Attendances 2022

[nigel-harps1954]

Is Oriel limited to 3,500 now? I have a sold out attendance figure of 4,026 from a couple of years ago and a few figures over 3,500. I'd be surprised if it were exactly 3,500 in the ground but if that's their official attendance figure then fair enough!

[pineapple stu]

Technically I think their twitter said the attendance was just under 3,500, but didn't give an exact number.

[DCWA]

is 2,900 home fans for the opening game of the season a brilliant attendance for Dundalk?

Surprised to hear 3,500 attendance for opening night with big away crowd described as “brilliant” alright, solid enough maybe but surely no more than that.

[Longfordian]

Well if that's the capacity then by definition they can't do any better.

[Nesta99]

I dont think the capacity was reduced in recent years but maybe why 'official figures' always tend to be 3.5k. No tax dodges with cash on the gates like the old days so I dont see any reason to under state attendances. I'm sure looking back at old attendances to have almost 3k home fans would be a good attendance, selling out the away allocation always pushed the crowd close to safe capacity limit. The season decider v Cork included a temporary stand and iirc that was a 5k capacity sell out.

There's always been a bit of a pishing match on average attendances (not looking at Cork in particular) but not take in to consideration % of population, capacities, opposition including those that families avoid, and of course the old why would people pay in to sub standard facilities (the ones that actually have charm and character like Oriel and United Park). LoI Fans imo do tend to over estimate, I did myself until I saw actual figures, years ago now, and curtailed the more wishful thinking guesstimates, but I could well be overly stingy now.

[oriel]

I think the safe capacity is something around 4,500 these days for Oriel Park, there are 3,100 - 3,200 seats (I seem to recall from euro games).

During the SK title winning years, the avg was around 3k- 3,300, so if 3,500 is correct and that accounts for 2,900 home fans, it pretty much accounts for whoever wanted /could be there went!

I'd also think 4k max would be the pool to draw from for most games (apart from cup finals when most clubs treble their avg), so again around 3k is not bad, considering finishing 6th and the car crash of 2021, but that said, the new owners in Andy Connolly and Statsports and SOD back as manager have definitely given the whole place a huge lift.

[oriel]

is 2,900 home fans for the opening game of the season a brilliant attendance for Dundalk?

I would say its quite good and given how the club has slipped last 2 years, its probably even more impressive to be fair, as I mentioned before this is coming off the back of the 6th place finish in 2021.

Out of interest what would you be expecting / hoping for v Sligo on Friday, say if you allow for 400-500 Sligo fans?

[PartySaint]

I would say its quite good and given how the club has slipped last 2 years, its probably even more impressive to be fair, as I mentioned before this is coming off the back of the 6th place finish in 2021.

Out of interest what would you be expecting / hoping for v Sligo on Friday, say if you allow for 400-500 Sligo fans?

I'm expecting a similar crowd of around 3,500. A brilliant crowd would be over 4,000 but we may have to wait until Rovers at home on Friday week for that.

[oriel]

I often wondered how the Dublin clubs ranked in support, 1/ Rovers 2/ Bohs, then if Shels were doing well would they be similar or just more than Pats?

In general I think any LOI club getting over 3k is very good in any game, its keeping it going throughout the season that's the challenge. As we mentioned on here before your less well known L2 club in England might get 3,500 on any given Sat, lose 3-0, then lose again mid-week away, the same will turn up the following week at home, that's something we would find hard to replicate here.

[EalingGreen]

I often wondered how the Dublin clubs ranked in support, 1/ Rovers 2/ Bohs, then if Shels were doing well would they be similar or just more than Pats?

In general I think any LOI club getting over 3k is very good in any game, its keeping it going throughout the season that's the challenge. As we mentioned on here before your less well known L2 club in England might get 3,500 on any given Sat, lose 3-0, then lose again mid-week away, the same will turn up the following week at home, that's something we would find hard to replicate here.

Never mind Lge Two, the National Lge (i.e. 5th tier) is averaging 3,051 attendances over their 23 clubs, with the top ten averaging 4,890:
https://www.worldfootball.net/attend...e-2021-2022/1/

While Lge Two is 4,643 (24 clubs):
https://www.worldfootball.net/attend...o-2021-2022/1/

And the great majority of these are competing for support with a larger club(s) nearby.

All that said, your bold is very true.

[oriel]

Good post Ealing, sometimes forger about National Lge in England, some big clubs there too.

For the 3 PD games here last weekend the avg was just over 4,300 but 2 games called off, not sure what expected crowds there, maybe 3.5k for Sligo & 2.5k for FH, but I could be wrong, if that happened would have taken avg to 3.8k, I think overall that would have been a very good opening weekend crowd wise.

But...............early weeks and week 1 generally high figures.

Must look at see the comparison at some stage what Irish League clubs got in their opening weekend in August, then again were full crowds allowed, I think they might have been?

[EalingGreen]

But...............early weeks and week 1 generally high figures.

Must look at see the comparison at some stage what Irish League clubs got in their opening weekend in August, then again were full crowds allowed, I think they might have been?

Here are the opening home attendances for each of the 12 clubs, played over the last week in August/first 2 weeks in September, followed by their seasonal averages to date (brackets):

Portadown v Glenavon: 1,422 (1,003)
Larne v Coleraine: 1,934 (1,875)
W'point v Ballymena: 160 (396)
Linfield v Crusaders: 2,048 (2,812)
Dungannon v Glentoran: 1,178 (503)
Cliftonville v Carrick: 1,054 (1,670)
Carrick v Warrenpoint: 230 (515)
Glentoran v B'mena: 1.920 (2,598)
Glenavon v Carrick: 615 (900)
Ballymena v Glenavon: 972 (1,269)
Coleraine v Ballymena 3,183 (2,176)

Only 4 of the 12 exceeded their average on their season opener.

Tbh in NI at least, the attractiveness or otherwise of the opposition looks to count for far more in boosting/suppressing crowds than the date/time of year, i.e. local derbies (Portadown, Coleraine); or one of the Big Two coming to town (Dungannon).

[Shinkicker]

In NI most Irish league games are played on Saturday as are ALL intermediate and junior games. Therefore if you play for a team you can't go and watch Irish league.
Not that it's worth going!!

[Shinkicker]

Portadown and Coleraine is not a local derby

[oriel]

Good stats there Ealing and interesting to read. The traditional 26/12 (27/12 this year due to the Sunday ) were well attended I read, the top billing of Linfield v you up to 8k I think?.

If IL ever changed to summer football (I think they should - would def help euro prep for a start) the 26/12 games would be lost but they could replace that with 12/07 holiday matches.

[EatYerGreens]

Good stats there Ealing and interesting to read. The traditional 26/12 (27/12 this year due to the Sunday ) were well attended I read, the top billing of Linfield v you up to 8k I think?.

If IL ever changed to summer football (I think they should - would def help euro prep for a start) the 26/12 games would be lost but they could replace that with 12/07 holiday matches.

They've toyed with a Summer league schedule in the north which keeps the St Stephen's Day derbies. It is possible, though would mean not avoiding a lot of the crap weather as a downside.

[PartySaint]

Here are the opening home attendances for each of the 12 clubs, played over the last week in August/first 2 weeks in September, followed by their seasonal averages to date (brackets):

Portadown v Glenavon: 1,422 (1,003)
Larne v Coleraine: 1,934 (1,875)
W'point v Ballymena: 160 (396)
Linfield v Crusaders: 2,048 (2,812)
Dungannon v Glentoran: 1,178 (503)
Cliftonville v Carrick: 1,054 (1,670)
Carrick v Warrenpoint: 230 (515)
Glentoran v B'mena: 1.920 (2,598)
Glenavon v Carrick: 615 (900)
Ballymena v Glenavon: 972 (1,269)
Coleraine v Ballymena 3,183 (2,176)

Only 4 of the 12 exceeded their average on their season opener.

Tbh in NI at least, the attractiveness or otherwise of the opposition looks to count for far more in boosting/suppressing crowds than the date/time of year, i.e. local derbies (Portadown, Coleraine); or one of the Big Two coming to town (Dungannon).

Didn't expect Coleraine's figures to be so high, what's going on there?

[Finlay Harp]

Coleraine were always reasonably well supported. Decent sized town with places like Ballymoney, Portush and Limavady feeding support into it.

[DCSIL]

Didn't expect Coleraine's figures to be so high, what's going on there?

Coleraine have been out heavily promoting themselves and what they do in the local community for a few years now. Decent support base(Coleraine, Portrush, Portstewart etc).

[EalingGreen]

Good stats there Ealing and interesting to read. The traditional 26/12 (27/12 this year due to the Sunday ) were well attended I read, the top billing of Linfield v you up to 8k I think?.

Yep, official att. was 8,007.

Meanwhile the return at The Oval on 11 Feb was a 6k sell-out, despite being a Friday evening and live-streamed on BBC NI. Were the bloody Council not so strict on the capacity cap, I imagine they could comfortably have sold a lot more (both home and visiting fans).

If IL ever changed to summer football (I think they should - would def help euro prep for a start) the 26/12 games would be lost but they could replace that with 12/07 holiday matches.

Boxing Day always draws bumper attendances - 2021 also saw:

Ballymena v Coleraine: 3,210
Carrick R. v Larne: 1,204
Portadown v Glenavon: 2,430

Meaning all four games that day were around three times their respective seasonal averages.

EDIT: For anyone interested(!), I'm getting my stats from the official IL website: https://www.nifootballleague.com/pre...-2022/results/