Interesting stat on Irish fans watching premiership games

[paul_oshea]

You can get the full breakdown on VisitBritain.co.uk but the Irish had the most number of visitors to Premiership games last season at 174k. Norway were the next closest with 80k. Interesting that we are only twice the number. The norwegian league seems to be fairly well run.

[Junior]

So if we assume that Irish fans in the main attend home games for the club they support. That would work out a circa 9k per game. Say they are following the top 5 or 6 teams in the EPL (excluding Roberto our resident Wigan fan )- 1.5k per home game per club? Sound reasonable?

I presume it excludes SPL etc... i.e it was actually data gathered by EPL clubs?

[peadar1987]

The difference is Norwegians watch their own league as well, which is the way it should be in Ireland.

[paul_oshea]

Stutts favourite paper has a piece on it

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2...premier-league

"Football tourists collectively spent £706m, or £785 per fan – £200 more than the average visitor to Britain – with many arriving during the traditionally quieter period for tourism between January and March.

The allure of British football is most keenly pronounced in Norway, with one in 13 visitors from the country – 80,000 – watching a match. Other countries generating high numbers of football spectator visits include Ireland (174,000), the US (61,000), Spain (54,000) and Germany (48,000)."

[paul_oshea]

So 1mil + went to britain from Norway last year? I would have thought the Irish would have similar levels, perhaps they don't distinguish for us.

[Stuttgart88]

What's the cumulative no of attendees in a LoI season?

[Stuttgart88]

The difference is Norwegians watch their own league as well, which is the way it should be in Ireland.

I agree that's how it should be. I wonder how many of those traveling Norwegians do actually follow their own league though, or are therre two discreet camps by and large - domestic fans and EPL fans?

[Bungle]

I met a few Norwegian lads that I kept in touch with from years ago at the World Cup in the States. They were all mad Liverpool and Rosenburg fans with one of two United. Most of our lot were Liverpool and a few United so it was similiar. The key difference was they all went to domestic games, of our lot only myself and two lads (out of 11) would have regularly gone to games in Ireland.

[Acornvilla]

What's the cumulative no of attendees in a LoI season?

Averages after the end of the First Division:

PREMIER DIVISION

Bohs - 1488 (2011 - 1,488; 2010- 1,835; 2009 - 2,366; 2008 - 1,993; 2007 - 1,924; 2006 - 1,463; 2005 - 1,976)
Bray - 970 (1,121; 952; 1,169; 1,106; 1,200; 1,027; 1,550)
Cork - 2786 (2,128 FD; 1,693 FD; 2,681; 3,142; 2,897; 2,941; 3,644)
Derry - 1436 (2,135; 1,965 FD; 2,436; 3,363; 2,614; 3,229; 2,698)
Drogheda - 963 (811; 859; 1,106; 1,631; 1,919; 1,751; 1,682)
Dundalk - 981 (1,355; 1,877; 2,371; 1,459 FD; 1,406 FD; 1,078 FD; 474 FD)
Pat's - 1494 (1,346; 1,756; 1,631; 1,795; 1,910; 1,342; 1,599)
Rovers - 3171 (3,779; 3,794; 3,611; 1,468; 1,715; 1,089 FD; 1,539)
Shels - 1187 (781 FD; 737 FD; 972 FD; 986 FD; 888 FD; 1,690; 1,949)
Sligo - 2801 (2,103; 1,807; 1,756; 1,960; 1,448; 1,806; 1,794 FD)
UCD - 507 (558; 610; 272 FD; 546; 663; 546; 653; 306 FD)

FIRST DIVISION

Athlone - 271 (200; 354; 462; 387; 670; 421; 316)
Harps - 429 (433; 644; 480; 1,607 PD; 1,164; 428; 1,347 PD; 1,106) -
Limerick - 734 (569; 598; 429; 517; 670; 364; 669)
Longford - 365 (315; 230; 260; 406; 885 PD; 681 PD; 1,004 PD)
Mervue - 243 (349; 123; 166)
SD Galway - 182 (125; 122 - As Salthill Devon FC)
Waterford - 453 (466; 619; 434; 670; 1,181 PD; 915 PD; 1,513 PD)
Wexford - 302 (216; 343; 494; 767; 810)

PREMIER AVERAGE: 1617 (1,547, 1,512; 2,010; 1,746; 1,687; 1,535; 1,759)
FIRST DIVISION AVERAGE: 372 (578, 682; 417; 641; 722; 570; 520)

OVERALL AVERAGE: 1093 (1,110, 1,095; 1,175; 1,221; 1,235; 1,070; 1,195)

not what you asked for, but close enough to get the picture..

[IsMiseSean]

Would the fact that half the Norwegian squad recently was made up of players from their own league have anything to do with it?

[nigel-harps1954]

What's the cumulative no of attendees in a LoI season?

This season, going into the final weekend, 302,069 people in total between both the Premier and First Divisions.

[Stuttgart88]

It's a virtuous circle if it can be started.

Crowds, attract players, attract more crowds, attract more players…

What's the firrst step though - crowds or players?

[paul_oshea]

Chicken or the Egg Stutts?

[Stuttgart88]

So, over 30 games that's 533,000 Premier Division attendees in total. That's about 3 times the number that travel to the EPL over the course of a (longer) season.

Of course more go over to watch the likes of Leeds, Celtic and, eh, Wednesday and Wigan (we know who you are!).

Nearly 9,000 attend the Airtricity Premier Division every weekend (sum of the weekly average is 17,800, divided by 2).

175,000 go to an EPL game every season. That's 4,600 per game (38 games). What's a conservative guess for weekly Celtic, Leeds and others - 1,000? 1,500?

Let's say 6,000 go to the UK every weekend. That's 40% of the total number of Irish that watch pro football at the weekends.

I'd love to know how many would also go to a domestic game. My taxi driver in Dublin last week was a breath of fresh air - regular at Tallaght, occasional at QPR (Don Givens' legacy!) but I suspect it's a lower share than Norway.

[Dodge]

Nearly 9,000 attend the Airtricity Premier Division every weekend (sum of the weekly average is 17,800, divided by 2)

That'd be a fair bit misleading. More games in the premier eah week (5 to 4) and crowds in opremier far, far bigger (even in our modest terms) in the Premier

In that chicken & egg situaton, the answer is the farmer has to invest in the farm a bit more. There is ZERO cash inflow from the League into the League clubs (through regular worldwide established income channels such as TC revenue and proze money). Currently the FAI award less in prize money than the total of all participation fees. Clubs don't get a single euro for their games being covered on live TV.

We have little or no outside investment either. Thats the main difference with practically every country in Europe. There's nothing wrong with Irish people watching football on TV and picking favourites. Or even travelling occasionally to watch them. But the lack of respect for the local league is pretty unique to Ireland

[Stuttgart88]

I didn't understand the first bit above.

Agree with the rest. How is TV money distributed - equally regardless of appearances?

[paul_oshea]

Perhaps not at all - or indirectly I imagine.

[pineapple stu]

How do you work out where people are coming from? I bought tickets at the turnstiles last season (WBA v Wigan); presumably that doesn't count? Though presumably it's an insignificant percentage of total visitors.

Looks like basically as many people actually go to games in the LoI Premier Division as in the English Premier Division.

[Colbert Report]

Damien Duff playing in the LOI could be the major shot in the arm the league needs to get exposure and more people coming to games, a la David Beckham over here in the MLS

[SkStu]

Damien Duff playing in the LOI could be the major shot in the arm the league needs to get exposure and more people coming to games, a la David Beckham over here in the MLS

Nah, the Gareth Farrelly experiment failed miserably for Bohs....