League announces massive attendance rise

**dubman** · 19/04/2007, 2:01 PM

it almost feels a little like the rugby a few years back. I can get a bit of a buzz now with irish football. Which just has not been there in the last few years. Maybe doing well in europe is helping. The players heading over to the UK, showing that the level is improving . Or maybe even The national team. So bad now, people are looking back to they own clubs to follow

**Conor H** · 19/04/2007, 2:03 PM

I thought that song was brillaint the 1st time i heard it in Foxs last year.

Except i thought it was worded a bit differently.

**Sumac** · 19/04/2007, 2:14 PM

Originally Posted by WeAreRovers

Correct version -

We hate Princess Diana,
We hate Elton John too, he's a puff,
We hate Orange *******s,
But Rovers we love you.

KOH

Not the type of song that any real supporters on this Island should sing. Is there anyone else on here that feels the same. The 3rd line of that song is racist.

**dcfcsteve** · 19/04/2007, 2:17 PM

Originally Posted by pineapple stu

Approx 6% over the given figure.

Which actually isn't a bad margin of error for what are largely educated guestimates.

Seems like we're on the right tracks after 3 seasons of guessing attendances.

**dcfcsteve** · 19/04/2007, 2:19 PM

Originally Posted by WeAreRovers

Correct version -

We hate Princess Diana,
We hate Elton John too, he's a puff,
We hate Orange *******s,
But Rovers we love you.

Seriously that's actually one of my favourite Rovers songs because of how irrelevant, daft and randomly offensive it is. But that's just me.

KOH

That's a pathetic song to be fair Rovers. Idiotic doesn't do it justice. Dubliners singing about "Orange *******s"....?

I hope the shop in the Tallaght Stadium will be well stocked with packets of 'Wise Up'....

**BohsPartisan** · 19/04/2007, 2:19 PM

Originally Posted by Sumac

Not the type of song that any real supporters on this Island should sing. Is there anyone else on here that feels the same. The 3rd line of that song is racist.

and the second line is homophobic.

Should be "We hate Elton John, he's sh1t"

**dubman** · 19/04/2007, 2:27 PM

What about we hate apples . get stuck in your teeth.c*nts

**Fingal hoop** · 19/04/2007, 2:29 PM

is the cork song the keane one

**NY Hoop** · 19/04/2007, 2:30 PM

It's a song ffs. All kinds of songs are sung in football grounds the world over. You'd understand that if you werent so sensitive.

Next you'll be whinging that these songs will drive people away

KOH

**Fingal hoop** · 19/04/2007, 2:35 PM

surprised they didnt mention mysoginy or anti royalty as well

**passerrby** · 19/04/2007, 2:37 PM

personnaly I find the last line offensive

**Jerry The Saint** · 19/04/2007, 2:38 PM

First line is the worst.

SHE WAS THE QUEEN OF HEARTS! THE PEOPLE'S PRINCESS! THERE WERE THREE OF THEM IN THAT MARRIAGE!

You're all just as evil as Prince Philip.

**pineapple stu** · 19/04/2007, 2:42 PM

Originally Posted by dcfcsteve

Seems like we're on the right tracks after 3 seasons of guessing attendances.

That's to imply that the past couple of seasons were wildly out though.

If we allow for the fact (I assume the earlier post is true; haven't checked it) that there are 6 games extra this year than last in those figures, then the increase also tallies roughly with the attendance thread, which means last year's figures are fairly good too. And the year before's were used for a very important report on the new league, which means they can't be far wrong too.

**Dodge** · 19/04/2007, 2:52 PM

Unless the FAI are using these figures added to some of their own. I remember Mooney talkng about 5,000 at one game when the actual figure was about 3,500...

**WeAreRovers** · 19/04/2007, 3:00 PM

Originally Posted by Sumac

Not the type of song that any real supporters on this Island should sing. Is there anyone else on here that feels the same. The 3rd line of that song is racist.

3rd line is sectarian actually.

We had a Phd student at the Bohs game who's doing her thesis on football chants. She counted 18 seperate songs from Rovers at that game. I'm sure some of the grannies on here would find most of them offensive.

Leinster/Ireland/the Dubs have about 4 songs between them. Singing and chanting is one of the (many) things that mark out football fans and football culture.

KOH

**dubman** · 19/04/2007, 3:05 PM

I love when you start a thread in here about something possitive and few post later... where are we? talking about sectarian chants

**osarusan** · 19/04/2007, 3:18 PM

Originally Posted by passerrby

personnaly I find the last line offensive

Fantastic!

**WeAreRovers** · 19/04/2007, 3:22 PM

Originally Posted by dubman

I love when you start a thread in here about something possitive and few post later... where are we? talking about sectarian chants

My fault, hope you weren't offended.

KOH

**Steve Bruce** · 19/04/2007, 3:34 PM

Originally Posted by NY Hoop

It's a song ffs. All kinds of songs are sung in football grounds the world over. You'd understand that if you werent so sensitive.

Next you'll be whinging that these songs will drive people away

KOH

To be honest mate, Linfield has been tarred by this for years. We are trying our damnest to erradicate anti-catholic songs from our terraces. I do not see how an anti-protestant song can be acceptable in any way just like anti-catholic songs are not acceptable either.

It's a problem you cannot sweep under the carpet and use the retort - other teams sing them kinda songs. It's plainly wrong and unnacceptable no matter who does it or how many does it.

I just hope that Rovers now don't get into the Setanta cup because the last thing we need is knuckle draggers coming to the fairly successfull incident free Setanta cup.

To clarify, I'm not calling all Shamrock Rovers supporters knuckle draggers, I'm talking about the bad element that all teams have. If Shamrock Rovers came to Windsor singing that sort of trash, then similar sort of trash will be hurled back by the Linfield knuckle draggers.

**el punter** · 19/04/2007, 3:35 PM

Some more details and specifics on the figures, from an FAI press release:

Attendances at eircom League of Ireland fixtures have increased by 37% this season, figures compiled during the first six weeks of the 2007 season show.

A total of 97,656 people have attended the 66 eircom League of Ireland fixtures to date. This gives an average attendance figure of 1,480.

At this stage last season, a total of 65,828 people had attended 61 fixtures, giving an average attendance of 1,079.

With an average of 401 extra people attending each eircom League of Ireland fixture, the figures show that average attendances are up by 37%.

Fran Gavin, Director of the eircom League of Ireland, expressed his delight with the figures: �We have worked very hard to promote the league, both in terms of our marketing campaign and the work of the Club Promotion Officers in local communities, and we believe that these figures show that the work is paying off. It is fantastic that more people are choosing to support the eircom League of Ireland and we want to build on these figures over the coming months and years.�

Noel Mooney, National Coordinator of the Club Promotion Officers Programme, said: �When we unveiled the Club Promotion Officers Programme, we said that our goal was to bring weekly attendance to 15,000 and eventually to 30,000. These figures show that we are getting there. The Club Promotion Officers have been fantastic and are working so hard to promote the clubs at community level. I am delighted for the league and I am delighted for the Club Promotion Officers.�

Attendances for the opening six rounds of fixtures in 2007, as compared to 2006, are as follows:

Week 1

2007 Total Attendance 20882 11 matches 1898 Average

2006 Total Attendance 12800 8 matches 1600 Average

Percentage increase 18.63%

Week 2

2007 Total Attendance 15603 11 matches 1418 Average

2006 Total Attendance 9411 11 matches 855 Average

Percentage increase 65.85%

Week 3

2007 Total Attendance 12510 10 matches 1251 Average

2006 Total Attendance 10317 10 matches 1031 Average

Percentage increase 21.33%

Week 4

2007 Total Attendance 13573 11 matches 1234 Average

2006 Total Attendance 9452 10 matches 945 Average

Percentage increase 30.58%

Week 5

2007 Total Attendance 18826 12 matches 1569 Average

2006 Total Attendance 10677 10 matches 1068 Average

Percentage increase 46.91%

Week 6

2007 Total Attendance 16262 11 matches 1478 Average

2006 Total Attendance 13171 12 matches 1098 Average

Percentage increase 34.6%

Total

2007 Total Attendance 97656 66 matches 1480 Average

2006 Total Attendance 65828 61 matches 1079 Average

Percentage increase 37.16%