I'm gonna revise the Waterford crowd up. Maybe 700. Really impressive
3,012 at the cross. Fantastic.
I'm gonna revise the Waterford crowd up. Maybe 700. Really impressive
2,634 in The Showgrounds
Talking to a Pat's fan on the way out tonight and both of us reckoned 2500-3000 in Richmond
That's a great crowd for a Monday night. Nice 3 points as well
real shame cork waterford wasnt a friday game easily hits 5k+ . great travelling support.
3,546 at Dundalk v Rovers, very good away crowd up to be fair.
https://twitter.com/DundalkFC/status...qoQ6cRwpuExHbQ
#DundalkFC - First Irish club to win an away game in Europe (1963), first Irish club to win points in a group stage in Europe (2016).
Some encouraging numbers tonight. Expected a lot worse for a Monday game vs UCD in Richmond than we got.
Jesus that's seriously impressive from Waterford. That hasn't been done in yonks, never mind a Monday night
Crowd numbers have been great so far this season. No way a Monday night game v UCD would have attracted anything like that crowd to Richmond a few years ago. And it seems to be the same story everywhere. What are people putting down to ? Post COVID bounce, or is there something deeper going on here ?
Out for a spell, got neglected, lay on the bench unselected.
I think there's a number of different factors in it.
- Clubs getting better with community engagement
- Post COVID
- People disillusioned with the Premier league (VAR, Super League etc)
- Social media has put a massive spotlight on the league leading to more mainstream traditional media covering it much better
- Really good young players
Here on a technicality.
Yeah I was shocked. I've been surprised by how good the crowds have been every week so far. The only teams I can remember bringing larger groups than Waterford had last night in recent years are Bohs and Rovers. I vaguely remember a really good Limerick crowd one year but don't think it was as large as Waterford last night.
As for why crowds have been so good? I have to think post Covid is a massive factor, cos we aren't doing any major publicity work, and its not like we have ahuge season ticket number this year. Its decent but not enough to explain the crowds so far. I'm going to keep expecting crowds to come down as we settle into the rhythm of things, though performances (and results) like last night won't hurt.
Ive always felt that crowds could snowball if they were big enough and created a good atmosphere - people wuld come back for more with the big matchday feel. But something needed to happen that would trigger a type of perfect storm where it wasnt just success based surge, one off cup ties etc. I do think the novelty will wear off and averages drop but some newer fans will stick so overall averages will settle at a higher level than pre 2020. By how much will depend on things the football. It's a real opportunity for clubs and the league - getting people to games is a lot harder than stopping them drift away and where you can make yer pitch for all sorts of things eg merch, membership, kids initiatives, family days. Just imagine if clubs across the league had facilities or there were in the pipeline for real to add to the momentum and experience.
I understand where you are coming from, but part of me thinks that it's actually a positive thing if people can't get tickets to clubs, as it creates a thirst for them to follow the team more closely (LOI TV, media coverage etc) in the hope that they do get one.
Irish people's sports bandwagons traits are legendary, and LOI can have a bandwagon of its own if it works to get everyone onto the actual wagon eventually... If you know what I mean.
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