College Football Penn St/UCF Game confirmed 2014 in Croker

Ah, the home of Irish sport. That's more like it.

There'll be plenty of room for locals at Croker anyways.

wawaman wrote: »

Is Dublin becoming to College Football what London is to the NFL !?

Hopefully

SantryRed wrote: »

I think Croke Park is probably a bad idea tbh. Pitch is too big, stadium is probably too big too. I thought the Aviva was perfect.

Only perfect for the optics of a full house that negated all but die-hard locals having a chance of attending. No seats when the fireworks started going off in the week leading up to it prevented a proper bandwagon around the game itself from developing.

It did less to promote the sport here than I'd have hoped because even the media focused on the dozens of thousands of Americans coming over for the match and positioned it far less of a sport we were participating in besides being happy hosts.

Croker is an excellent stadium with great viewing angles even if its large pitch suits other sports better. Advertised right it could expose a lot more locals to the sport than last year's game. Croke Park's history can be played up to entice more Irish-Americans over as well.

Great to see Dublin becoming a destination for the sport, though. If we make this one a success too we'll have made it.

You can shut down the top tiers if attendance is expected to be less than 50k, the GAA have done that for years now for most non-Dublin games before the AISFs. Looks far better and creates a better atmosphere. Croke Park gives more scope for getting the public involved, especially if UCF (and the GAA in terms of their rental fees allowing it) have their heads screwed on and sell the tickets on the Canal End for a nice, casual friendly cheapo price.

polaris68 wrote: »

Penn State have a massive fan base but it remains to be seen if they would travel to Ireland in the same numbers as Notre Dame fans.

Can't find much of a buzz about it on their fan websites but it is well over a year out still.

http://blog.pennlive.com/davidjones/2013/06/croke_park_and_dublin_ireland.html

My Yank mate is a massive Penn State fan, he always travels to a game or 2 a year. From what he's said, I doubt there'll be as many over as ND, but he'll be over if it's on!

The ND / Navy game was announced over five years before it took place. People who travelled had spent years squirrelling a few quid away to use the game as an excuse for an Irish trip. The US attendence for this one will be underwhelming, and it'll be a hard so to Irish people. 25k and an empty looking Croker is my guess.

frostie500 wrote: »

Absolutely stupid decision to look to have a game in Croker. The pitch was way too big for football and rugby (felt like you were a mile away from the action) and with an American Football pitch being even smaller it's hard to see how it will be a good viewing experience. Just keep the game at the Aviva, a perfectly sized stadium for the sport and presumably the level of interest in the game

There may be a rugby or soccer international in Lansdowne

Were there any figures for the attendance broken down into American fans, Irish fans, and other European fans that traveled?

Could tell a lot about the likelihood of 80k tickets being sold, considering there could be those in Ireland for whom the novelty may be gone after the last one, adding to the lack of interest in college football (even amongst nfl fans here), the lesser likelihood that other Europeans will travel for a college game as opposed to an NFL one, and finally the chance that there'll be less American support too.

Choosing a bigger venue and still only selling 40k tickets could be all the encouragement they need to not come back for another as compared to picking a smaller venue and selling the same no. of tickets.

If it's cheap to go I can see plenty of people going for the occasion. But if tickets cost much money at all I'll be staying home, along with plenty of other people.

I think the size thing is overblown. Sure the stands will be farther from the playing field but in the typical American Football stadium the upper tier is really far from the playing field anyway. I had a quick look on google maps at the distance between stands at Croke Park and the Rose Bowl, which is a decent bench mark for a college football stadium I would imagine. Croke Park is about 20 metres longer and wider total, which is 10 metres on each side. That's not a huge difference.

jack presley wrote: »

There also won't be the novelty factor from semi-interested Irish people. I know a few who went last year just to see what it was all about etc. They won't be looking to go again.

Remember the original Emerald Isle Classics from back in the day? The first one between Boston College and Army was sold out but the next year when Pitt played Rutgers, the place was no where near sold out (too long ago to remember if it was half/two thirds/three quarters full). I reckon the second year affect will be in play here too.

I know a few people who went last year to see what it was all about and became fans of the sport, they absolutely can't wait to go to the next one.