QuoteI presume he means ever rather than this year.
Those cities have all had CL teams at one stage or another
Presumably you mean group stages by that ?Originally Posted by Stuttgart88
In which case - Istanbul ? Rome ? Berlin ? Kiev ? Vienna ? Warsaw ? Athens ? Budapest ? Stockholm ?
I presume he means ever rather than this year.
Those cities have all had CL teams at one stage or another
There's no doubt that if the pull of GB football in ROI could be reversed, that could greatly benefit the LOI.
But with the way things are going, that "pull" is liable to be as much a threat as an opportunity. For with the EPL at least having ever more money and resources, bigger modern stadia and huge crowds, more success on the pitch, and enormous worldwide coverage from TV, streaming, satellite, social media etc, their "product" is only growing.
Meaning that it is drawing ever more "support" from all over the world, and with ROI's historic links with the game across the water, plus proximity and cheapness/ease of travel etc, then there must still be capacity for interest in English (and Scottish?) football to grow even more in ROI.
Take the example of Spurs. As of March 2019, there were 17 official Spurs Supporters Clubs in ROI (plus another dozen or more in NI):
https://www.thelilywhites.co.uk/stor...pporters-clubs
By July 2020, Spurs had 278 official SSC's worldwide, in every corner of the globe, with numbers growing all the time:
https://www.tottenhamhotspur.com/new...-spurs-family/
And Spurs are by no means the most popular club in Ireland - see eg L'pool, Man Utd, Arsenal and Celtic etc.
And as for retrieving some of this "pull" back to the LOI (also IL), for me the greatest hurdle is not the standard of play, since a good, competitive LOI game can be more entertaining than a technical, tactical EPL game, where the two teams cancel each other out etc. Nor is it necessarily the level of promotion locally, since clubs can increasingly promote themselves through social media etc.
Rather I believe it to be the generally appalling standard of facilities which people encounter in LOI grounds (same for IL too, btw). Quite simply, averagely affluent people in ROI cannot be happy to shell out even a fraction of their 2022 wealth for a ticket to a 1970's ground, especially when they compare it with the "cathedrals of football" elsewhere in the world.
And it's not even a question of "either/or". For it is quite possible for an Irish fan to have an English team which he goes to see a couple of times a season, alongside an LOI team which he watches the rest of the time.
But I do believe that unless/until Irish clubs improve their stadia to that which you see in other comparable European countries like eg Denmark, then there is little chance of a that happening, never mind dropping their English club to support an LOI club exclusively.
Forgot to mention this interesting marketing initiative from the NI Football League. Last night they livestreamed the Premier Intermediate League (i.e. 3rd tier) match between Ballymacash Rangers and Lisburn Distilley.
For background, Cash are a relatively new club in Lisburn (formed in 1984), who have made huge strides recently - terrific facilities, community engagement, youth and girls teams etc, and whose ambition has seen them shoot up from Amateur league stuff to the PIL - Im sure they want to go higher.
Since promotion last season, this was their first true "derby" match against Distillery. Anthow, the live stream drew 3k viewers and attracted a lot of interest from fans of other IL teams, while around 300(?) turned up on a filthy night at the game itself.
And apparently the NIFL intends to do more of this sort of thing.
Brief highlights here:
https://youtu.be/AjcogBCkc8U
Does the LOI do something similar for their clubs?
In any case, it would be Ankara by quite some margin.
Now that's a good spot in fairness!
(Which reminds me that it's slightly surprising Turkey isn't in the top ten there. Perennial underachievers given the interest in the game)
There has been live streaming here since the pandemic. Not free though, did they charge for the game up North ? I think the streaming has been great. Allows me to see every game Pats play. Crazy decision though to not have a season ticket this year, but to charge per game. Can’t see how they could make more money that way.
I wonder if the increased attendances post pandemic will result in more media interest. Hopefully it will, which could then in turn lead to better crowds again.
Out for a spell, got neglected, lay on the bench unselected.
No, the stream was free, set up by the League itself, with likely more such games to come..
And remember, it was an Intermediate game (3rd tier) i.e. not Premiership/Championship.
While the BBC generally livestreams a Premiership game (for free) every Friday evening, as well as having a 30 minutes Premiership highlights/magazine programme every week.
While Sky have selected a couple of IL Prem games in the next few months (subscription), to fill English domestic league gaps while the World Cup finals are on.
Not sure all this makes any impact outwith the NI football community, but within it it certainly generates extra interest.
Last edited by EalingGreen; 26/10/2022 at 11:34 PM.
BBC Scotland also and BBC Wales also stream games from free and sometimes full broadcast
Watched Pollock v Annan the other night and it was quite the game.
RTE in contrast ........
Sorry,didn't want to derail the thread.
With So much Sh** written about OP and you can see why we're grasping at straws now(me anyway) with the new Louth GAA stadium been built in Dundalk.
i did watch this game though. BRILLIANT game
What we need is a proper broadcast contact. We're never going to get that from RTÉ as things stand so we should be looking to sell our rights internationally, share the funds between all teams in both divisions and find a way to ensure those rights are directed to facilties, whether those be stadium improvements, training facilties or youth development. No one in Ireland likes anything in Ireland until the rest of the world pays attention. Get RTÉ and Virgin to come chasing for the rights after we've fixed things on our own with external funding.
We should also be looking at ways to encourage teams/councils etc to improve their facilities in order get a better share of the funds, though I don't know how you do that without directing money towards the teams who already have decent stadia.
When you talk about selling rights internationally, where do you think you would find international broadcasters who are willing to pay?
In other countries.
https://kesslereffect.bandcamp.com/album/kepler - New music. It's not that bad.
Oh really?
Then perhaps RTE need to be pushed a lot harder, since it is unlikely that other, non-ROI broadcasters will be interested.
And as 'Toblerona' has averred, in the UK, BBC Scotland, BBC Wales and BBC NI are doing a reasonable job in their role as public service broadcasters.
P.S. In NI, it's not just Football, but also GAA and Rugby who get decent coverage from what I can see.
Last edited by EalingGreen; 27/10/2022 at 10:34 PM.
Instead of waiting for a saviour in RTE or Sky, who have shown very little intrest in the past, the LOI/FAI should continue to develop LOI.TV - which should increase revenue and support. You have to think that modern media is moving away from the purley TV based onto the online- LOI should be the first Irish sport to fully embrace it.
Little things to make LOI.TV a better experience:
- One free game a week
- yearly subscription to all the games available
- highlights available in a reasonable time frame after the game (and on Twitter) and cut any analysis of games from a highlights show, leave that to podcasts, which do an excellent job
- dont be afraid to have one or two games staggered across the weekend
Totally totally totally agree with this.
Me too - I like it!
This is the future here. Build and grow the product offering annually, into something that is not reliant on traditional tv outlets and instead focuses purely on the continuing shift to online.
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