2026 LOI Season Start Date

[legendz]

The 2026 LOI Season is due to kick-off on Friday February 6th. That is the same weekend as the 6 Nations rugby.
France v Ireland is on Thursday 5th and the other games are on Saturday 7th, all on TV.

Should the start date for the league be changed!

When the league was starting in March a few years back after an excessively long off season, I would have agreed with bringing it forward a few weeks to February at least. A gap week in the 6N would have suited purely for media coverage in the lead up to the opening weekend.

The league has moved on from that, which is great. The league now needs to be plotting its own course. Early February kick off is great. Off season shortened by a month from the March start from years ago.

[Nah Nah Nah Nah]

It's become somewhat of a tradition for both Longford and Sligo to have home games on a Saturday, but does this make much difference to their gates compared with the rare occasions on which they have to play on a Friday?

In general I’d say 15-20% for us. Friday nights unfortunately are not rare.

[Neish]

It's become somewhat of a tradition for both Longford and Sligo to have home games on a Saturday, but does this make much difference to their gates compared with the rare occasions on which they have to play on a Friday?

Harps tried Saturdays nights for one or two season, no significant increase in attendances was noticed. And I think players, staff & match day volunteers (most of who will be working mon-fri) prefer the Friday night games as they then have Saturday night free