Harps to play friday Nights

**Neish** · 15/01/2007, 10:21 PM

Finn Harps FC have decided to switch their home games from Saturday nights to Friday nights with a 8pm Kick Off. See link
http://www.finnharps.com

**pineapple stu** · 15/01/2007, 10:27 PM

Didn't you try this very recently before?

**Aaron** · 15/01/2007, 10:47 PM

Friday nights are the best. We had Saturdays and Thursdays. Thursdays were very popular but now with every team in the premier (well almost apart from Longford & UCD) play on Friday nites. The crowds have risen since we changed to friday nites

**Conor H** · 15/01/2007, 10:49 PM

Mypost won't be happy!!

**DmanDmythDledge** · 15/01/2007, 10:53 PM

Originally Posted by City till I Die

Friday nights are the best. We had Saturdays and Thursdays. Thursdays were very popular but now with every team in the premier (well almost apart from Longford & UCD) play on Friday nites. The crowds have risen since we changed to friday nites

UCD play on Friday!

**harpskid** · 15/01/2007, 11:14 PM

Originally Posted by pineapple stu

Didn't you try this very recently before?

Yeah and had to revert back to Saturdays again - will be interesting to see how it goes this time around.

**dcfcsteve** · 15/01/2007, 11:48 PM

Originally Posted by City till I Die

The crowds have risen since we changed to friday nites

That has as much, if not more, to do with our improvement in performances and attractive football played than the day of the week concerned.

**mypost** · 16/01/2007, 2:22 AM

Originally Posted by Neish

Finn Harps FC have decided to switch their home games from Saturday nights to Friday nights with a 8pm Kick Off.

Expect the six men and a dog attendances at Finn Park, to nosedive further.

The New FAI-run League of Ireland; One step forward, Five steps back.

**Magicme** · 16/01/2007, 8:23 AM

Thats great news....Friday nites are football nites, leaves rest of weekend free for other family pursuits and I know it made a big difference to our players and the players we could attract to the club.

**Dodge** · 16/01/2007, 8:28 AM

Originally Posted by mypost

Expect the six men and a dog attendances at Finn Park, to nosedive further.

The New FAI-run League of Ireland; One step forward, Five steps back.

In your opinion obviously. Unlikely to affect first division aay crowds and if it helps home crowds, fair play.

**Lim till i die** · 16/01/2007, 8:59 AM

Originally Posted by Dodge

In your opinion obviously. Unlikely to affect first division aay crowds and if it helps home crowds, fair play.

Wrong

There isn't a hope of the car to Ballybofey travelling this season

**Dodge** · 16/01/2007, 9:17 AM

Sorry, unlikely to effect away crowds in the first division, much

**gael353** · 16/01/2007, 9:22 AM

Originally Posted by Lim till i die

Wrong

There isn't a hope of the car to Ballybofey travelling this season

Too right! thats a horse of a journey on some of the worst roads and now we have to do it in even less time. Along with Dundalk, you've now excluded all (fans with long journeys) from your ground.

**Mr A** · 16/01/2007, 9:33 AM

I think part of the reasoning behind this is that most of the players we're trying to sign are from the Irish League. It's hard enough to get them to leave a league where the travel involved is so much lower than in ours (and in D1 next year ours is going to be massive) but at least if they have most of every second weekend to themselves then that's in our favour.

In fairness we were unlikely to get any decent away crowds anyway, so if this move helps improve the team then it's likely to boost attendances overall. As stated on our site the gates basically didn't change between Friday's and Saturday's previously anyway, so it's unlikely to send crowds down this time either.

**fbtn** · 16/01/2007, 9:33 AM

It is so Hegarty can sign players in the Irish League that he has lined up. The travelling puts a lot of them off signing for eircom League clubs but if you can offer them every second weekend off then it is a big advantage.

While it will affect away crowds, the only club that brought sizeable support last season were Rovers and Dundalk. We won't be playing Rovers and Dundalk is ony down the road. Not that big of a deal. More important to have a good team on the field than worrying how many supporters of the team we are playing can make it.

The downside is that will affect some of our own fanbase who are based outside the county in far flung places like Dublin.

'mypost' - were you in Finn Park last season?

**The Stars** · 16/01/2007, 9:39 AM

Originally Posted by City till I Die

Thursdays were very popular but now with every team in the premier (well almost apart from Longford & UCD) play on Friday nites. The crowds have risen since we changed to friday nites

Sligo play on Saturday nights and hopefully will do for a long time to come.
We changed to Friday nights during last season to see if it would raise the attendances but it actually made then slightly worse.
Saturdays are better for away fans aswell as it gives them a chance to have a day out in Sligo(dont know if thats good or bad),and gives more travelling support the oppotunity to travel.

**Magicme** · 16/01/2007, 9:45 AM

Ask any player tho and they would rather play on a Friday night in front of a smaller crowd than on a Saturday night.

The way I looked at it when we were faced with the Sunday -v- Friday debate was that we dont pay them enough to own them so much that they cant have any kind of family or social life.

**grounded** · 16/01/2007, 9:52 AM

I fail to see how a Friday night kick off can raise the number of people going. Most people work till 6 (well I do anyway) and they'd probably find it hard to get to the games. Probably mainly because a good number of people wouldnt even be from Ballybofey and have to travel after they finished work.

Might have worked for Derry but as someone else said I'm sure that had more to do with the success rather than the day they played.

**Terry** · 16/01/2007, 10:17 AM

Originally Posted by grounded

I fail to see how a Friday night kick off can raise the number of people going. Most people work till 6 (well I do anyway)

In Galway on fridays, all factory/construction workers would finish at the latest 3pm (unless you work shift work), that would account for the higher precentage of the work force here, after that the office crew would be finishing at 5pm. Both of those would probably add up to 70% of the work force in the city and county, and give the reason of why Fridays work for GUFC, also gives everyone saturday and sunday to the family/friends time.

**harps1954** · 16/01/2007, 10:38 AM

Originally Posted by gael353

Too right! thats a horse of a journey on some of the worst roads and now we have to do it in even less time. Along with Dundalk, you've now excluded all (fans with long journeys) from your ground.

So its okay for the likes of Limerick, etc. to play their home games on Friday's and expect Harps and their supporters to travel to Limerick on those very same roads - but it's not okay for Harps to play their games on Friday's as it doesn't allow a car load of people to make the trip to Ballybofey. People in glass houses . . .

I was in Limerick twice last season (on Fridays) with Harps and on both occassions we had a bus load of supporters. Limerick were in Ballybofey twice last season - both on Saturday nights - and I didn't see more than three supporters.