i have to say i agree with Gather Round more so than this point. If the leagues merged I think that, while attendances might rise temprorarily, after that i think we are really kidding ourselves into giving far too much credit to the armchair fan who only occasionally will drag himself off his arse for an international in Croker. There are also those who totally dismiss the Eircom League, deny its existence even, in favour of the more commercial and satisfying support of a premiership team. These are people who will never follow a local team unless success (in terms of Europe) is guaranteed.
It boils down to the Govt., the FAI and the clubs (league and junior) coming together and setting out a plan for the future in terms of all aspects of the league - from financing and grants to how the clubs are run. The sports minister should also be involved heavily and the Govt. should examine all available opportunities to help the countries football clubs.
At the moment, the FAI is doing a bit (credit where its due) but the clubs are really left to their own devices in a lot of respects. Its just not working, attendances are not increasing in any significant way, in a lot of cases they have decreased.
One thing is for certain, and i mean no offence here, because of the nature of the average Irish football fan (lazy and uninterested), the league wont thrive until it is already self sustainable and relatively successful.
Once the league is successful, it becomes a cycle and the offshoots of this success will be bigger pool of players, bigger pool of better players, the best players having more options on where to play, better performances by the national team and regular qualification for the international team.
Its pretty exciting if it can be pulled off.
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