Through and through ! Though being the soft 'North-West of Ireland patriot' that I am, I do have a soft spot for the Harps as well...!Originally Posted by Mr_T
Hmmm, DCFC Steve, you talk a hell of a lot of sense!! Are you sure you support Derry??
TG
A perfect example of how the LOW will never catch on is Port Talbot. Right in the middle of Swansea and Cardiff and most either are completely Rugby mad or support Man United! Cardiff or Swansea barely get a mention let alone the LOW clubs!
Port Talbot were top of the league earlier in the year playing on a mud bath partially roped off in front of 95 people. Me included! it was awfull and barely Munster senior league standard
Yup it was the home leg vs. Deportivo.
I don't see how core support effects the fair weather fans teams are hopeing to attact through doing well in Europe. There's no more potential for fans in any Dublin team than there is in any other one, bar maybe Rovers if they can really claim Tallaght as their own.
Mid to lower league teams in England have tried and failed to sign Steve Williams, Wes Hoolahan and a few others before from Shels, they can't afford them with the way they're slashing wages at the moment and the relative little difference in wages, which even favours our teams in certain cases, means it's not worth moving country for. A good first division side or premiership side would be a different story but the rest isn't worth moving for and certain players still with Shels have shown that.Take the relative point.....why not start a campaign for BK to play 'B'games,which are mainly based around EL clubs.However,because domestic soccer will always be a poor third to GAA & rugby,don't be surprised if these EL players get snapped up by low to mid-ranking Football Lge.clubs,cross-channel!
The Shels game actually registered more viewers as well (317,000) than the Man U game.
The Longford v Waterford Cup Final also registered more viewers than the Arsenal v Man Utd game that was on at the same time, though in that instance I suspect the figures are unrepresentative, as a lot of viewers would've been watching the English teams down their local boozer.
TV figures really are no more than rough guesses based on a small section of the country - yup shows no real difference from a guy home alone watching a match or 100 people packed into a pub watching the same game.
I was at the International Rules game in Croke Park that day and was in a nearby pub after it. 3 TV's in the pub - 2 with Man Utd vs. Arsenal (one of which was big screen) and 1 with Longford vs. Waterford Utd (A useless wee tv you had to break your neck looking up at)
Statistically it must be accurate, or it wouldn't be used for advertising sales (or rather wouldn't be accepted by the advertising industry).
Remember back to my stats classes, there's very little difference in the accuracy of a relatively small sample compared to one sampling millions.
Besides that only really covers the cup final figures, not the CL Qualifier.
(Incidentally, when I have been out to watch the football, I've really noticed a huge drop off in the numbers watching in pubs over the last few years. I can't remember the last time I was in one packed for it)
If you attack me with stupidity, I'll be forced to defend myself with sarcasm.
True - but without electronically tagging TV's/set-top systems, there's no more accurate way of doing it I'm afraid.
The ratings exist purely for the benefit of advertisers, so the number of people watching down a pub is sadly irrelevant (as the overwhelming majority of them will not be exposed to the ads, unlike someone sitting on their sofa).
That may have something to do with the fact that TV3 were left to cover the Dinamo Bucharest game instead of Shels' game.
I'll put it a different way. If Shels and United were playing in the CL groups on the same night, and RTE could show only one game live, would RTE show Shels' game? You know that English teams' games will always get priority over Irish teams, on RTE.RTE's dedication to English football is shown by their showing of 15 live Premiership games (+ a weekly highlights show) a season, compared to a handful of live NL games a season. I would wonder if RTE would show Shels (or another NL team's) game in Europe, if an English club (usually United) were playing in the same competition on the same night. It shouldn't happen, but you know that RTE love showing United when they get the chance.
Going back to the subject thread, the Welsh League is even worse than ours. Changing the season won't stop their European representatives going out in the first qualifying round. Attendances are poor, and they have team names like Total Network Solutions, FFS
interesting true story:saturday afternoon highlights on either bbc or utv a few years ago. they only managed to show the highlights of the first half, didnt have time to film second half and edit tape for highlights by the 5.30 deadline, so they showed the highlights formt he first half, 0-0 at halftime. imagine then how stupid the presenter must have felt as he announced something along the lines of "and that game finished 4-4"! the camera crew mist 8 goals in the second half!
back to the point about the welsh league. it will struggle for a long time to get crowds, as it has no history or tradition. people dont associate with it as being their local teams as the clubs arent established long enough. most football fans in wales would already have picked a team long before the welsh league was founded in 1992 and are unlikely to switch alegiances, or suddenly adopt a new one. they should think long term and market the league to younger fans who would grow up alongside their local LOW teams
Welsh attendances from European Football Statistics...they're still fairly poor, but at least they're up 25% since the league started.
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