Supporting British teams

[endabob1]

endabob i dont think the championship in gaa is a direct competitor.there is very little eircom league on a sunday

Fair enough but would you go to an Eircom game on a Friday Night and then a GAA match on a Sunday when there's a wife and a couple of screaming kids to look after/feed/keep out of trouble/the shops........

I get the point that they may not be a direct clash all the time but the simple fact that they're drawing support from the same relatively small pool of sports fans means something has to give.
I'd be interested to see the stats on the move to summer football in relation to attendances, I don't think there's any doubt the standards have gone up.

[endabob1]

sorry endabob ive no kids yet and i make the missus work so i have plenty of moey for these things though your spot on at 15e/8e on a friday then anothr 20e-30e for a gaa game it would be expensive alright

Luck Boy

I think it's a matter of picking up casual fans, hardcore fans will go week in, week out but your casual general sports fans will make choices and the more competition there is the better the product (I hate using that word) has to be.

[Soper]

How many people in Iireland would be fans of Football though?That is the only figure that counts - if 1 million people like football, then clubs shoud at the very least be able to call on gates of at least 8,000 a match, on average.The fact is, people in Ireland do not support their own, which is wrong.

[NY Hoop]

And with those words of wisdom ringing in my ears I bow out of this thread knowing that I am right and you are wrong good sir, I bid you good day

Quality argument there.

Plastic Paddy you have come to the wrong conclusion again. I never rubbished any claim of anyone to have Irish citizenship. To come to that conclusion is absurd.

How hard is it to understand that Irish people in Ireland should support an Irish club?

And no more nonsense such as do you speak the language or buy Irish products?

KOH

[endabob1]

How many people in Iireland would be fans of Football though?That is the only figure that counts - if 1 million people like football, then clubs shoud at the very least be able to call on gates of at least 8,000 a match, on average.The fact is, people in Ireland do not support their own, which is wrong.

As you're from Sligo I'll use your county as an example
County Population 58,200
And where I live, Northamptonshire
County Population 629,676
You have 1 league club, so do we.
Average attendances
Sligo Rovers
1800 - 2000 (Taken from the attendance thread)
Northampton Town
Circa 5,000

The popultation is 10 times more but the attendances is about 2.5 times more.
I realise this is quite simplistic but I don't believe that there is the capacity for a club like Sligo to get 8,000+ fans on a regular basis. For clubs in Dublin where there is a sizeable population then maybe....

[Jaime]

How many people in Iireland would be fans of Football though?That is the only figure that counts - if 1 million people like football, then clubs shoud at the very least be able to call on gates of at least 8,000 a match, on average.The fact is, people in Ireland do not support their own, which is wrong.

On the money.
Population of greater Dublin area: approx 1m= 500,000 males. Taking away whoever is too old and too young, even if one fifth of them have an interest in football, it should be enough.

[Soper]

You also have to take into consideration away fans, and also the fact we get a lfew fans, I believe, from Leitrim, Roscommon etc.If al the people in Sligo that watch Premiership matches, be it down the pub or at home, went to the Showgrounds, we'd have a semi decent crowd.Hell, even if half of them did, then we would.

[Réiteoir]

I've come from the other direction - born in England to Irish parents - so grew up with Bohs and my local non-league team here in England.

I was taken over to my first game at Dalymount many many years ago (forget the date exactly) - but in the intervening years (due to education and work) my chances to go and watch games there fizzled out to none.

Then about 8 years back I managed to get a good fulltime job that paid well enough for me to start making the trips back over on a regular basis - something which resulted in me from then until now travelling over to between 7 - 15 games a season (as well as going to Estonia and Belgium on European trips).

Now I'm moved over and living in Dublin full time - meaning I'll hopefully be at 95% of all our future matches.

I still keep an interest in my local hometown side in England - I've actually gone back to England for a few days to pick up some more stuff and will be out the door in the next twenty minutes to watch us play our local derby against Redditch United at home in Nationwide Conference North (€15 to get in, terracing, 1,500 fans at the game, mixing with the opposition fans and seeing a lot of familiar faces - much like the eircom League in fact)

And finally I also follow the Norwegian side Valerenga closely - due to a few factors.

a). We go over to Oslo every summer since 1998 for a working holiday - slap bang in the middle of the season - so got to see a few games involving them.

b). They have some links with Bohs - they are known as the "Bohemian Club" in Norway due to the mix of people who attend games - and the club bar in the centre of town which is owned and run by the largest fan group attached to the club (the Klanen) - is called "Bohemens" (which is Bohemians in Norwegian)

c). Thanks to an official legal TV website provided by Norwegian Channel TV2 I can watch every League game in Norway (be it involving Valerenga or not) live on the web.

No problem with people following teams over there, its those who do it while neglecting our league that annoys me - especially those who put it down without ever having seen 60 seconds of it.

Personally I keep an keen eye out for Hereford. Family from there, just up the road from Edgar St, and saw them a good bit when I was younger.

- another reason not to get on with you lot - my home town team in England is Worcester City.

How I long to get the glory days of the 70's and early 80's back when we used to get gates of 8,000 - 10,000 for the games involving our clubs.

Now we have to make do with Redditch United and Kidderminster to satisfy our bile and rivalry

EnDai - I assume they're not far from Widemarsh Common and the Sun Valley factory?

[dcfcsteve]

attracting casual fans mean having nice stadiums for every club.

What - like all those lovely GAA grounds in minor counties around the island.....? They still get casual fans giving them larger crowds than EL games. So is it really just about stadiums ? Or is it again more about the absurdly fcuked-up psychology of Irish people towards football and only football ?

if i wasnt bothered about following the drogs i wouldnt go to united park

Why else would you go there anyway - to go horse riding....?

[BohsPartisan]

What - like all those lovely GAA grounds in minor counties around the island.....? They still get casual fans giving them larger crowds than EL games.

Too true. Meath V Louth in Navan in 2002 had 25,000 in Pairc Tailteann. Dalymount and Tolka are both better grounds.

[NeilMcD]

I dont think its the grounds at all it is the media exposure that happened during the 70s and the huge amount of Irish players that went to play in England. During the 60s the crowds were pretty big for LOI games. During the 70s and 80s media exposure to the live games week in week out From England took away many of the supporters in my view. There are other reasons of course but that is the main reason in my view.

[endabob1]

You also have to take into consideration away fans, and also the fact we get a lfew fans, I believe, from Leitrim, Roscommon etc.If al the people in Sligo that watch Premiership matches, be it down the pub or at home, went to the Showgrounds, we'd have a semi decent crowd.Hell, even if half of them did, then we would.

I know there is always the bar stool argument, but that argument still applys in provincial towns up and down England, there are more arsenal/chelsea/manyoo shirts on my street than Northampton shirts, fact of life I'm afraid.
I think the Roscommon boys should be going to watch Athlone Town anyway, it's much closer than the showgrounds, maybe a few from Boyle or Tulsk might get to Sligo but south of that has to be DeTown's catchment area

[Plastic Paddy]

can you not see the absurdity of Irish people loyally supporting local and Irish teams in everything from rugby to tiddlywinks, but then supporting foreign clubs in soccer only as if they were a local side to them?

I still keep an interest in my local hometown side in England [Worcester City]... and will be out the door in the next twenty minutes to watch us play our local derby against Redditch United at home in Nationwide Conference North (€15 to get in, terracing, 1,500 fans at the game, mixing with the opposition fans and seeing a lot of familiar faces - much like the eircom League in fact)

I think we have us the answer right here Steve - this comparison of equivalence between the Nationwide Conference North and the eircom League is very revealing. Perception of product quality is all in the minds of many of those who attend football matches - "supporting Irish" wouldn't seem to be a valid reason for the vast majority of Irish football fans to choose an eL side - they'd point to the crumbling stadia, the lack of comfortable surroundings and the absence of hype as reasons not to go (like I said, this is about perceptions - these reasons may or may not be correct). So it's absurd to you that Irish football fans don't follow their local eL side but not to those who cross the sea every week in their thousands. (What is completely absurd is the situation described in a previous post where, depending on their allegiance, Dubs call other Dubs "scousers" and "Mancs". That is truly ridiculous.)

I know there is always the bar stool argument, but that argument still applys in provincial towns up and down England, there are more arsenal/chelsea/manyoo shirts on my street than Northampton shirts, fact of life I'm afraid.

Agreed EB. The same phenomenon has emerged this side of the water - plenty of people eschew the delights of their local non-league or even Football League side for the Premiership team a hundred miles away. Hampshire - despite having Southampton and even Portsmouth (a Premiership club themselves ffs!) based in the county - is full of Chelsea fans. Ditto Kent, Surrey and Sussex, which must leave Brighton, Crystal Palace and Gillingham directors in despair.

PP

[BohsPartisan]

I was sitting beside a cockney Evertonian at the game on Saturday.
I think Wales is a classic example of Bar-stooling. How many people support LOW sides? When you're in Wales all you see is Liverpool, Everton, Man U jerseys - apart from in Cardiff and Swansea where you see a few of the local teams who obviously play in the English League.

[Docboy]

Lads at the end of the day people should be & are free to chose to support whoever they like. I'll never do anything because I'm supposed to. I'm glad that there a lot of people like yourselves around who care passionately about the EL but maybe you should lighten up when it comes to the rest of us "barstoolers".

To say that we're any the less football fans is just pants and critising people like that will only serve to get their back up.

[Soper]

How can we lighten up when something which is perfectly viable is treated with such contempt

[sonofstan]

As you're from Sligo I'll use your county as an example
County Population 58,200
And where I live, Northamptonshire
County Population 629,676
You have 1 league club, so do we.
Average attendances
Sligo Rovers
1800 - 2000 (Taken from the attendance thread)
Northampton Town
Circa 5,000

The popultation is 10 times more but the attendances is about 2.5 times more.
I realise this is quite simplistic but I don't believe that there is the capacity for a club like Sligo to get 8,000+ fans on a regular basis. For clubs in Dublin where there is a sizeable population then maybe....

Not totally sure if that proves anything - Sunderland has a population of 280,000 and the club has 25,000 season ticket holders; nearly 10% of the city. Cork has -what? - 180,000 and 3-4 000 go to TC every second fri. under 2% of the city

[bennocelt]

As you're from Sligo I'll use your county as an example
County Population 58,200
And where I live, Northamptonshire
County Population 629,676
You have 1 league club, so do we.
Average attendances
Sligo Rovers
1800 - 2000 (Taken from the attendance thread)
Northampton Town
Circa 5,000

The popultation is 10 times more but the attendances is about 2.5 times more.
I realise this is quite simplistic but I don't believe that there is the capacity for a club like Sligo to get 8,000+ fans on a regular basis. For clubs in Dublin where there is a sizeable population then maybe....

actually thats quite good the wya you came up with that
and i agree
but if you compare it to the Ga, and the horse racing, and how many irish are heading to britain for football every weekend

i remember 10 years ago ior more, it was embaressing to be a celtic fan, now, funny........now every where, like they were supporting for years
makes you sick really

[bennocelt]

I've come from the other direction - born in England to Irish parents - so grew up with Bohs and my local non-league team here in England.

I was taken over to my first game at Dalymount many many years ago (forget the date exactly) - but in the intervening years (due to education and work) my chances to go and watch games there fizzled out to none.

Then about 8 years back I managed to get a good fulltime job that paid well enough for me to start making the trips back over on a regular basis - something which resulted in me from then until now travelling over to between 7 - 15 games a season (as well as going to Estonia and Belgium on European trips).

Now I'm moved over and living in Dublin full time - meaning I'll hopefully be at 95% of all our future matches.

I still keep an interest in my local hometown side in England - I've actually gone back to England for a few days to pick up some more stuff and will be out the door in the next twenty minutes to watch us play our local derby against Redditch United at home in Nationwide Conference North (€15 to get in, terracing, 1,500 fans at the game, mixing with the opposition fans and seeing a lot of familiar faces - much like the eircom League in fact)

And finally I also follow the Norwegian side Valerenga closely - due to a few factors.

a). We go over to Oslo every summer since 1998 for a working holiday - slap bang in the middle of the season - so got to see a few games involving them.

b). They have some links with Bohs - they are known as the "Bohemian Club" in Norway due to the mix of people who attend games - and the club bar in the centre of town which is owned and run by the largest fan group attached to the club (the Klanen) - is called "Bohemens" (which is Bohemians in Norwegian)

c). Thanks to an official legal TV website provided by Norwegian Channel TV2 I can watch every League game in Norway (be it involving Valerenga or not) live on the web.





- another reason not to get on with you lot - my home town team in England is Worcester City.

How I long to get the glory days of the 70's and early 80's back when we used to get gates of 8,000 - 10,000 for the games involving our clubs.

Now we have to make do with Redditch United and Kidderminster to satisfy our bile and rivalry

EnDai - I assume they're not far from Widemarsh Common and the Sun Valley factory?

respect:

[endabob1]

Not totally sure if that proves anything - Sunderland has a population of 280,000 and the club has 25,000 season ticket holders; nearly 10% of the city. Cork has -what? - 180,000 and 3-4 000 go to TC every second fri. under 2% of the city

As I said I realise my example was quite simplistic but my basic point I think is valid, that considering the competition from GAA all over the country & Rugby in places like Cork/Limerick & Dublin provincial EL Clubs like Sligo are more than holding their own in terms of their attendances. I don't think it's feasible to get crowds of 8,000+ as Soper was aiming for on a regular basis.

Never been to Sunderland so I wouldn't have thought of it as an example but we are constantly being told by Sky the Sunderland are a MASSIVE club and the North East is a hot bed of football