
Level 4: Intermediate League One (4 Divisions)
Level 5: Intermediate League Two (8 Divisions)
Level 6: Intermediate League Three (16 Divisions)
Level 7: 32 District Leagues

[Dodge]

Well here is one to ponder, why can Gaelic attract these crowds when soccer can't?

Because GAA fans here aren't obsessed with British gaelic games. Seriously, you didn't notice this?

Main sports story on the RTE news last night was Blackpool v Man City, then Everton v Liverpool. Then they showed 3 of the 4 goals from the FAI Cup semi final


Comparisons to GAA are completely useless.

[Big Chief]

I am well aware of the point you make Dodge and I too had the dubious pleasure of watching the sports bulletin on RTE. To take it to a slightly deeper level why can the GAA persuade people to follow it's sports and turn out to view them and quite often close their minds to other sports when soccer fans become fixated with teams in another country?

[pineapple stu]

Main sports story on the RTE news last night was Blackpool v Man City

And within that, they only showed Man City's goals, so even the bottom teams in the Premier are irrelevant here.

[Mr A]

But the GAA crowds we're talking about here are for finals. That will always generate way more than the usual level of interest. It's completely different to attracting crowds over a long drawn out league campaign. Even the National League sees crowds that are nothing like those for the championship, despite the fact that each county only has 3 or 4 home games. Irish people love the big day out.

And most GAA fans are premiership fans as well in my experience.

[legendz]

It's not just football though. British papers sell well in this country. There's a big interest in importing British Programs on TV. The RTE News bulletin was a disgrace and adds belief to the notion that the E in RTE is for England.

[legendz]

But the GAA crowds we're talking about here are for finals. That will always generate way more than the usual level of interest. It's completely different to attracting crowds over a long drawn out league campaign. Even the National League sees crowds that are nothing like those for the championship, despite the fact that each county only has 3 or 4 home games. Irish people love the big day out.

And most GAA fans are premiership fans as well in my experience.

It depends on the counties involved. A lot of games would get over 3000 which isn't bad for a league that has no promotion whatsoever. There's a belief in GAA circles that the National League could be expanded and marketed better. The fact that it isn't leaves the gap there for the FAI to exploit with a well run league but that is not being done.

[Dodge]

Its not a gap at all. The people who might go to a GAA league game if marketed well are not the people who might go to a LOI game if marketed well.

[pateen]

Back to Attendances

Any figures on the Cup Semi's?

[Dodge]

Just under 5,000 for the Rovers v Pats game. Strangely enough a good deal lower than our league games in Tallaght this year, despite far bigger away support

[legendz]

Its not a gap at all. The people who might go to a GAA league game if marketed well are not the people who might go to a LOI game if marketed well.

They are actually. In Limerick there's a lot more people who might go to GAA league game and a lot of these people could be tempted to go to a LOI game as well. The gap is there.

[bluemovie]

True, but as well as two of the best players in the country against each other in that final, the rivalry between Tralee and Killarney also helped. The main lesson to be drawn from it is one of quality - GAA gets the crowds because people know the best players in the sport will be in action on the day, and likewise with rugby, all the Irish players are contracted to their provinces. The barstoolers would probably find an excuse to stay away anyway, but if young players can be kept in the country until aged 18-21, fans would see promising players at the start of their career, those good enough to succeed abroad would have a greater likelihood of a breakthrough, and the attendances would rise accordingly.

Most of what you say is true but Intermediate and Junior Championships attract big crowds as well. The GAA under Sean Kelly had a great initiative to create an Intermediate and Junior All-Ireland C'ship. These games attract big crowds as well and it's not all down to star names.

New to foot.ie: two Kerrymen arguing about Gaelic football

[legendz]

New to foot.ie: two Kerrymen arguing about Gaelic football

Waterford could be the leading club in Munster soon, are ye going to get the crowds to go with it?

[Aberdonian Stu]

The GAA argument simply doesn't balance well. With county teams you have at most 4 home league games in a year plus the Championship season where again games are limited leading to big day out factor, and the odd game or two in the start-of-season cups (McKenna, FBD League etc).

A Premier division LoI club has at least 18 home games plus LC and FAI Cup games. Dublin Premier division clubs have another 8 close to home games in the season as well, 10 if you include Bray. Maintaining crowds over that period without every game having a substantial reward at the end (trophy, place in a final/semi-final) especially when they are alternate versions of the same product at a higher standard with easier access (barstool, couch etc) is a completely different challenge.

GAA club game crowds often exceed LoI crowds but these too vary wildly and again the big day out factor is in play. In more urban areas, read Dublin, the difference in turnout for a county semi-final vs county final is huge. I went to Crokes' last three games in the Dublin SFC this year and the crowds in the quarter and semi were similar and small but the crowd for the final was substantially bigger (still not great by the way, there would been more in Tallaght and then some).