1,836 saw the game of the round at Eamon Deacy park but that’s a very poor crowd
1,836 saw the game of the round at Eamon Deacy park but that’s a very poor crowd
It was good to keep one stand closed bar the away section though. It meant that on TV it look good. Its always better to have fans grouped together like that as they would sit as far apart as possible dotted around the ground effectiing atmosphere. Could another 2 or 3 blocks be added to the new stand in EDP? It looks like there is space when behind goals are restricted. 1800 isnt awful, its almost 5k over 2 games on one weekend.
On the subject of Longford attendances. 1800 approx at Galway tonight for a supposed population of 86,000 in the county. That's over 2%, and not the first time it has happened irrespective of being a monday or friday game. If we say Longford average 550 per game, for 10,000 town, -> 5.5%. And surely similar examples for other clubs.I do believe Longford is capable of getting closer too 1,000 for more games, but there's also a bit of glass houses action with some people when it comes to attendances. I thought 500+ for UCD last week was impressive considering that was all home fans.
The population of county Galway is 276,000, the city is 86kOriginally Posted by MoydowMonty
I know, I intentionally kept it to the Towns. Longford's population is 40,000. If you want to do the percentages for those numbers it would be even lower obviously.
100%. Leitrim v Longford in a big game in Div 4 at the weekend, local derby, Longford in the mix for promotion and a rare Croke Park appearance and I'm told only around 500 at it. LTFC's attendances aren't that bad.
When you compare anything with something similarly bad, you feel better about yourself, like a dwarf among midgets.
Anything under an average of around 4,000 probably isn't sustainable for professional football. Generous donors needed to prop it up.
Its sustainable, but club may have to change its level of ambition. LoI is like an arms race until something happens and things crash only to do it all again. Some have to reset, some are lucky to be able to plug the holes, some get an opportunity to compete for a while. Its probably not far off the days of Cork rumoured to be paying what 4k a week mid 2000s. Drogheda not fah off. 6 figure signing on fee paid by Dundalk in a new boom and bust cycle, who is up next during this one - possible those who think they are most immune.
Approximately 17,000 fans attend the 5 Premier games on a Monday night. The LOI has really established its position as a top spectator sport.
17000 doing a lot of heavy lifting here when 60% was at 2 games
Louth are limited with attendance in Ardee and sold out 3200 last 2 games but they wouldn't get more than 5000 of they had the capacity (was only 4000 at Cork game in Drogheda when Ardee was waterlogged)
Dundalk and Drogheda combined would always outnumber a Louth game (bar a big championship game) and Louth are absolutely flying the last few years. Even a few years back played Cork in last 12 All Ireland Inneskeen (which is basically in Louth) and was only 5000 at it
In Dublin, it's doing well. Outside the Dublin hinterland, it's still struggling really. Bohs, Pats, Shamrock Rovers and Shelbourne all going strong, but it dips off after that.
Obviously Drogheda have capacity restrictions, so we can't know what they'd be hitting, but hardly much more than Dundalks current average which is just below 3,000. Derry in with an urban area population of over 100,000 people, and the added James McClean return, are still only half filling their stadium. The aforementioned Galway, only averaging 2.5k in a sporting mad city, while Sligo and Waterford tip along around 2.7k average each in large enough urban areas of their own.
The First Division tells a real tale of how 'established' the LOI has become in spectator sport circles. Take out Cork City attendances and the average for the division sits at a pretty dreadful 845. Even at 1,110 along with Cork City, it doesn't scream sustainable professional football at all, despite a couple of the teams in there operating either full time, or hybrid full time models.
Last edited by nigel-harps1954; 17/03/2026 at 2:14 PM.
First of the season.
PREMIER DIVISION
Bohs - 10,003 (5,682{2025}; 4,241 {2024}; 4,243 {2023}; 3,209 {2022};2,878{19}; 2,148; 2,006; 1,627; 1,724; 1,395; 1,597)
Derry - 3,854 (3,468; 2,875; 3,336; 3,184; 2,049; 2,297; 1,517; 1,563; 1,124; 1,106; 1,446)
Drogheda - 2,347(2,296; 2,023; 1,916; 1,941; 721 FD; ; 377 FD; 850; 583 FD; 813; 1,0641)
Dundalk - 2,994 (1,854 FD; 2,419; 2,636; 2,689; 2,775; 2,738; 2,674; 2,738; 3,158; 2,534; 1,997)
Galway - 2,563 (2,785; 3,014; 2,018 FD; 2,081 FD; 780 FD; 746 FD; 1,376; 1,169)
Pat's - 4,379 (4,293; 4,402; 4,232; 3,489; 1,919; 1,621; 1,504; 1,088; 1,321; 1,386; 1,687)
Rovers - 5,710 (5,996; 6,071; 6,109; 5,379; 3,384; 2,749; 2,809; 2,041; 2,890; 2,269; 2,763)
Shels - 5,119 (4,562; 4,262; 3,393; 2,913; 1,071 FD; 654 FD; 496 FD; 554 FD; 596 FD; 713 FD; 1,114)
Sligo - 2,789 (2,814; 2,858; 2,555; 2,166; 1,995; 1,853; 1,717; 1,750; 1,750; 1,959; 2,342)
Waterford - 2,682 (2,608; 2,733; 1,833 FD; 1,705 FD; 1,496; 2,329; 1,550 FD; 314 FD; 460 FD; 470 FD; 478 FD)
FIRST DIVISION
Athlone - 815 (489; 642; 872; 307; 382; 130; 154; 156; 314; 653 PD; 754)
Bray - 1,119 (1,061; 644; 663; 482; 773; 643 PD; 966 PD; 957 PD; 769 PD; 718 PD; 891 PD)
Cobh - 1,160 (815; 731; 1,020; 872; 268; 236; 358; 403; 366; 223; 439)
Cork - 3,047 (3,053 PD}; 2,881; 3,666 PD; 3,517; 2,505 PD; 4,245 PD; 4,559 PD; 2,533 PD; 3,263 PD; 3,777 PD; 1,965 PD)
Harps - 934 (853; 1,023; 1,154; 1,293 PD; 1,154 PD; 708; 1,202 PD; 1,216 PD; 784; 449; 479; 429)
Kerry - 592 (663; 610; 784)
Longford - 539 (552; 450; 679; 500; 610; 449; 342; 488 PD; 803 PD; 567; 379)
Treaty - 868 (1,000; 1,060; 642; 695)
UCD - 324 (349; 336; 809 PD; 953 PD; 739 PD; 365; 236; 297; 216; 397 PD; 487 PD; 506 PD)
Wexford - 936 (624; 556; 689; 445; 235; 181; 338; 585 PD; 553; 331; 227)
PREMIER AVERAGE: 4,203 (3,774; 3,490; 3,289; 2,687; 2,185; 2,170; 1,902; 1,476; 1,681; 1,502; 1,566)
FIRST DIVISION AVERAGE: 1,110(826; 894; 1,035; 1,193; 586; 413; 477; 476; 486; 495; 391)
OVERALL AVERAGE: 2,914 (2,300; 2,192; 2,162; 2,051; 1,500; 1,249; 1,387; 1,117; 1,249; 1,160; 1,140)
OVERALL PREMIER ATTENDANCE: 147,089 (679,256; 628,157; 592,093; 486,365; 393,238; 316,515; 376,627; 292,204; 332,805; 297,334)
OVERALL FIRST ATTENDANCE: 27,741 (148,689; 160,964; 186,369; 178,000; 79,115; 55,756; 53,461; 52,807; 54,474; 55,408)
OVERALL COMBINED ATTENDANCE: 174,830 (827,945; 789,121; 778,462; 664,365; 472,353; 372,271; 430,088; 345,011; 387,279; 352,742)
Such an obvious reply
The Dublin City club balance is one of the great successes of the LOI and a feature of the league. It would be similar to the GAA and Dublin playing most of their games at Croker which the GAA hierarchy need for their attendance figure balance, but is an issue for the rest of the country GAA supporters. The biggest issue now is the capacity constraints for most clubs which is created by the facilities provided and the lack of any real government investment. Most clubs have done exceptionally well with what they have. I think the First Division is at a level that clubs can achieve or strive for especially with the new third tier division due. The popularity and ambition is another success for the game with the amount of interest in this new structure. Like most sports there will be areas that will traditionally struggle but the demand for participation is at a high level.
There is no doubt that the four Dublin clubs are doing extremely well, both on and off the field and esp within their capacity constraints, as you say.
But I can't help wondering why Dublin, which is a genuine "football city" with a (wealthy) population of 1.3m (+ 750k in Greater Dublin?), cannot support more clubs to a high level. Compare that eg with Belfast, which has four clubs in the Prem and another four in the Championship.
Granted, only two of those Prem clubs are completely f-t (the other two are hybrid, with ambitions towards f-t). While the four Champ clubs incl Newington, who don't have their own ground; Queens Uni, who are maybe the equivalent of UCD(?); and Dundela, who are a grand, historic club with potential, but whose pitch is too narrow to be permitted at top level, but cannot be widened. (H&W Welders are the fourth, and they have a terrific stadium/set-up).
Tbf, these four don't attract crowds to compare even with the LOI FD. Then again, the population of Belfast (city) is only 350k, with the wider area amounting to maybe 650k, with a number of other Senior clubs all within a close distance to the city.
From what I read, it seems there is a lot of talk of expanding LOI football to new areas which don't currently have any, but might there not be a lot of untapped potential in Dublin itself? Thereafter, were that to be exploited fully, then you could grow the game more easily from the centre out, than the other way round?
Getting the NL up to speed with the top two tiers has to be the aim, and can certainly help towards raising standards throughout. But depending on who/where the participating clubs are located, might there not the danger be that it is very lopsided, incl trying to "carry" provincial clubs, some of them completely new entities, which are a long way off competing with their fellow NL clubs, never mind aspiring to the FD?
Last edited by EalingGreen; 18/03/2026 at 1:38 PM.
"But I can't help wondering why Dublin, which is a genuine "football city" with a (wealthy) population of 1.3m (+ 750k in Greater Dublin?), cannot support more clubs to a high level."Going down that route could end up like the The Argentine Primera División which is heavily concentrated in Buenos Aires and the Greater Buenos Aires area, which some call a metropolitan league!
It needn't go that far, or even as far as London - twice the population of ROI, but 7 x PL clubs, 6 x EFL clubs and a dozen(?) more within the immediate surrounding areas.
I'm merely making the point that there must be a lot of untapped potential in Dublin, yet the FAI/LOI appear to be concentrating more on developing clubs in the provinces, including places which have never had LOI football before. (I always think there must be a reason for that)
welll you have 6 out of 20 if you include Bray and UCD with Rovers,Shels , Pats and Bohs but the problem with starting new clubs Dublin City, Cabinteely is they have no support and are reliant on investment which when it runs out there goes the club
Football is the number 1 sport by a country mile in London, at best footballl is fourth in Dublin in terms of support behind GAA football, Hurling and Rugby the crowds for the Dubs in football and hurling and Leinster for Rugby would be higgher than all the Dublin clubs together......maybe not every match but on balance
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