You had that thirsty look about you alrightOriginally Posted by pineapple stu
Part of what you missed by not wading through the thread, incidentally, included a guess from UCD of 1600-1700. This was immediately after the game when one of the officials was counting cash, so the official attendance wouldn't have been to hand as yet. I didn't wait around because I was thirsty.
I had seen the UCD guesstimate and ony threw out my own to show how inaccurate the whole thing is. For a start a crowd always looks bigger at a floodlit game compared to a game played in daylight.
It's a pity that we're still fannying around with estimates when the clubs themselves supply accurate figures to Merrion Square for every game.
What is the point of a club making available an attendance figure that they know to be inaccurate? What possible benefit can Shelbourne derive from deflating their attendance figures?
In Britain and the continent it is more common to count all season ticket holders as being in attendance whether they are actually there or not.
Clubs have a Health and Safety/Capacity obligation to know exactly how many people are inside their stadium - regardless of how they paid. This should therefore be what is presented as the true attendance figure.
With the introduction of VAT on gate receipts, there will unfortunately be an incentive for clubs to under-declare attendances. However - nothing to stop those clubs small-minded enough to act in this way from giving the same accurate overall attendance figire, and then over-play the amount of freebies within that if they really want to save a few Euro.
There already existed an incentive to under-report attendences regardless of the VAT position.
Hypothetically of courseyou under-report attendence and therefore cash takings, which understate your turnover. Your pay the unrecorded cash directly into the pockets of players and staff, thus avoiding income tax, PRSI and corporation tax (in the unlikely event the club is profitable).
http://www.eircomloi.ie/news_item_6.htm
20,632 paid in to watch the games, apparantly up 17%
A member of the management committee told me immediately after the Blues v Cork game that there were over 3000 at the RSC according to the club's figures.
your 2216 over.
I assume it's the Dundalk, UCD and Derry games?
Good work by the FAI, they need to keep these good news stories to the front and and avoid bad news to generate a bit of hype about the games.
Like i said in an earlier post our figure of 2500 included schoolkids that got in for free and season tickets ie people who didnt pay in to watch the game
I like the way Noel Mooney says the target was 18,000. Any chance he decided the target after the saw the total?
Anyone else notice take can't find that news item from the 'News' link?
They had a part to play in the Open Days which were held by some clubs (UCD, Pat's, Cork for a start) which seem to have been big successes. UCD gave away a goody bag including a club hat to everyone who attended, for example, and there were a fair few hats on the way into the ground.
Because they end in "000"?
I'd say the difference is more likely me including those who didn't pay (such as myself). Not saying the figures here are 100% accurate, obviously, but it makes sense. 2216 people got in for free, effectively.
UCD figure is about right anyway.
I'm not 100% sure if they were included, Fintan works on the gate so if he sees the post I'm sure he can clarify for you!
Who Cares?!
1,572 PAYING fans!
Another 125 or thereabouts who got in for free but they should be counted so it's about 1,700
Shels didn't release any figure.
John Delaney!! GET OUT!!!
www.ssdg.ie
That's assuming both sets of figures use the same methodology. The FAI may or may not count people who came in for free (for example). We don't have enough info to directly compare the figures.
clubs have to include everyone that goes through the gates for their games.Galway Uniteds safe holding capacity is very much reduced because of the development work thats ongoing at Terryland so we have to monitor everyone coming into the ground for health and safety reasons. Im sure the majority of other clubs would take the same approach.
Every club has to monitor and know how many people are in their ground - it's not just something you do when you've got building works.
I suspect that a lot of clubs may not bothe rtheir arse knowing the exact figure, as they're unlikely to reach capacity.
17% is some jump. Looks very promising in the LOI now. Especially with the massive prize money.
In Northern Ireland we suffer greatly from apathy. Linfield and to a lesser extent Glentoran still have decent crowds. But the rest are relatively poor unless they are going well.
That should all change when the cap on wages re turnover 65%comes in as clubs will need to declare every sourch of income possibleThere already existed an incentive to under-report attendences regardless of the VAT position.
Hypothetically of course
Early days yet Steve - too soon to make a call on any growth in appeal.
Apart from St Pat's on occassions last night, the 5 EL teams I've seen live/on TV to-date this year haven't played particularly well. I hope the exodus of players to Britain over the close season hasn't reduced the quality in the league too much, as that could impact any prospective growth in support.
As loathe as I am to defend the FAI - at least they're making the right noises about attendances etc. The IFA don't see, to have any focus on the issues of the IL at all.
The FAI are not perfect but they certainly try a lot harder than the IFA.
The IFA are concentrating more on how to get the next freebie away on hte continenent or trying to screw Linfield out of our 99 year contract for interntionals at Windsor(which I want away from Windsor, but with compensation attached)
The IFA have done very little to promote our local game and to try and attract new supporters.
Linfield as a club however has invited many youth groups to Windsor, from all sides of the community. Just the other week we had a youth group from the nationalist/republican Falls Road. Too me this shows you how far Linfield have come in the last 20/30 years and it also shows you that Linfield are trying to appeal to the wider community, which although very slowly I think is happening.(Linfield tracksuits spotted on the Falls road)
The Linfield crowds in the last 2 years are up from the previous years, which is encouraging for us.
But untill we have an IFA/League wide compaign we will not see the growth that we need for our league to succeed.
Personally I feel the IFA should base our league on the model of yourselves as you seem to be going in the right direction.
Without trying to big up the Irish League, for many years we where ahead of yourself in the LOI, its only been the last 5 years or so that you have come up from behind and overtaken us. My biggest fear is that you will continually to stretch your lead ahead of us.
Linfield so far to have competed with the LOI, by winning the Setanta cup and also topping the group the following year with the eventuall top two clubs in Republic of Ireland.
Hopefully the Setanta cup will help increase the Irish League standard and we learn from our LOI counterparts.
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