Setanta Cup final

**sligoman** · 19/04/2005, 2:11 PM

Originally Posted by DE TOWN

Yeah, and how many trophies are you ever gonna win..........NONE

Wrong, we'll win the first division

. And ye have a better chance of winning trophies too as, like you said, ye have five chances and we have only three. So, 1/3 is much better than 0/5

**De Town** · 19/04/2005, 2:14 PM

Originally Posted by sligoman

Wrong, we'll win the first division

yeah, keep dreaming. not with 6 points deducted you wont

**sligoman** · 19/04/2005, 2:19 PM

Originally Posted by DE TOWN

yeah, keep dreaming. not with 6 points deducted you wont

Have'nt lost it officially yet and we can still climb back.

**monkey magic** · 19/04/2005, 3:46 PM

Originally Posted by sligoman

Have'nt lost it officially yet and we can still climb back.

aaah the ever hopeful sligo fan, sure according to yiz lot ye've been cuming up for the last four or five seasons... if words were worth points sure ye'd be lining up against chelsea in a weeks time.....
in that said period weve secured promotion, consolidstion in the prem div, 3 FAI cup finals(winnng 2) and two league cup finals(winning one)

why we entertain your dimentia-esque ravings ill never know

**Finny** · 19/04/2005, 11:06 PM

Originally Posted by red til dead

fair play to longford for the progress they've made but i think every1 will agree we still a bigger club over time&considerin how brillaint ye are yer attendances are awful

yeah we made progress while ye are still where? oh yeah the first division. and we a brilliant were the boys in red&black attendences might not be that great cause fans dont seem intrested unless ur winning every game down here and the way ye win things im suprised ye have and fans at all.

now my rant is over isnt this thread supposed to be about The Towns first trophy of the season "The Setanta Cup"

Sligo winning the 1st division

**dcfcsteve** · 19/04/2005, 11:22 PM

Keep it down kids.....

Anyways - disappointing crowd again at tonight's Setanta game. The Linfield Glentoran St Stephen's Day derby usually attracts 10-12,000. I'd guess 2,500 max at the game tonight.

I do worry that Setanta will be disappointed by the crowds, and that may cause them to reconsider their very generous sponsorship moving forwards. I wonder how they intend to measure the increase in subscriptions they've gained from the competition (you can be sure they'll be looking for some way to qualify the commercial impact of it - beyond just advertising) ?

**pete** · 19/04/2005, 11:47 PM

Originally Posted by dcfcsteve

I do worry that Setanta will be disappointed by the crowds, and that may cause them to reconsider their very generous sponsorship moving forwards. I wonder how they intend to measure the increase in subscriptions they've gained from the competition (you can be sure they'll be looking for some way to qualify the commercial impact of it - beyond just advertising) ?

Attendances are going to be hard way to judge success. Longford have small pool of supporters to draw on & shels are waste of time. I get impression IL crowds are average 1500 for "big" teams? Glentoran are playing Linfield in the league on saturday which probably distracted the crowds. I think they were again unlucky with weather on city v shels game as definitely lost minimu of 2000 as we had smallest crowd this season at 3500.

Setanta are paying i think approx 40k for each game = 100 subscriptions. They probably paying half that for the league games they planning to show & don't get to "own" that competition. Be interesting to see how 40k compares with Celtic League rugby games cost.

**Longfordian** · 19/04/2005, 11:52 PM

Hmm, steve is right, the fans (particularly the northern teams at home since they have been known to attract huge numbers on the right occasion), haven't really taken this to their bosom, they attract good numbers going away (Glens expect 700 on Monday) but is it the novelty or what?. Our fans are fickle enough at the best of times too. Should be interesting to see if the crowd is boosted by our game not being on television, we can but hope. By the by we still have an excellent chance of yet another final if we play like we can, neither side impressed with their defending tonight.

**-lamb-** · 20/04/2005, 12:09 AM

i think its more a case of bad timing, with the glens and linfield basically playing each other for the league this saturday. i'd be surprised if that was anything less than close to a sellout.

**Longfordian** · 20/04/2005, 12:18 AM

I suppose but I mean you're playing your local rivals, if that was Rovers-Bohs for example I'd expect the same crowd no matter what the competition, if the competition means anything to their fans that is. It just seems to work differently up in Belfast,on Tuesday you play Glens in a new national competition and get say 3,000. On Saturday you get maybe 8,000 or possibly 10,000. OK maybe the league means more but 5,000 at least more people..doesn't say alot for future Setanta Cups if you can't get a buzz going in the first year. I'm not having a go because our crowd wasn't great either but just wondering about how this competition will work out long term.

**paudie** · 20/04/2005, 8:06 AM

Getting back to the timing of the final.

The crowd will probably be affected but I presume Setanta will have the final in the evening rather than clashing with the FA Cup.

Hopefully the attendances will improve for the rest of the group matches as all the teams still have a chance of qualifying.

**trevy** · 20/04/2005, 12:25 PM

I presume FAI/IFA and Setanta will have the brains to put the game on in the evening to avoid a direct clash with FA Cup final and will have learned from last years FAI Cup final which was on at same time as Man Utd v Arsenal

.You have to be realistic and try and maximise the crowd going to the game.

**dcfcsteve** · 20/04/2005, 9:39 PM

Originally Posted by Cop on

Don't you worry your little head about it. Setanta have the commercial aspect of this well figured out - they're probably getting amazing value for money. They might not be that interested in subscriptions per se, and might even be looking at selling the channel on!!

I don't doubt Setanta looked at it good and proper in advance, but they would've had to rely entirely on projections. Projections of likely increase in subscriptions, projections of likely viewing audiences (which, along with the subs, determines the ad revenue for slots around the games) and projections on crowds and value of media exposure the brand gains as a result of the tournament. There's been very little live Irish footie on telly of-late to act as a yardstick - and none mid-week involving cross-border teams. Therefore, their financial analysis in advance of the comeptition would have been all based on assumptions and projections.

As with all assumptions and projections it is highly likely, therefore, that the reality has turned out to be very different than they hoped/expected. Crowds are low at the games, they've got a decent amount of media coverage for their brand/tournament - but nothing amazing considering their large outlay, and I'm curious as to how they intend to isolate increases in subscriptions that have arisen from the tournament (my guess is that the vast majority of new subs in Feb/Mar/Apr will be construed as having been due to the Setanta Cup).

Setanta are a sharp and well-run business. Beyond the short-term, they won't pour large sums of money into a tournament that isn't delievering results for them. To suggest that they knew all the answers to something completely new in advance of it starting is a bit naive. Companies try things all the time that look good on paper, but fail in practise.

As for "selling the channel on" - are you proposing Setanta have started a cross-border football tournament purely to boost their market value ?? If so, that's absolute insanity. The Setanta Cup is arguably their least valuable rights package - despite it being exclusive ! Regardless - a lot of money has been pumped into Setanta recently, so I'd be surprised if they were just doing it to tart themselves up for a sale.

I just hope 2 well supported teams make it to the Final and we get a big crowd and a great game, so that the tournament's closes with a positive image in their mind.

**Macy** · 21/04/2005, 7:45 AM

Originally Posted by trevy

I presume FAI/IFA and Setanta will have the brains to put the game on in the evening to avoid a direct clash with FA Cup final and will have learned from last years FAI Cup final which was on at same time as Man Utd v Arsenal

.You have to be realistic and try and maximise the crowd going to the game.

Can I just remind everyone, that the FAI Cup final kicked off late at RTE's insistance due to a clash with some makey uppy game at Croke Park. Hopefully Setanta won't be so fookin dumb.

**pete** · 21/04/2005, 11:11 AM

Setanta need live sport on tv - i think when they launched officially for 7 Day week they were claiming would be live sport every night. Currently the only live sport they have is Celtic League Rugby (weekends), F1 (weekends) & weekend football (EPL, SPL, Seria A, Bundesliga & French Cup sometimes) & weekeday football (UEFA Cup, Setanta Cup). Setanta have feck all weekday programmes & since no Leinster Schools Rugby left need something for this time of year.

I don't know if Setanta will stick with the cross border competition in the long run but they have access to few enough competitions & was probably easy enough to get the FAI/IFA on board. The Setanta Cup is new & can only improve in following years.

I'd be surprised if final gets more than 2-3k attendance.

**dcfcsteve** · 21/04/2005, 4:00 PM

Originally Posted by pete

I'd be surprised if final gets more than 2-3k attendance.

I think 2-3k for the Final is too low an expectation Pete. Realistically, I think it'll be 5,000+ - and if 2 well-supported teams get there it could be pushing towards 10,000. But I don't think it'll be anywhere near the type of crowd that warrants Lansdowne Road, and it would look dreadful if played there. I'd expect Setanta to be coming round to the idea of a switch to Tolka/Dalymount.

Hopefully once the Irish League and Cup wrap up in the next couple of weeks the crowds for the 3 Northern teams will get bigger, as fans will soon remember how crap the off-season is.

**Longfordian** · 21/04/2005, 4:22 PM

There's a good chance it's not going to be in Lansdowne after all seemingly. I always thought it had been decided already but I heard otherwise yesterday. A good chance of it being at a club ground, maybe even a finalist's ground depending on who gets there. A 7.15 kick off too seemingly