The Home Farm experiment was tried but ultimately failed. I cant see them coming back into the LOI.Originally Posted by pateen
Still going. Nice set up for a junior club in Baldonnel
They've a great tradition in schoolboy football but they had nothing to do with the LOI side for the last few years of its life...To be fair Home farm have a great tradition and would be a welcome addition to the league IMO.
...which led to the LOI side dying, and Dublin City taking its placeTo answer your question above Adamd164, yeah Dublin City we're 'born' out of Home Farm
54,321 sold - wws will never die - ***
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I don't think another Dublin side is going to add anything massive to the league, but it wouldn't hurt it either, and it's not like we've got a surplus of teams in the league at the moment.
Does anyone know of a single person who stopped regularly attending Dalymount or Tolka because Sporting Fingal, Dublin City, or Home Farm Kidderminster Harriers sprang up?
Home Farm gave alot of players a break into senior football and it would be great to see schoolboy clubs develop senior sides, but it just isn't practical. I wonder would the FAI ever amalgamate the different amateur (senior) leagues into 1 large body and work from this. It'd be like getting sheep to agree to move to Sligo, but it would be a great step to creating a ladder for clubs to climb.
Genuinely, I know a guy who used to go to both Dalymount and Tolka (and before that Whitehall too) and started to go to Fingal games regularly.
But the point really ins't about pilching fans IMO. Its about the limited pool of sponsors/resources available in Dublin. Its a lot easier, for example, for Rovers to work with SDCC as they're the only club in their area. DCC have to work with Pats, Bohs and Shels (Even DLR CC sponsor UCD). Then you have those 5 clubs hitting the same/similar sponsors. OK so SEAT or Nissan mightn't be interested in small sposnorship but so many of match/player sponsors are local. Absolutely having a team beside Tolka would hinder Shels/Bohs.
The other argument against Dublin expansion is that St James Gate, St Francis, Dubliln City and Sporting Fingal have all shown that their isn't really the appetite for another club in Dublin. All entered, all have failed to attact more than a handful of fans (despite success for some of them). So do you want a club that has a ceiling of a couple of hundred fans in the league with no real way to generate the funds required to have their ground in order? Not for me...
54,321 sold - wws will never die - ***
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New blog if anyone's interested - http://loihistory.wordpress.com/
LOI section on balls.ie - http://balls.ie/league-of-ireland/
Surely big towns such as Mullingar, Castlebar and Kilkenny could get teams back running. Mullingar used to have two teams in the old reserve leagues. Im still wondering as to why they never went for the A Divison that time. Also to a lesser extent, there is alot of players coming out of Tipperary, can a team not reserrect itself from somewhere in the county?!
As a matter of interest do local authority councils work with teams in other towns? I don't recall Louth CC doing anything for Dundalk FC or Drogheda United.
Good point, I hadn't really considered competition for sponsorship.
I'd agree with Dillonman that there are a lot of places out there that could and should have LOI teams, Navan, Kerry, Cobh, Castlebar, Kildare, Portlaoise, Kilkenny, Mullingar, Tullamore, Carlow, Mallow, Nenagh and Ennis all have larger populations than Longford, for example, with no real LOI presence. Some teams from those places have folded for various reasons, but if an average attendance in the low hundreds is all that's needed to sustain an LOI club, I think all of those places should be able to field a team in theory.
Perhaps it would help if the FAI had a fund for encouraging new clubs to join the league, a zero- or low-interest loan available on a one-off basis to any club looking to upgrade its facilities and attract a fanbase in the first few seasons. We've seen countless times that a little investment in marketing and publicity almost always pays off in the end, so why not incentivise that?
Generally, that's the primary role of provincial associations in both GAA and rugby, to assist clubs in improving facilities, drawing down grants to help development and raising standards within their regional remit. For the most part, junior football bailiwicks are too small to provide the level of help you suggest, so that would appear to be a prime role for the Munster, Leinster and Connacht FAs, with further input into such a scheme from Abbotstown if required.
Mullingar Town made a push for the first but were knocked back for Kildare and Dublin City - and look at how they turned out.
Having said that both Mullingar Town and Mullingar Athletic both gone backwards since then, playing in some god damn awful Midlands league with the likes of Clara and Ballyjamesduff. Gone the heady days when the Town had a team of exotic players from London, doing half decent in the Under 21 league, now we have nothing at all.
Yeah I remember that alright.Mullingar Town made a push for the first but were knocked back for Kildare and Dublin City - and look at how they turned out.
Having said that both Mullingar Town and Mullingar Athletic both gone backwards since then, playing in some god damn awful Midlands league with the likes of Clara and Ballyjamesduff. Gone the heady days when the Town had a team of exotic players from London, doing half decent in the Under 21 league, now we have nothing at all.
What about teams that used to be in the LOI/A Championship
Kilkenny City
Carlow Town
Tralee Dynamos
Castlebar Celtic
"Now jump up there and stuff that son of a bitch in the basket, chief"
Carlow don't have a good enough ground I think. Dynamos were having a meeting to consider an application, don't think anything came of it. Maybe not interested after being rejected last year.
Author of Never Felt Better (History, Film Reviews).
Thurles Town were in the league for a few years, no reason why they should not return. Also I think that Ennis would be an excellent location for a LoI team because of it being close to Shannon Airport it could attract players over from England. A few good ones from across the water added to the overspill from Limerick combined with any good local players would give a strong team. It would be great to see Home Farm back as well, cup winners from 1975 I think where they beat the mighty Shelbourne.
How far is Termonbarry from Knock airport?
You are grasping at straws here. There is every reason why TT will not return and their last sojourn in the LOI is just that. That experience stung them and I cant see them coming back neither Home Farm or Kilkenny. Tralee or Killarney have shied away as have Westport and Castlebar. Cobh are in absolutely no position right now to make the step up and FC Carlow were knocked back last year.
So its looking like the madness and pigheaded stubborness of the FAI will see the FD with just 7 teams next season.
Teams will not threaten the future of their Junior wing by splashing out €180,000 just to survive in the 1st Division. Cobh seem to be the FAI's oick of any teams looking to get back in but a lot of knowlegable Posters on here feel they still have a legacy debt that will stop them.
Interesting that posters are suggesting Towns where clubs have failed already and Home Farm are a definite non runner.
We are the Galway Boys Stand up and make some noise"
Just because a town has had a failed LOI team in the past doesn't mean it could never sustain one. Otherwise Dublin, Cork, Drogheda and Galway would be non-runners
Are you serious? Who do you see ponying up the €19k entrance fee and paying 300k to just participate and some way compete?
The rumours of a return to the LOI for Ramblers seem to persist but I'm not sure how the club can come up with the money to run even an all amateur side.
The support for the club is there, it was in the past but there is one major obstacle to that, namely the chairman who caused all the mess is still there. How or why I don't know, but if it happened in a bigger club there would be uproar and it would have had repercussions throughout football in this country. I'll say no more than that.
When we were denied a license in 2009 there was a civil war within the club and I'm certain the FAI wanted us out then because it would have caused embarrassment for some people within the FAI in this country if certain things ever came to light.
Last edited by Comic Book Guy; 21/11/2012 at 12:01 PM. Reason: spelling
''and I for one welcome our new insect overlords''
Yes, I'm serious. Unless you're suggesting that Dublin, Cork, and Galway are incapable of supporting LOI teams because teams from there have failed in the past. I never said that Mullingar, or Thurles, or Clonmel would definitely have an LOI team within the next two years.
Where has your figure of €300k come from by the way? Is it from any club in particular?
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