Are there too many clubs in this country?

[GUFCghost]

The problem with unearthing local talent is that even that is expensive. If you sign a player from a junior or intermediate club they're entitled to compensation, often a few thousand euro.

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What?
The under age team here need a kick up the arse.
Salthill play in the first division and have a five star ground,they won't let Galway United or the Galway League team play/train their.
The idea of under age clubs is to produce pros.Weather it be here or in England!

[Riddickcule]

I'd be firmly of the belief that if a club can scrape together the funds to pay a very average player a three figure sum each week, they have the capacity, with a little bit of prioritising, to scrape together the funds for a decent club promotion campaign. It's an example of the short-termism that blights the league. If you spend €100 a week on club promotion, and it attracts even 15 more people to the game, you've made a 50% return on your investment. Take, for example, donating club branded bibs to a local sports club or school. A set of six costs about €15. If one kid gets their dad to take them to one game, you've made back your investment almost twice over.

Yes but the challenge is keeping them going to games regurlarly, and if they don't, there goes your investment.

[Eminence Grise]

I'd be firmly of the belief that if a club can scrape together the funds to pay a very average player a three figure sum each week, they have the capacity, with a little bit of prioritising, to scrape together the funds for a decent club promotion campaign. It's an example of the short-termism that blights the league. If you spend €100 a week on club promotion, and it attracts even 15 more people to the game, you've made a 50% return on your investment. Take, for example, donating club branded bibs to a local sports club or school. A set of six costs about €15. If one kid gets their dad to take them to one game, you've made back your investment almost twice over.

Peadar 1987, you're dead right. Very modest investment in promotion can yield good returns. The thing is, it has to be done consistently to reinforce awareness of the club.

I lived 100 yards from a ground in Dublin for 12 years, and never once got so much as a flyer or leaflet in the door. How do politicians get 8,000+ people/suckers to vote for them? They canvass, with a leaflet: cheap, highly visible, and very effective. They might even do a door-to-door survey (or at least the ones I know/know about) but the key for them is to engage with the punters, and sell the message on the doorsteps.

Get the older underage players out in their club tracksuits, along with members, just one evening every week during the season and preseason, and blitz a a few housing estates in town, or a cluster of city streets. But do it repeatedly over a short time frame (1. survey; 2. results of survey; 3. info leaflet on games, underage trials, membership application, or special offers with local partner businesses etc - three visits over six weeks) and keep rolling over new areas in the alternate weeks. Over the course of a season you could hit literally thousands of homes three or four times for fairly modest cost.