Attendances are they up or Down?

[bennocelt]

what the hell? the weather isn't bad here, and especially since the guy who is saying its bad was living in London.

ah come on, i dont really want to have a go but.......come on...........

[Redie]

Whether or not this is a 'Question' or an 'Exercise' - it certainly is not pointless. It is fundemental to accessing the League and its success or otherwise. I'd be very interested if anyone had figures comparing attendances for Summer soccer against Winter soccer!

Summer soccer was the great white hope for Irish football but I would agree with most of my fellow Sligo Rovers supporters that it has been a disaster for our club and is a major factor in keeping attendances down at the Showgrounds.

I can see little evidence of it being a significant benefit to our clubs in Europe and it is no addition to improving the quality of pitches as the close season is during the worst months of the year when there is no growth and very little can be done with them.

[irishultra]

ah come on, i dont really want to have a go but.......come on...........

So would you like to live in Serbia(for example) where you can't do anything during the day?

Our weather is condusive for doing activities during the day.....18/19/20/21 degrees is perfect for me, and I lived in San Diego for a few years when I was a kid.

[dublinred]

I would say they are down overall with Galway ,Drogheda and Cork being the expections. you would only be comparing December/January/February to June/July/August

Things to do in D/J/F on a Fri/Sat night
Drink/Football/Premiership

Things to do in J/J/A
Drink/Football/County GAA/Club GAA/Underage GAA/Racing/Golf/Cricket/Beach/farming/Holidays/Music festivals etc.

I think pitches and Europe are irrelevent , the standard of both was improving anyway , thanks to Global warming winters are a lot milder than they used to be.

[passerrby]

I.
I think pitches and Europe are irrelevent , the standard of both was improving anyway , thanks to Global warming winters are a lot milder than they used to be.

fcuk mio you have not seen the county of monaghan in nov dec jan feb.
as i said i dont know if crowds are up or down (i suspect they are slighty up) but either way i dont think weather has a major impact on attendances

[bennocelt]

I would say they are down overall with Galway ,Drogheda and Cork being the expections. you would only be comparing December/January/February to June/July/August

Things to do in D/J/F on a Fri/Sat night
Drink/Football/Premiership

Things to do in J/J/A
Drink/Football/County GAA/Club GAA/Underage GAA/Racing/Golf/Cricket/Beach/farming/Holidays/Music festivals etc.

I think pitches and Europe are irrelevent , the standard of both was improving anyway , thanks to Global warming winters are a lot milder than they used to be.

why anyone would chose a ga game over a real football game is beyond me, thats just an excuse

[bennocelt]

So would you like to live in Serbia(for example) where you can't do anything during the day?

Our weather is condusive for doing activities during the day.....18/19/20/21 degrees is perfect for me, and I lived in San Diego for a few years when I was a kid.

jeez i dont know, now that you mention it..................


http://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEt2XdN_TbQ

[pineapple stu]

part time football is a hobby not a option if u ask me. clubs like bray or ucd or whoever, where are they going really ??

Question is, where are you going? Back to Division One? Fire-fighting fundraisers every year or so, which will get less and less effective as time goes on?

Try not to answer with "Fair dues to us; at least we tried", a phrase which should result in instant death IMO.

[TonyD]

Also, eircom League performances in Europe have improved since the move to summer football so that's one bonus.

The fact that the teams playing in Europe generally tend to be full time also has a huge impact on this Frank. I take your point about the viability of full time football, but our performances in Europe will certainly not improve with part time teams.

[superfrank]

The fact that the teams playing in Europe generally tend to be full time also has a huge impact on this Frank. I take your point about the viability of full time football, but our performances in Europe will certainly not improve with part time teams.

You just have to look at the teams up North. They've had European ties where some of their players have been away on holidays or they've been unfit because they're out of season. I do feel that has an effect on performances.

[Candystripe]

Derry's crowds have been well up since summer football.

We're also fulltime but don't have any sugar daddies.

[SMorgan]

I can't believe that people still think that summer soccer has been a good idea. It was a poor decision made for the wrong reasons. We had clubs with cabbage patch pitches arguing that the game would benefit from better playing surfaces. If they had bothered their arses looking after their playing surfaces in the first place then this matter shouldn't have been an issue. I'd also say that I've seen some of the most dangerous playing surfaces since soccer started.

In my opinion attendances are down for very obvious reasons. The theory behind summer soccer was simplistic and flawed. Sun = Increased Crowds.

Now excuse me but I'm away to the USA for 2 weeks and miss 3 league games. Before summer soccer I went 5 season without missing a home league match (and don't recall too many been called off)

[Macy]

You just have to look at the teams up North. They've had European ties where some of their players have been away on holidays or they've been unfit because they're out of season. I do feel that has an effect on performances.

I don't recall players being on holiday really being an issue when we had a winter season - I think League Of Ireland clubs have always taken Europe more seriously than the Irish League clubs. Part time or not, I don't think a LoI club would contenance players being on holiday for a European game (and actually I don't think an LoI player would want to miss it either). It's the full time clubs that have become more competitive in Europe, so it's debatable how much can be put down entirely to summer football. And again, there's questionable benefits to the other 18 teams in the league of the four teams doing well in Europe.

Derry's crowds have been well up since summer football.

We're also fulltime but don't have any sugar daddies.

And you've been much more competitive as compared to the winter seasons leading up to it. It has to be done league wide to really compare, as a lot of clubs would've had ups and downs which would also kick in.

[garyderry]

Derry's crowds have been well up since summer football.

We're also fulltime but don't have any sugar daddies.

And its a hell of a lot better football, and the fitness makes a huge difference to the standard thanks to full-time training. As for it make no difference in Europe, the guy saying that has to be on drugs and out of it, for example no chance would the likes of Derry and Cork been taking on and beating the best a country like sweden had without a full-time professional setup AND a level playing field of playing summer football where the team is match fit. And has been said crowds are definitely up in Derry. I would say the only real chance we would have of increasing them is better facilities, not toying with winter football again.

[Duggie]

anyone who thinks winter football should come back needs help - end of.

[GuisaSaigon]

I can't believe that people still think that summer soccer has been a good idea. It was a poor decision made for the wrong reasons. We had clubs with cabbage patch pitches arguing that the game would benefit from better playing surfaces. If they had bothered their arses looking after their playing surfaces in the first place then this matter shouldn't have been an issue. I'd also say that I've seen some of the most dangerous playing surfaces since soccer started.

I dont know how many times I travelled across to Dundalk only to have games abandoned or called off before kick off in the old winter league. Some clubs didnt have the resources to take care of pitches that were being destroyed, some clubs were too lazy, some clubs are still too lazy to have a proper pitch in a summer league

[elroy]

1 Our biggest problem is that Irish people are event junkies. How many Cork/Galway hurling supporters do you see turning out for their league games in March? Couple of thousand maybe, but thurles will be packed with them on sat night and whoever progresses will bring an even bigger crowd to Croker.
Where are all the munster fans, when munster play edinburgh on a november friday night in Musgrave park, yet for a heineken cup game in thomond against wasps, tickets cant be got such is the demand!!

Therefore, the prospect of going to see an el team week in week out isnt going to bring out the event junkies referred to above!! Its probably the same people who went to the munster game in cardiff who will be looking for AI final tickets who will be looking for tickets for the big Ireland rugby and football games in croker.

2 If somehow, el clubs could manage to draw crowds on average 5k every week, it would be a great achievement, this should be the target for all clubs! Promotion obviously is key, half time attractions, local school kids for free...discounts and an overall improvement in facilities. This is not something thats gonna be achieved over night, we need a change in the general public's attitude to el football. Obviously starting with the kids is a great way to go about it.

3 I think el football needs to find a niche for itself, in general no gaa/rugby games are played on a fri night or sun night. These are the nights that should be targeted as el nights - most people are free and happy to do somehting relaxing/enjoyable on those nights and there isnt really any other football on (except spanish on a sun night). Setanta have tried this recently to a reasonable degree of success, recent games like Derry/Cork on a sun night are what are needed to get a the lazy punter who might switch it on when theres nothing else on a sun night and go hey this is pretty good!! A regular live half 7 slot on a sun night would be very good for the league.

4 I think a blend should be sought where the el teams are fully match fit/sharp playing european games (increased exposure etc) but at the same time we're not in direct competition with gaa in July/August and also we're not playing our show piece cup final in a freezing miserable first week in Dec!!! All easier said than done and Im not sure what the answer is.

[dublinred]

why anyone would chose a ga game over a real football game is beyond me, thats just an excuse

Because of the amouont of GAA on the tv on sunday and saturday afternoons they are now playing their club and underage games on fri/sat nights leaving sunday/sat mornings free for travelling to games, this does affect the crowds in Sligo and other places.

[Redie]

anyone who thinks winter football should come back needs help - end of.

Ya! end of Sligo Rovers!

[dcfcsteve]

There's people on here saying that full-time football is wrong, bad, a disaster etc.

There is nothing at all wrong with Full-time football itself. The concept and idea is solid. What is wrong, however, is running a full-time set-up on money you don't have - and there's where clubs need to start catching themselves on.

Michael keane at Pat's being on over €3k a week, Boco at Sligo apparently on€2k a week - these are ridiculous salaries for Irish clubs to be paying. It's the clubs themselves that are at fault here - not the concept of full-time football.

The appaearance of 'investors' at a number of clubs hasn't helped in this at all. It's just started an arms race of inflated salaries for medicore players.

Football encourages smart people to make dumb decisions. It's the people making those decisions who are responsible.