QuoteThe club said 370 for Bray v Athlone. I'd take at least 100 off that. I'd say it was between 250-270
PREMIER AVERAGE: 3,506 (3,289; 2,687; 2,185; 2,170; 1,902; 1,476; 1,681; 1,502; 1,566; 1,630; 1,547)
FIRST DIVISION AVERAGE: 962 (1,035; 1,193; 586; 413; 477; 476; 486; 495; 391; 372; 578)
OVERALL AVERAGE: 2,246 (2,162; 2,051; 1,500; 1,249; 1,387; 1,117; 1,249; 1,160; 1,140; 1,125; 1,110)
In 9 of the last 12 seasons, the PD avg has been under 2,500 overall, now its not far off the overall average for all LOI games, some increase ! As is the PD avg of 3,500, the 4 Dub clubs to be fair have dragged that up.
#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).
The club said 370 for Bray v Athlone. I'd take at least 100 off that. I'd say it was between 250-270
Jaysis that’s a shocking attendance even for a Thursday night,2 teams that are 3rd and 4th in the table aswell….Originally Posted by Green&whitearmy
Irish by birth ,Harps by the grace of god.
Dont know if we count friendlies, but 3000 in Bishopsgate for Longford Town legends v man u legends today.
200 more than Longfords last 8 home league games combined. Says a lot about the sporting public in the area.
https://kesslereffect.bandcamp.com/album/kepler - New music. It's not that bad.
I suppose so, but being a really disappointing season for us so far.
The club put a good bit of promotional work into the game today and that paid off.
Yeah very impressive. Program for the game is a bargain for 176 pages at a tenner. Think very close to selling out. My only worry is if this 3rd tier is brought next year and we finish bottom again and promotion/relegation is introduced between the leagues it could be the death nell of us!
Heard at game that Willie Tyrrell interviewed for town job with Tom O Connor and got to last three. Willie is Irish PT scout for Norwich City.
If I was Wayne Groves I would be onto Dave Sully as he was superb. Hes still playing for Wicklow Rovers!
Gary Cronin is he the right man to manage Longford Town?
The Man Utd fans seemed to come from all over the country even from abroad and the North.
Gary Cronin is he the right man to manage Longford Town?
Exactly that,put Man Utd on the front of something in this country and you’ll add a few to the gate …
Irish by birth ,Harps by the grace of god.
Uness you are Dundalk FC and manage to not sell out a game bewteen Man Utd as EPL champions and Dundalk as LoI champions by pricing the pre season friendly with a number of other games like 3 home league games so making the cost of a preseason friendly ticket unaffordable to many, both Dundalk and MUFC fans in a pre boom and off the back of a bust economic era. A lot less witnessed a Cantona penalty saved by Van Boxtel than is claimed today!!
At the half way mark, it seems PD crowds are up by 6% on the same stage in 2023 - encouraging stuff:
https://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/2024...ime-last-year/
Interestingly IL Premiership crowd increases have broadly mirrored those of the LOI (percentage-wise) in recent years, both pre- and post-Covid. Yet they levelled off in 2023/24 compared with 2022/23: 1,591 vs 1,588 (12 team Division):
https://www.irishleaguesupporters.com/attendances.php
Not to derail the topic but is there any appetite for moving to a 10-team league up north Ealing?
I think the Irish League suffers badly with how much weaker the bottom 2-3 clubs are generally. Some very low points totals in the division the last couple years.
Think the 10 team league has accelerated the improvement of the league vs what we would have seen post COVID worth a 12 team division.
Don't honestly know, tbh, but I suspect not.
This is because with 10 teams, you end up playing each other 4 times a season, to bring the season up to 36 games. The present system allows each team to play 38 games i.e. 27 regular games (= 3 times each), plus another 11 post-split. Which also means more competitive, meaningful games as these post-split games feature the top six playing each other for the title and Europe etc. While the bottom six jostle to avoid relegation against (mostly) similar standard teams.
And when you consider that the set-up also has a reasonable quota of other popular competitions - Irish Cup, League Cup, County Antrim Shield etc, all of whom feature the top few teams in the latter stages (at least), I think the fear is that a smaller division would just become more of the same-old, same-old between the same few teams.
One certainly, often two, but I'm not sure it's ever three?
While the fact of there being 12 teams improves the chances of new(ish) teams like Loughgall, Ballinamallard, Warrenpoint, Newry etc coming up to freshen things up, for two or three seasons, at least. For example, the pretty dire Portadown team which was relegated after 2022/23 drew an average attendance of 946 - very poor for a team/town of that size (imo). Yet their replacements from Loughgall (pop.300) actually drew an average crowd of 748!
Obviously this was heavily boosted by away fans fancying a new trip etc, and is likely to fall off once the novelty wears off, esp if the team is struggling on the field (they were comfortable enough this time). Nonetheless I think most would agree they're a welcome addition, but they'd have been so much less likely to get there if they were struggling for one of ten places, I'd guess.
There are advantages to each, I agree, and maybe 10 is more suitable for the LOI because of the higher number of full-time teams you have amongst the ten. And I know I bang on about this ad nauseum (sorry), but the lack of a proper pyramid perhaps means your talent and resources are more heavily concentrated amongst a relatively smaller number of teams?
Whereas in NI, our talent and resources are obviously so much lesser, but perhaps they're more widely spread (beyond the top 3 or 4 teams, at least)? In which case a 12 team set-up is preferable. Remember, too, that the Championship also has 12 teams, while the Intermediate (3rd tier) has 14 teams(!), though that is anomalous for reasons too complicated to mention, and I think will be reformed.
I guess it's "horses for courses"?
Avoid ten teams at all costs. It's so damn boring playing everyone 4 times a year. It's no wonder crowds drop off badly at this time of year, the real run in has not begun but you're already seeing teams for the third time.
#NeverStopNotGivingUp
Yeah a 12 team league with a mid-season split with Championship and Relegation would be best in my opinion!
Interesting - I had suspected there might be something in that, but am not qualified to say so.
Munster Senior Cup Final
Turners Cross
Monday 24th June 2024
Waterford 2 Kerry 1
Att. 2/300
I aint a fan of the ten team league, I do ackowledge that it mean there is little space for absolutely nothing games by and large. I dont think that fans think oh Ive already seen us play x twice already so Im not bothering to go to that fixture again. If there is something to play for I dont feel fans groan 'not them again' unless its a bogey side or vastly superior so its a not a contest. The dip in summer gates is multifaceted as we know. Im still not totally convinced that attendance growth is forever and a day. The surge has or will peak and then decline, not to pre surge levels probably, bot novelty wears off, fomo drops etc. Throw in the old nuggets of holidays, family committments et al. I dont want repetative fixtures myself but id have it fairly low on the reasons for the summer drop off.
But Ive just watched 7 Stanley Cup games between the same two sides and never questioned the repeat games and enjoyed the intrigue and almost Oilers comeback. So horses for courses I suppose.
Last edited by Nesta99; 26/06/2024 at 12:11 PM.
Since Galway and Waterford started drawing good crowds and playing well, I think we could make a 12 team top tier work.
We currently have 11 teams who can both be competitive and draw a crowd i.e. the 10 PD sides, plus Cork. You could probably put Harps into that box as well - at least in terms of a crowd anyway. The problem with a 10 team league is that it results in at least one well-supported - and always non-Dublin - team being outside the top tier. And again - sinnce the ascent of Galway and Waterford, it means you have 2 such teams outside the top tier.
My personal preference would be to see all the better supported teams together (thereby amplifying each others attendances)
Thats everyones ideal most likely. But I cant get away from the need of merit based promotion/relegation, it needs to happen by a kind of coincidental coming together rather than trying a cherry picking restructure. Im not saying this is the suggestion but UCD win promotion regularly and inadvertantly will exclude a 'bigger' club. Ok Dundalk fans will balk at restucturing talk considering our own exclusion due to off field decisions and a Galway DVD and that all worked out very well indeed for Galway after and in the end Dundalk just got back to the top of the game again on merit anyway (5 leagues, 3 FAI Cups, 3 League Cups, 2 European group stages since - yes we like saying it but it does illustrate a point, in comparison to the club/s picked based on 'potential' ahead of us and on field merit). I cant think of a better time than this season to exand the top division this year, no relegation and 2 up!!
But yeah imo we would just have to hope that 12 of the best supported sides happen to be in the Premier Division.
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