Welcome along LTFC!
With the excitement of the sold out cup final and the buzz this season, if you were setting fixtures for round 1 and 2 of the Premier Divsion next season, what fixtures would you go with to maximise crowds the first 2 weeks? (I know Rovers V Pats/Bohs could be an 8k+, but i'd leave that for a few weeks in. )
Sligo v Derry, Pats v Drogheda, Waterford V Bohs, Dundalk v Rovers, Shels V Galway
Galway V Sligo, Derry V Shels, Drogheda V Dundalk, Bohs V Pats , Rovers V Waterford
It would be a real downer to have a half empty stadium for the first game of next season with the North stand not even open so i think Rovers v Pats makes the obvious curtain raiser for us and not as a Presidents cup imo ....real points marker down stuff
Looking forward to 2024 - The new stands at Rovers and Derry will add an interesting aspect to attendances next season. Will Rovers sell any games out once they've got a 10,000 capacity? If both they and Bohs are doing well, and if they're generous with away tickets, you would hope a derby game would come close anyway. Likewise with Derry - will they be able to sell out once their new stand is opened? As it won't be up and running until half-way through the season, hopefully the fixture list will give them a few big home games for the latter half of the season to see what they can attract.
Cork getting relegated is obviously a loss to PD attendances, but a boost to the FD which was in danger of suffering a big fall with Galway swapped out for UCD. Hopefully both Waterford and Galway can draw decent crowds next year.
It seems that we're likely to see demand continue to exceed supply at Bohs, Pats and Derry until the new stand opens. Yesterday's final adds real impetus to the discussions clubs are having with councils, the FAI, government etc about bigger and better stadia.
Just to finish off the season. Almost 900,000 people through the gates at League of Ireland matches this season in all competitions.
Total, between league, FAI Cup, Presidents Cup, and play-offs, was 888,144.
The big challenge over the coming seasons is to try and break a million.
https://kesslereffect.bandcamp.com/album/kepler - New music. It's not that bad.
Let’s just call it a million. The Greyhound boys would!Originally Posted by nigel-harps1954
Similar to the other thread, if the FAI cannot make the argument for government invesment in an industry that has almost a million paying attendees in a league season, rather than a financial year, + addititional consumables, evidence on year on year growth, as hosts of a major football tournament a little over 4 years away then we will truly never see potential fully fulfilled. Doesnt have to be all done in 4 years, just a committment of x amount over y time. 1.3m is what the horse people say attend racing annually and €76 million is allocated to them for 2024, €95mil including the dogs for 233k attendees (2022) an industry with really grubby welfare issues. Obviously not including historical investment including captial projects which must be huge. It just makes sense to invest and contribute to building another industry.....not as if the economy has been tanking all things considered either.
As a fellow football fan, I'd say you make a very compelling case.
But were I a politician, I might think differently:
https://www.irishexaminer.com/sport/...-41130757.html
It could take another while yet to shake off Delaney's legacy.
2 Dublin derbys bohs, rovers, Pats, Shels in no particular order
1 Louth derby Drogs dundalk
1 connaught derby Sligo galway
Then Derry V waterford
Or Derry v Sligo and Galway v Waterford to let the 2 newcomers see if the can get capacity crowds
Hard to see how we'll do that without signnificant capacity increases?
Did a quick tot on ground capacity for both divisions and multiplied sell-outs over an 18 home game season - a shade under 1.6m.
But that's an absolute max from Wikipedia figures - so no seats or terraces lost to segregating crowds, or areas that aren't open, for instance. And, of course, the biggest capacity for growth (and the hardest to achieve) is in the first division club rattling around a ground so big it'd need a four or five-fold increase in attendance to fill it. Ah, we live in hope...
Hello, hello? What's going on? What's all this shouting, we'll have no trouble here!
- E Tattsyrup.
Requires all 20 teams to increase their league average by 310 people. That's not beyond the realms of possibility.
https://kesslereffect.bandcamp.com/album/kepler - New music. It's not that bad.
The problem is that clubs like UCD will see their average fall next seaosn. So that 310 figure per team will need to get higher for everyone else to compensate etc etc. The easiest way to increase total attendances across the league would be for clubs like Bohs and Pats to get extra capacity, rather than expect UCD, Longford, Kerry and Wexford to start pulling up treess all of a ssudden. But those ground improvements are still some way off yet.
I'd be delighted if we could exceed 1 million next year but I sense we're probably still a few years off that yet. I'd be very disappointed if we're not above that level for league fixtures alone by 2030 though, if not earlier.
I’d say the Rovers v Bohs derby will easily get 10k. I don’t think there would be any doubt about that. Rovers v Pats might get it too as long as both teams are going well.
Speaking with a regular Ireland fan but not LOI fan and he could not believe how 2 LOI clubs could create a better atmosphere when compared to an Ireland game. He spoke about how the Ireland Singing Crowd you would think would be bigger than any club singing section and was blown away by the passion, the numbers and vociferous support of the Bohs fans in that section. I told him to jog on and come to Ringsend next year when Dublins Green and White are in the final for proper atmosphere.
The average fall at UCD should be more than compensated by the average rise at the team that replaces them in the premier.
I think 310 average would be extraordinary even in Premier....
The 2 relegated teams had 4400 between them and the 2 promoted teams had close to 4k between, so allowing them to average 2500 each theres your first 2 x 310.
Can Bohs, Pats, Drogs - I think all have capacity issues to go much higher than now.
Sligo, Dundalk, Derry, Shels - would all have to be having good seasons to increase by that much next year.
Rovers, just passed 6k, and with extra capacity could hit 6500 average.
In first cant see UCD and Cork staying where they are, and Longford, Athlone, Kerry, Wexford, Finn Harp and Cobh would be probably take this years average if you asked then now. Treaty, well you always feel with size of Limerick it has capacity to grow, and Bray hard to know.
Hopefully my pessimism will be unfounded!
If Cork are going well they’ll get big crowds. They did last time in 1st division ?
yeah correct
Gary Cronin is he the right man to manage Longford Town?
Piece out today on attendances, up 20% since last year. Not much news to us but good to see in the media.
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