Galway United supporters top 1st Division

**Paddyfield** · 09/12/2006, 4:04 PM

"Figures announced at Fridays League AGM show Galway United just edged out champions Shamrock Rovers (1,100 to 1,081) for the highest average attendance in the eircom League First Division. In the Premier Derry City ousted Cork City as the club with the highest average attendance in the Premier Division with 3,127.
Galway United also finished top with the largest attendance at a First Division game with the meeting of United and Shamrock Rovers at Terryland Park on Friday October 6th. With both clubs chasing title glory the official attendance was recorded at 3,210.
Overall attendances in the eircom League totaled 351,021 with the Premier Division accounting for 257,745 of that figure and the First Division the remaining 93,276."

Extracted from www.galwayunitedfc.ie

**chippie0001** · 09/12/2006, 4:20 PM

Anyone know if the full figures will be available to see what they are like compared to the estimates. Would make some interesting reading.

**wws** · 09/12/2006, 4:34 PM

Attendances
Overall attendances in the eircom League totaled 351,021 with the Premier Division accounting for 257,745 of that figure and the First Division the remaining 93,276.

The highest attendance in the Premier Division was the last-night-of-the-season meeting between Derry City and Cork City at the Brandywell on Friday November 17th when 6,080 watched Derry exact some measure of revenge for their defeat in the reverse of the fixture last season (which incidentally was also the highest attendance in 2005) by beating the Leesiders but ultimately falling short of Champions Shelbourne on goal difference.

In the First Division, the meeting of Galway United and Shamrock Rovers at Terryland Park on Friday October 6th when both were chasing title glory was the highest with an attendance of 3,210.

Derry City ousted Cork City as the club with the highest average attendance in the Premier Division � 3,127 for the Foylesiders compared to 2,272 for the former champions. In the First Division, Galway United just edged out champions Shamrock Rovers (1,100 to 1,081) for the highest average attendance.

**Mr A** · 09/12/2006, 4:36 PM

I'd love to know exactly how the official attendances are arrived at because I've certainly heard a few official figures this season that seemed to be highly optimistic to say the least.

**oriel** · 09/12/2006, 4:53 PM

These figures do not add up, why all of a sudden do we see an exact figure of 351,021 ? when the only chance of seeing any sort of consistency on attendances during the season was from this website.

For a start the highest first div attendance was not for Galway v Rovers, this was actually 3,500 for Dundalk v Rovers in Sept.

**Conor H** · 09/12/2006, 5:39 PM

Wrong Oriel.
There was easily the same amount at GUFC v Rovers and GUFC v Dundalk.

**sligoman** · 09/12/2006, 7:36 PM

I agree, bit dodgy to predict when very few clubs announce official attandances.

**Conor H** · 09/12/2006, 7:42 PM

Originally Posted by sligoman

I agree, bit dodgy to predict when very few clubs announce official attandances.

Well that's their fault.it's also quite sad considering most clubs in the 1st Divison only have to do a head count to get the official attendance.A 2 minute job in 90% of cases.

**Student Mullet** · 09/12/2006, 7:51 PM

Originally Posted by Conor H

Well that's their fault.it's also quite sad considering most clubs in the 1st Divison only have to do a head count to get the official attendance.A 2 minute job in 90% of cases.

I agree but if official attendances aren't available, where are these numbers coming from?

**sligoman** · 09/12/2006, 7:54 PM

Originally Posted by Student Mullet

I agree but if official attendances aren't available, where are these numbers coming from?

The Galway United website

.

**Conor H** · 09/12/2006, 7:55 PM

Originally Posted by Student Mullet

I agree but if official attendances aren't available, where are these numbers coming from?

Could it be possible the FAI observer reports an attendance?

**DmanDmythDledge** · 09/12/2006, 8:33 PM

Originally Posted by Conor H

Could it be possible the FAI observer reports an attendance?

I'd say that's unlikely as the figures are pretty exact.

**geezer** · 10/12/2006, 10:44 AM

rules dictate that the attendances have to be faxed in to merrion square after the game before monday evenings i believe. gufc are fairly accurate as they do all ticket at turnstile for every game and the season ticket numbers are recorded, and noted as you enter the turnstiles. funnilly enough the exception to that this year was the rovers game where i wallked in through the big gates and because of the crowd they let the season ticket holders to just flash their cards. They must have made a guess then on season tickets for that game. there was about 3500 at the rovers game. Utd also breakdown their faxed figures to adult,students,u16,season ticket and complimentaries. The match tickets are colour coded as well so its quiet easy reconcile and measure attendances and Utd have measurements now for the last 5 seasons. I find guestimates usually are double what actually is there and when we sold programmes we used to measure the programmes sales versus the attendance and always the programme sales would be about 1/3 of the attendance. so when i sold 300 programmes i would estimate the gate at 900 and it was rarely out of sync. in order to increase crowds you need to know who is coming and this has worked for utd over the years. the marketing has now become more targetted as a result of the measurements and crowds have increased year on year. It also got rid of the guys with the big long fai coats with pockets everywhere and who usually spouted excuses and maintaining it was impossible to get exact figures.

**Dodge** · 10/12/2006, 2:13 PM

Originally Posted by geezer

rules dictate that the attendances have to be faxed in to merrion square after the game before monday evenings i believe.

I think its before 10pm on Matchnight but all clubs must give exact figures to the FAI. Most won't release them to the public as it makes them look bad. Pats have them all on our website, I think Bohs used to do it but not sure now. In my experience you can usualkly knock at least a quarter off fans estimates.

**pineapple stu** · 10/12/2006, 3:33 PM

Originally Posted by Conor H

Wrong Oriel.
There was easily the same amount at GUFC v Rovers and GUFC v Dundalk.

And that negates his point about Dundalk-Rovers how?

Originally Posted by oriel

These figures do not add up, why all of a sudden do we see an exact figure of 351,021 ? when the only chance of seeing any sort of consistency on attendances during the season was from this website.

As I noted on the attendances thread where this announcement was posted also, when you have a situation where clubs are asked to send in attendance figures completely unaudited and they know in advance that their place in the Premier next year is dependent in part on their attendances, it opens the door for abuse. Which, it must be said, makes the attendances thread's 10% overstatement compared to here all the more interesting. And people's complaints that I had an inner motive in reducing estimates all the more laughable.

Also, we don't really know what constitutes an official attendance, and how much resemblance it bears to the amount of people actually at the game.

Originally Posted by Dodge

I think Bohs used to do it but not sure now

They publish them on their season summary page in their match programme anyway.