A Rant!

**don ramo** · 04/03/2007, 2:56 AM

Originally Posted by osarusan

This is all wrong. In no way, shape or form can you say that any LOI team play better football than a Premiership team.

Trying to help the league improve is a great thing, but just blindly hyping it up and just saying it is better than it really is, when it clearly is not, doesnt help anything.

as i said play good football meaning attractive football not sayin were better than the premiership just pointing out that just cause its on tv doesnt make it the best football in the world you get the slick passing and sublime goals but really how many sublime goals do you see every year when you watch your team play with no tv camera around to catch it, iv seen some marvelous free kicks and shots from range that would show up some superstars now it not as consistent as the top players in the premiership but it doent devalue the goal either,

im not an idiot i dont think my team will go over and beat these top teams they have millions at there disposal to go out and get the best players in the world, it will be a long time before we get to that level,

**CollegeTillIDie** · 04/03/2007, 7:07 AM

Ok let's get a bit of perspective. As regards value for money the EL stacks up well ( 15 Euro to a game in the Premier here) cause if those Premiershi* fans in bars had to pay the real cost of actually going to a game overseas, not to mention their overinflated ticket prices, even they would come to realise, that for the price of 3 pints in an Dublin Bar with late licence , they could experience the whole gamut of emotions tied into the live football experience. And this would come at a fraction of the cost of either a) going to a game cross channel or b) a SKY SPORTS subscription.

EL season tickets used to be less than one of those packages is that still the case?

P.S. Poor domestic attendances is not a uniquely Irish phenomenon. The recent Red Star v Partizan Belgrade derby in the Marankhana had less than 30,000 at it. This at a time when Red Star are leading the League by 9 points and this was in a 55,000 capacity venue. Most of their other League games attract under 5,000. Oh yes Serbian TV are now showing the Premiershi* too as well as a lot of live domestic games.

**Claret Murph** · 04/03/2007, 8:40 AM

Lads if you have to choose well so be it , we live in a free world where people can vote for who they like so if people would like to wear Man U or Liverpool shirts let them . I support 3 teams and have done for quite some time
1/ Ireland, which is easy to say ( tickets to all home games )
2/ Burnley , as I spent most of my youth in the town ( Get to one or two games a season )
3/ Galway United , Live just outside of the city ( season ticket holder for the last number of years , and manage a few away games each year )

Now I have shirts for all 3 and wear them year round ,if anyone would like to say I have jumped on the bandwagon following an english club they should try and watch Burnley it 's enough to drive a man to drink .

**sligoman** · 04/03/2007, 11:17 AM

Originally Posted by Claret Murph

Now I have shirts for all 3 and wear them year round

Jaysus, must be some stink off you come September/October time...

.

**gustavo** · 04/03/2007, 11:23 AM

I dont know what chance the league has when people who are perceived as having knowledge of the league like Eamonn Sweeney write negative articles like the one he done in the Sunday Independent today

**pete** · 04/03/2007, 11:24 AM

The standard of play has improved to decent level but the facilities are still badly lacking. Even live tv games look poor due to facilities & crowds. There should be minimum ground standards to be considered for live games & if you not up to scratch then no home live games.

Support of English football is institutionalised in Ireland & won't change any time soon. English football is probably shown more on tv in the Scandinavian countries yet they have still managed to get decent crowds.

In a few years with FAI promotion & improved administration alongside a reduction in the top clubs (some clubs need to be left behind) things may be different...

**charliesboots** · 04/03/2007, 11:27 AM

What I don't get is how Irish peopkle who have nevered lived in Britain or contributed to a British club can actually feel an affinity to it. The use of "we" and "us" when talking about Man Utd or Liverpool is very odd.

I think its actually more of a group mentality thing and identifying with peers more than an anti eircom league thing.

**Claret Murph** · 04/03/2007, 11:54 AM

Yer I would have to get some sort of stick from Sligoman but not too worry as I am sure he will be very quite come the end of friday's nights game .

**superfrank** · 04/03/2007, 5:03 PM

Originally Posted by harry crumb

Will this envy of Cork City FC ever end!

What the hell are you on about?

**Magicme** · 04/03/2007, 6:53 PM

Originally Posted by Gareth

"BUY A LOTTO TICKET NOW!!! Signed with your own blood if you have to. "

MagicMe, December 2006.

It worked didnt it!!! Even Curtis Fleming bought them!

As for bullying people into going to games thats not what I do. Its more a case of you talking to people and when they see how excited and ethusiastic you are about your club and the eL they mite start to get interested too. For example I have been tryin to convince a mate of mine for years to come to games. He is a massive Man Utd fan and every season I ask him will he come out to the Mons sometime. He always says no. Last nite he said he will come out to the first game and see what its all about and he has committed to coming on one of our infamous ROADTRIPS. It may have taken me 5 seasons but eventually he is giving in!

so basically, just show them how much you love it, your passion will eventually ignite their curiousity!

**jebus** · 04/03/2007, 10:59 PM

Was talking to a London born, former Chelsea fan earlier on today and he gave a different take on it. He's envious of us because we get to pay in and support our local clubs and be part of the community. He used to do this at Stamford Bridge but he and many like him were run off by the ticket prices, his mates not being able to afford to go anymore, and not feeling like he has any part of the club of anymore.

So basically he thinks we should hang on in there because soon enough we might have English fans being envious of us, leaving their local club and coming over here to watch the Eircom League, as he put it, it's a lot cheaper to get a plane across and watch footb all over here than ity is to go to Stamford these days

**Dodge** · 04/03/2007, 11:27 PM

Doubt that it'd happen but there's been many English/Scottish visitors to our games and every one I've talked to has been glowing in praise. Real football fans understand why we go to our league. The idiots will never get it. I gave up getting angry at them ages ago

**incident** · 04/03/2007, 11:53 PM

Just to add in my own take-

I'm English born (and proud), but lived in Dublin for a few years round the corner from Dalymount. Started going to watch Bohs as they were my local team - it seemed the obvious thing to do. The people I worked with in Dublin (with the exception of one Pats fan) all thought I was mad, including several who would think nothing about spending the money to go see various English sides, even ones that they didn't even support..

I'm a Forest fan, and have a Season Ticket. Plenty (probably most) of the teams I've seen in League One this season have been a worse standard than an average EL side, yet even at League One level you get Irish fans travelling over to games who wouldn't want to go to their local EL ground.

It just doesn't make any sense to me. There's nothing wrong with travelling to see a match or a foreign side (hell, I've got 3 trips booked for Bohs matches this season), but what really really annoys me is that so many Irish fans can be so snobbish about their domestic product yet they'll happily spend time and money travelling to see something that's arguably inferior..

As regards what the Chelsea fan said - I really can't see anyone in England supporting an Irish team unless they've got some connection there already, but it's true that many fans are being turned off by the top flight. However I'd think they're more likely to go watch their local non-league side instead as it gives them a chance to get more involved. Plenty have already done this.

**jebus** · 05/03/2007, 12:10 AM

Originally Posted by incident

As regards what the Chelsea fan said - I really can't see anyone in England supporting an Irish team unless they've got some connection there already, but it's true that many fans are being turned off by the top flight. However I'd think they're more likely to go watch their local non-league side instead as it gives them a chance to get more involved. Plenty have already done this.

Yeah I know, I doubt we'll start getting English fans over, I think he was just emphasising how disillusioned a lot of top flight football fans have become with the whole thing in England

**Eoingull** · 05/03/2007, 12:34 AM

A couple of months ago, I decided to go see (relatively) nearby Darlington play...and had a little chuckle to myself when getting off the train there were loads of Darlington locals getting on the train to travel up to cheer on Newcastle. The community aspect means nowt to plenty of people, and not just at home.

**osarusan** · 05/03/2007, 1:43 AM

Originally Posted by Dodge

Real football fans understand why we go to our league. The idiots will never get it. I gave up getting angry at them ages ago

Dodge I half agree with you. Real football fans DO understand why we go to games, and realise that the emotions of supporting a huge club or a small club are exactly the same, if you are a true supporter.

But.......

Originally Posted by Dodge

The idiots will never get it.

If this is the case, then how do we attract new support?

I think that lots of people who support English clubs do so for a couple of reasons -
first,they think the LOI is sh!te, which is far from true.
second, they are basically unaware that the LOI even exists.

Those people need to be made aware of the LOI and what it has to offer.

How do we do that?

**don ramo** · 05/03/2007, 2:39 AM

well the first step is really underway, with 50 games to be broadcast this year even setanta are streaming them on the internet, that is a major step up in media saturation compared to last year when only TG4 were showing games, and fair deuce to them they done a great job, and now the others are joining them as they've seen there is demand for the games on tv as TG4s rating were up when they showed the games, now we need to put a glossy coat on it in the next two seasons, like instead of having a camera in your main stand, have it in the lesser stand faceing the main stand which is going to be full, TV3 have a great show in eircom league weekly which should be moved to a more prime time slot and not at midnight, and maybe get RTE in on the show in someway, it is true the more you advertise the more they will come, Mc Donalds spend millions a year advertising for that simple reason, and we dont even need to spend, the contract is signed, and were geting paid to broadcast our league to an even wider audience, now when i go down to my clubhouse on a friday our saturday night i will expect to see an eircom league game on one of the 4 tvs in the clubhouse,

we need a club progress report on a montly our even weekly basis to keep us infromed of what is happening in each club, how ther players are getting on, and what the club is advertisng, events wise in there grounds and clubhouses, the promotions officer may take care of that, need to get our local radio station in on the act to, they advertise but not as much as they should (for my club anyways, it more cork city),

arrange transfers around the general area, for people who wont come cause there to far away, like limerick done, each club should invest in a 20 odd seater bus, so when there home it runs round the area to collect fans and bring them to games (the gate will make up the petrol) and you can use the bus for away trips as the team bus, instead of hireing one every game,

thats 3 what next