Republic of Ireland V Andorra - Wednesday, 7th September 2010 - Euro 2012 Qualifier

[Wolfie]

Russia tend to play attacking full backs, though. Having a player who can force them to think twice about rampaging forward isn't necessarily a bad thing.

I agree, but as a byproduct - we'll need him supplying Keane and Doyle with better quality ball first and foremost.

[Stuttgart88]

didnt get to see the game and this is the first opportunity Ive had to read up on it properly.The general opinion on here is that even though we won we played pretty rubbish. That was always going to be the case I thought.I think in recent years we have always played to the standard of the opposition.We seem to always just do enough against the weaker sides and then step it up massively in big games. Im not saying its a good thing but I dont understand why some people are still surprised by it now.

It a results business and 6 points from the opening 2 games was what everyone on here was calling for when the draw was made and the team has delivered on that so personally I couldnt be more happy.When the Russia game comes around next month it will be a whole different ball game as regards the performance on the pitch from the players and also from the crowds in the stands.For me there has to be a bit of tension before the crowd will create a good atmostphere,friendlies and Andora dont give u that but I fully expect every single person in the stadium to be really up for the Russian game

If we come away from the next double header with another 6 points I cant imagine anyone will be complaining

I don't think we did play rubbish. I thought we played very well in parts, just didn't get the goals we might have had. We played poorly in parts too, but we're Ireland not Spain.

Lawrence missed two great chances, Kilbane could have scored another header and Doyle had a nailed on penalty - dead certain. Central midfield underperformed, no question. Green just didn't cut it and Whelan was playing cautiously. For the first time in yonks we actually scored some "telegenic" goals. Keane's in particular was very well crafted & executed.

I watched the highlights again last night, professional performance that can definitely be improved upon but certainly not rubbish. Nation of beedin' moaners methinks.

[tetsujin1979]

Kinda bored and there's nothing on TV, so I checked out the attendance records for Andorra's 2010 campaign on wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_FI...;_UEFA_Group_6
Turns out only England had a higher attendance for their home game against Andorra, and only the stadiums with a capacity of 9000 and 16873 had a higher percentage attendance

       Date Home       Result    Away Attendance Capacity  %Full
 20/08/2008 Kazakhstan   3-0  Andorra       7700    25057  30.73
 14/10/2008 Croatia      4-0  Andorra      14441    38293  37.71
 06/06/2009 Belarus      5-1  Andorra       8500     9000  94.44
 10/06/2009 England      6-0  Andorra      57897    90000  64.33
 05/09/2009 Ukraine      5-0  Andorra      14870    16873  88.13
 07/09/2010 Ireland      3-1  Andorra      40283    51700  77.92

Puts the attendance on tuesday night into perspective. Opposition like Andorra will always struggle to attract a large crowd. Still, never let the facts get in the way of a good argument.

[DannyInvincible]

Puts the attendance on tuesday night into perspective. Opposition like Andorra will always struggle to attract a large crowd. Still, never let the facts get in the way of a good argument.

Certainly not doubting that Andorra's appeal is miniscule in comparison to that of Europe's powerhouses and even the FAI statement today proudly announced how Tuesday night's attendance was the third-highest in all of the qualifiers taking place within the UEFA zone that night. I assume the argument you're referring to is the one about extortionate ticket prices and the related (?) number of empty seats visible in the stands? Fact is, if tickets had been more reasonably-priced, the game could have sold out. I can speak for myself in that I was contemplating travelling to the game bar me being in no position to fork out €50 for a match ticket alone. I'm sure others were in a similar situation.

Furthermore, if we're to look at this fairly from all perspectives, it must be acknowledged that this wasn't just any match against Andorra. Whilst Andorra mightn't be expected to draw a sell-out crowd under normal circumstances, no matter where they visit, you would expect the appeal of the game having been the first competitive international taking place in the new stadium to have added a certain flavour of significance or momentousness to the occasion. No doubt, on this front, it was a special occasion for those who attended, but there were plenty of seriously interested others shut out of the experience by the price of entry.

[ramondo]

So the game against us was their best away result in at least 2 years?
(I'm guessing more...)

[Charlie Darwin]

They lost 1-0 to Cyprus last month.

[geysir]

.............(place name of minnow here) will be a handful for the other teams, as the group evolves.

[osarusan]

Looking at highlights again, was I hearing music being played when the goals were scored?

You know, some tune for the crowd to sing along to as happens at Burnley games (and other clubs which I can't specify right now).

Or when a goal is scored, do they let the fans make their own noise?

[backstothewall]

Certainly not doubting that Andorra's appeal is miniscule in comparison to that of Europe's powerhouses and even the FAI statement today proudly announced how Tuesday night's attendance was the third-highest in all of the qualifiers taking place within the UEFA zone that night. I assume the argument you're referring to is the one about extortionate ticket prices and the related (?) number of empty seats visible in the stands? Fact is, if tickets had been more reasonably-priced, the game could have sold out. I can speak for myself in that I was contemplating travelling to the game bar me being in no position to fork out €50 for a match ticket alone. I'm sure others were in a similar situation.

Furthermore, if we're to look at this fairly from all perspectives, it must be acknowledged that this wasn't just any match against Andorra. Whilst Andorra mightn't be expected to draw a sell-out crowd under normal circumstances, no matter where they visit, you would expect the appeal of the game having been the first competitive international taking place in the new stadium to have added a certain flavour of significance or momentousness to the occasion. No doubt, on this front, it was a special occasion for those who attended, but there were plenty of seriously interested others shut out of the experience by the price of entry.

I think we have to accept the financial reality that the new stadium needs to be paid for, and that gate receipts at Lansdowne Road are the main revenue stream supporting grass roots football in this country. 51,700 tickerts sold at €50 each nets the FAI €2,585,000. 55,000 tickets sold at €35 only brings in €1,925,000. Financially the FAI got the pricing pretty much perfect, and got the best return possible from a fixture like Andorra.

[Charlie Darwin]

I think we have to accept the financial reality that the new stadium needs to be paid for, and that gate receipts at Lansdowne Road are the main revenue stream supporting grass roots football in this country. 51,700 tickerts sold at €50 each nets the FAI €2,585,000. 55,000 tickets sold at €35 only brings in €1,925,000. Financially the FAI got the pricing pretty much perfect, and got the best return possible from a fixture like Andorra.

I'm not sure you've got the figures right.

The Aviva holds 50,000 at capacity. Attendance on Tuesday was 40,000.

Out of this you can take the 10,000 premium seats, which are priced differently, and the 2,000 or so (?) kids tickets, which are significantly cheaper.

That leaves 38,000 normally-priced tickets.

The FAI say they've sold about 7,000 premium tickets, while the Indo says they've sold around half as many. For the sake of clarity, I'll take the mid-point and assume that 5,000 of Tuesday's attendance were premium ticket holders.

40,000 - 5,000 - 2,000 kids tickets = 33,000

So 33,000 of the 38,000 general admission tickets were sold at €50, or 86%. That's a gross take of €1.65 million from a possible €1.9m.

To generate the same take from the full allocation, general admission tickets would need to have sold for about €43.

That's probably not much to travelling fans, but to people in Dublin it could easily be the difference between buying a ticket and not buying a ticket. Add in that an extra 10,000 people would boost the take on concessions and it has to be considered a missed opportunity.

Like I said before, though, there's more to pricing football tickets than the particular appeal of that one match. To get the full picture, you'd need to analyse the taking across all five (possibly six) qualifiers to see if they've gotten it right or wrong.

edit: I just remembered that there were two bands of prices: €50 and €70. As far as I know, there's no breakdown of how well those sold, so it's difficult to factor it in. I'll have a look later to see how many seats were on sale in each bracket and try to update the figures, but the general principle above holds.

[jbyrne]

Looking at highlights again, was I hearing music being played when the goals were scored?

yes, been doing it for years. complete tacky and needless. why not let the fans just celebrate themselves??
no brainer that the one time you definately dont need to jazz things up is after we score!! this and the complete eejit pa that we have to endure actually kill atmosphere. could never work out why anyone ever thought music after goals would actually add to the atmosphere

[MeathDrog]

Who is that dude on the PA? His voice simply isn't suited to hype a game up or even talk about it in any way. God knows how he got the job.

[jbyrne]

Who is that dude on the PA? His voice simply isn't suited to hype a game up or even talk about it in any way. God knows how he got the job.

http://declanking.com/

[geysir]

Basically he would not be a problem for us if the morons who think he does a good job, did not hire him.

[rebelmusic]

http://declanking.com/

Hahaha that's the worst designed website i've seen in 15 years!

[Wolfie]

Who is that dude on the PA? His voice simply isn't suited to hype a game up or even talk about it in any way. God knows how he got the job.

Indeed. His voice reminds me of that character in the Simpsons with the high pitched voice that carries out all of those menial jobs like the Drive Thru, petrol pump attendant etc etc. "Keep watching the Ski's!!!"

[shakermaker1982]

Am I the only person on here who thinks he does a decent job?!

[jbyrne]

Am I the only person on here who thinks he does a decent job?!

id say so. any reason why you think he does a decent job??
he is dreadful in my opinion. just awful really

[shakermaker1982]

id say so. any reason why you think he does a decent job??
he is dreadful in my opinion. just awful really

I find his voice soothing.

[jbyrne]

I find his voice soothing.

here, one of these classics should keep you soothed...

http://declanking.com/narration.htm