Attendance at GAA games

Pride Fighter

I was at O'Moore park yesterday on a very fine day to watch Dublin vs Westmeath and the attendance was very disappointing. I caught the first game as well, which was a local derby between Laois and Offaly and it was the exact same. It was 15 euro into the terrace, a tenner for me (as I am a student). What is keeping the attendance down, lack of marketing, price. I am not sure but it is very dissapointing. Another thing that was disappointing yesterday was the exodus of about a quarter of the people before the Dublin game (which was a far better game).
So what can be done to improve attendance?

MrJoeSoap

Pride Fighter wrote: »

I was at O'Moore park yesterday on a very fine day to watch Dublin vs Westmeath and the attendance was very disappointing. I caught the first game as well, which was a local derby between Laois and Offaly and it was the exact same. It was 15 euro into the terrace, a tenner for me (as I am a student). What is keeping the attendance down, lack of marketing, price. I am not sure but it is very dissapointing. Another thing that was disappointing yesterday was the exodus of about a quarter of the people before the Dublin game (which was a far better game).
So what can be done to improve attendance?

I think the fact that both games were practically won before the throw-in may have dissuaded people as well. I was in O'Moore park from 1 til 6 as well yesterday and even the officials were a bit taken aback by the poor crowd. I'm sure once the games get competitive later on the crowds will be fine, but a couple of decent, close matches yesterday might have helped a bit.

kmart6

Pride Fighter wrote: »

What is keeping the attendance down

The quality of hurling!

Pride Fighter wrote: »

Another thing that was disappointing yesterday was the exodus of about a quarter of the people before the Dublin game (which was a far better game).

That's your opinion! Why would Laois or Offaly people want to stay and watch that! Hurling in Offaly comes from one end of the county generally,and they would have over an hour drive to Portlaoise,so they prob just wanted to get home after a good win!

patmac

1700 at the Limerick-Tipperary game and the Tipp Manager said it was a terrible game of football, hopefully with the Hurling this weekend we can give the championship the kick start it needs, the standard has been very poor this year so far.

kevmy

There was supposed to be 15,000 at the Fermanagh - Monaghan game which wasn't a bad crowd.

In fairness the Dubs aren't going to travel to Portlaosie for a hurling game now are they. Offaly supporters have probably lost some faith (even though there from the Faithful county:D) in the last few years.

Bogger77

Was at the match, travelled from near ferbane to it, bout an hour 20mins, and drove back to Cork city via Ferbane after the match. We stayed for about 10minutes of the first half of the Dublin match, the standard of hurling from both teams was not encouraging people to stay. We paid 20euro each, but we couldn't stay to watch simple passes going 40 yds astray.
As for standard in the first match, you can only play what's in front of you. Offaly looked better than they have in a while, some good young players, 5 first timers, some good players on the subs bench, and the manager not too afraid to use them. Ger Oakley had a brilliant game, which is good, as he may not be skillfull, but he plays with heart which we've lacked. Only thing that I didn't like was the fact the players stopped playing every time they had Laois put away, and let them back with 2 easy goals, having siad that, the biggest threat to Offaly on Sunday was injuries.
Laois have not improved in a long time, and Sunday might have put them back.

Kilkenny to win Leinster, but getting drawn against KK two years running doesnt do Offaly any favours, we'd beat Wexford in the Semi if we got them, I don't think Dublin will do it unless they improve, they only beat Westmeath after the Westmeath lads had given up. So Kilkenny Wex in Leinster Final, KK to hammer Wx.

Pride Fighter

MrJoeSoap wrote: »

I think the fact that both games were practically won before the throw-in may have dissuaded people as well. I was in O'Moore park from 1 til 6 as well yesterday and even the officials were a bit taken aback by the poor crowd. I'm sure once the games get competitive later on the crowds will be fine, but a couple of decent, close matches yesterday might have helped a bit.

It was the same at Westmeath vs Longford in the football championship and that was a close match, so it is not the quality of hurling or football. It appears to be either early season apathy or a general trend of poor attendance.

john concannon

I think the first few matches generally are low but they always rise.

Flukey

kmart6 wrote:

Why would Laois or Offaly people want to stay and watch that! Hurling in Offaly comes from one end of the county generally,and they would have over an hour drive to Portlaoise,so they prob just wanted to get home after a good win!

Why would they want to stay? Oh, I don't know, perhaps because they are supposed to be GAA fans. That's why the majority of people go to matches. They could also end up playing one of those counties, so it should be of interest to them. If they want to pay in for two matches and then not bother watching them, you'd question their real interest in the sport. If you buy a ticket for a show then you should stay for the full thing, and not leave at the interval. The "they have a long way to go home" excuse is pathetic. Over an hour of a drive. God help them. :rolleyes: If they don't want to travel, then they shouldn't go to the matches at all.

The travel moan has started already, and it is only the width of Offaly. To think, we thought the Cork lads were bad last year, complaining about having to go from Cork to Dublin. Now we have someone complaining about Portlaoise to Offaly. What next? We'll have fellas coming in here complaining about not seeing matches because of the distance they had to travel from their couch, across the room, to switch the channel on the TV, or even the distance down to the floor to pick up the remote control and how far their finger had to move to press down a button on it.:rolleyes:

blackbelt

Flukey wrote: »

Why would they want to stay? Oh, I don't know, perhaps because they are supposed to be GAA fans. That's why the majority of people go to matches. They could also end up playing one of those counties, so it should be of interest to them. If they want to pay in for two matches and then not bother watching them, you'd question their real interest in the sport. If you buy a ticket for a show then you should stay for the full thing, and not leave at the interval. The "they have a long way to go home" excuse is pathetic. Over an hour of a drive. God help them. :rolleyes: If they don't want to travel, then they shouldn't go to the matches at all.

The travel moan has started already, and it is only the width of Offaly. To think, we thought the Cork lads were bad last year, complaining about having to go from Cork to Dublin. Now we have someone complaining about Portlaoise to Offaly. What next? We'll have fellas coming in here complaining about not seeing matches because of the distance they had to travel from their couch, across the room, to switch the channel on the TV, or even the distance down to the floor to pick up the remote control and how far their finger had to move to press down a button on it.:rolleyes:

ROFLMFAO,

Maybe its that kind of laziness which is costing the Biffo's on the field of play as well lol.And when they can't reach the remote control which is on the floor,they'll curse it a la Brian Cowan lol.

blackbelt

Attendence at this time of year is always going to be low.A lot of students are finishing off their exams and thesis etc and its more likely that the lower profile games are played.

Meath fans didn't go to Croker because they thought Carlow were pushovers and this was the case.Still,one has to wonder if they'll come out to play for the Wexford game in Carlow.I doubt we'll see as much and I'd tip Wexford fans to outnumber them comfortably.

The GAA has also decided to launch the season with hardly a whimper.I often wonder if they decided to play the provincials out of sequence and have a higher profile match on under floodlights in Croke Park with some fireworks etc and music to kickstart the championship,that may increase interest and attendence.The marketing of the games themselves is an issue the GAA must look at.It is time the GAA stopped relying on fans to turn up for the game and start advertising and promoting it.

kmart6

Flukey wrote: »

Why would they want to stay? Oh, I don't know, perhaps because they are supposed to be GAA fans.

So what,as a GAA fan you should stay and watch a match just because your a fan,even if you don't want to?

Flukey wrote: »

The "they have a long way to go home" excuse is pathetic. Over an hour of a drive. God help them. :rolleyes: If they don't want to travel, then they shouldn't go to the matches at all.

They saw they're match didn't they?! Did they go to watch the other game?!...more than likely not!

Flukey wrote: »

The travel moan has started already, and it is only the width of Offaly. To think, we thought the Cork lads were bad last year, complaining about having to go from Cork to Dublin. Now we have someone complaining about Portlaoise to Offaly.

It's not complaining,it's pointing out how some people might wanted to have got home after watching the match they went to see!!!

Flukey wrote: »

We'll have fellas coming in here complaining about not seeing matches because of the distance they had to travel from their couch, across the room, to switch the channel on the TV, or even the distance down to the floor to pick up the remote control and how far their finger had to move to press down a button on it.:rolleyes:

:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:....oh look sarcastic eyes how helpful!

blackbelt wrote:

Attendence at this time of year is always going to be low

Exactly,no games are going to packed now,especially very low profile hurling one's! In a lot of people's eye's the Championship hasn't started!

Flukey

kmart6 wrote:

So what,as a GAA fan you should stay and watch a match just because your a fan,even if you don't want to?

If they were fans of the sport, then they would want to. I go to plenty of matches where my county is not playing on that day at all. I'd also be keeping up with other matches, usually with my walkman. If my county was playing, I'd want to see the other match too. Often when we go to matches, the game in which our own team is playing is not the best of the two. On Sunday, any Offaly or Laois fans that left after their own game, missed the better game.

Going home early because of the journey is not a good enough excuse. If anything, their journey might have been quicker if they left later, as they'd have less traffic because the crowd of disinterested people would have gone. It is not as if they had to travel across a time zone to get home.

If Offaly do end up playing Dublin, you'll suddenly find they'll be interested in seeing the Dubs then, and of course fans who weren't even there at all on Sunday, will be screaming for Leinster Final tickets, because they are "devoted" fans of Offaly. Even if they did leave early on Sunday, at least they did go, unlike some who'll want to be there when they play Kilkenny. Still, they should have stayed for the whole show on Sunday. The people from Offaly who were Offaly fans left after the first game. The people from Offaly who were Hurling fans, stayed. I could not go to see Dublin on Sunday due to other commitments, but had I gone, I'd have been there for both games, not just arriving for the second one.

kmart6 wrote:

In a lot of people's eye's the Championship hasn't started!

That may be, but for Hurling and Football fans, it has.

kmart6

So hold on,you weren't even there and your giving out about fans leaving?!

Flukey

I wasn't there due to other commitments. If I could have been, I would have been. I have already been at championship matches this year in which my county was not playing, and there will be plenty more that I intend going to where my county won't be playing either. I won't be leaving early because of a journey of an hour. I won't be leaving early because one team is so far ahead that the game as a contest is over. Whenever I go to games during the championship, I'll be there before the first ball is thrown in and won't be leaving until after the final whistle of the day is blown. This same is the case at other times of the year too.

kmart6

The quality of hurling on display was all-round poor IMO! How are you commenting on fans leaving a game when you got it off a secondary source?! Were all the Dublin and Westmeath fan's in to watch the first game?!

Flukey

I had visitors over the weekend, that along with others I was entertaining, and this included me taking off work on Monday. On Sunday afternoon we were out and about with those visitors. While it may have appeared a bit rude or odd at times, every now and then, I put my walkman on to get the latest scores from the two hurling matches, as well as the two football matches in Munster and the one in Ulster. Although I'd have liked to have done so, again due to my visitors, I was out on Sunday night and did not see the Sunday Game.

The quality of the Hurling on Sunday is irrelevant. The matches were on, so people going should have gone to see both and stayed. I am sure it would have been the case with some fans of all four counties that they didn't see it all. I am sure too that there were fans of all four counties that would have been there from the first throw-in until the final whistle of the day.

For me, who is playing and the quality of the games are in some ways irrelevant. I go to see the matches. I'll go to as many matches as I can during the championship. On days that I go, I intend to be there for all games played at that venue, no matter what the quality of the fare on show is and who is providing it. I'll also be keeping up to date on other games around the country. I'm interested in the two All-Ireland Championships, not just one county. I'm from Dublin, but I'd regard myself as a GAA fan more than a Dublin fan. No matter how Dublin do, my interest in the two championships won't end until the homes for both Sam and Liam for the winter have been decided. Length of journeys home, quality of play and which counties are playing won't affect my level of interest at matches that I do get to go to. That's why I am a GAA fan.

Pride Fighter

kmart6 wrote: »

The quality of hurling on display was all-round poor IMO! How are you commenting on fans leaving a game when you got it off a secondary source?! Were all the Dublin and Westmeath fan's in to watch the first game?!

Yes, I was.

Pride Fighter

Flukey wrote: »

Why would they want to stay? Oh, I don't know, perhaps because they are supposed to be GAA fans. That's why the majority of people go to matches. They could also end up playing one of those counties, so it should be of interest to them. If they want to pay in for two matches and then not bother watching them, you'd question their real interest in the sport. If you buy a ticket for a show then you should stay for the full thing, and not leave at the interval. The "they have a long way to go home" excuse is pathetic. Over an hour of a drive. God help them. :rolleyes: If they don't want to travel, then they shouldn't go to the matches at all.

The travel moan has started already, and it is only the width of Offaly. To think, we thought the Cork lads were bad last year, complaining about having to go from Cork to Dublin. Now we have someone complaining about Portlaoise to Offaly. What next? We'll have fellas coming in here complaining about not seeing matches because of the distance they had to travel from their couch, across the room, to switch the channel on the TV, or even the distance down to the floor to pick up the remote control and how far their finger had to move to press down a button on it.:rolleyes:

Flukey is hard core. I went to the match on Sunday and it was the first game I have been to in ages. In fact, i have never even been in Croker for a match:(,something I'll have to right this year.

blackbelt

I like Flukey do go to games that don't involve Dublin and will stay until the final whistle is blown.Two very recent cases were the Meath v Carlow game which was very one sided but I stayed to see the end result.

Also,at the weekend,I was at the Ireland game and whilst many "fans" (cough) left with 10 minutes to go and Serbia being up 1-0,I decided to stay.I wouldn't walk out on my country and wanted to see out the result and thankfully,I saw us equalise and was glad I stayed but disgusted at those fans leaving early.Not enough superlatives to describe that shower.

Also,when there is a double header in Croke Park and Dublin are playing,I hate nothing more than people who I'm supposed to be going with,holding me up from going in early ffs.I paid to see 2 matches and I do leave without them if they hold me up even longer.They'd know where to find me.I'm a real GAA fan who not only loves going to matches but gets value for his money regardless of quality of football etc.

kmart6

Don't think you stand for all!;)

The Rooster

I go to most competitive Ireland soccer home games, but I was offered free tickets to the Serbia match and turned them down. Don't know if that makes me worse than they guys who went and left early - but given it was a friendly that meant nothing, not to mention a pretty rubbish game, I would not criticise anyone for taking the decision to get to where they want to go earlier and avoid the rush or the traffic. They took the risk that nothing would happen in the game, and they lost. That's fair in my book.

I have a lot of things to balance in my life - work, family, social, playing sport, watching sport, etc - and watching the Dubs comes very high in my priority list - but watching other GAA matches would be nowhere near the top. If the Dubs are playing on a double bill I'd tend to come in at half-time during the previous match (but its more to get my preferred position on the Hill than to watch the other game - or if the Dubs minors or hurlers were playing first, then I'd be in from the start.) Dublin rarely play first on a double bill, if they did I would very likely leave after the Dublin game (win, lose or draw), because spending extra time with my friends or family would certainly be more important to me than watching (say) a Leinster semi between Offaly and Westmeath.

Overall, everyone has the right to make whatever decisions suit themselves, and pontificating over choices people make just because your priorities are different is just ridiculous.

orlyice

ok flukey, what makes you think you can act like people


There is a lot of agriculture in Offaly (and laois), so people (like my dad) who had to leave before the end of the second game because they had to work, are not hurling fans!! these are the people who often are die-hard hurling fans, who if you named a year could tell you who won liam that year, and practically name both teams and give you a summary of the final. if we went by your theory flukey, then my dad wouldn't be a true hurling supporter and if you spoke to him for 2 minutes about GAA, you would see that what you said is a load of rubbish! and i can think of at least a dozen other people i know who would be in a similar situation to my dad.

as mentioned there are a lot of people doing exams etc, they are obviously not going to put a sport ahead of their education, they have gone to support their team, and have to sacrifice the other game.

And then there are people like me, who had to give their car to their other half so he could do the his driving test at noon on sunday and couldnt make the journey from tipp to the game. (i know that is irrelevant, but i am still bitter about missing the game!) But I will be making the 90 mins journey on sat home to offaly to see my club team Drumcullen play Coolderry, so will i see you there????

Flukey

Orlyice, of course there are genuine fans with genuine reasons why they can't stay for a second game or get in for a first game. Your father is one of those. They are not the kind of people we are talking about. We're talking about ones who could be there for both games, but don't bother. We're talking about ones that leave early to get an early pint in or miss some of the traffic etc., when they could easily stay or arrive late when there was nothing to delay them.

Given that we are talking about Offaly here, in modern times there were two great occasions involving Offaly, where some people probably missed it. The 1982 All-Ireland Football was the first. With about 3 minutes to go Kerry led by 2 points and looked odds on to win their 5th All-Ireland in a row. Some Kerry and Offaly fans left, accepting that as the result. With about 2 minutes to go Seamus Darby scored what is probably the most famous goal scored in an All-Ireland Football Final. In any list of great moments of Irish sport, it is always there. A lot of people who could have seen it, missed it though.

Then we had the 1994 All-Ireland Hurling Final. With 5 minutes to go Limerick led Offaly by 5 points. Limerick fans were leaving to go and celebrate and Offaly fans were leaving having accepted defeat. In those last 5 minutes Offaly scored 2 goals and 5 points, to turn a 5 point deficit into a 6 point lead and they won. Just as in 1982, a lot of people who could have seen it, missed it.

I was at both of those matches and saw what happened. I can think of the same kind of thing happening in other matches over the years, with fans missing great moments. Some of those didn't change the result, but were still worth seeing.


It is unlikely, but should Offaly meet Laois in the All-Ireland Final, you'll have a much larger attendance, even excluding neutrals and dignitaries. Much of the Laois and Offaly fans will be screaming about how genuine fans that they are and how deserving of their tickets that they are. For some it may be the first match they'll want to go to all year. They'll have only got their first interest in going when they heard their team was in the final, not having even paid one bit of notice to the semi-final. I had a Limerick person, who hadn't seen Limerick play before, asking me for a ticket last year, saying they deserved one because they were from Limerick. The likes of your father deserves one. There are many, even amongst those that would have been there last Sunday, that don't.

Pride Fighter, when you do get to Croke Park this year, let us know and we'll meet up with you. The same goes for anyone else here.

Nalced_irl

I personally see no problem with people leaving before a second match or only arriving for it when their team is playing. I would rarely go in for the first match if Dublin are playing second, usually id have a few pints and watch it in the pub (queue the "typical Hill 16'er" quotes ) but i dont see a problem with that. I still watch the game, once it interests me, but dont actually go into the ground for it. I dont feel the need for it. Fully understand that people want to be there for both games but i dont see how not wanting to watch a game that doesnt interest you makes you less of a fan. I mean, i dont usually watch Conference soccer or the Asian Cup etc on TV simply cos i have no interest in the teams playing.

Flukey

Dublin won't end up playing a Conference team or a team from the Asian Cup, but we could end up meeting one of the teams from the first match of the day. So it is good to have seen who we might be facing and how they play. Even if they don't end up meeting us they are playing in the same championship as we are and by going to even just the Dublin games you are expressing an interest in that championship.

Coming back to the Offaly and Laois game again: It's funny how if the two play in May people won't drive the 40 minutes to see them and say they are too busy anyway and have to run the farm. If the same two teams were meeting in September, they'd have absolutely no problem in driving the 2 hours to Dublin and getting the farm minded for the whole weekend, never mind just a few hours. The first round of the championship is just as much a part of it as the final and although the qualifier system has removed the chance of them being out after one day, those games are just as important as they are on the run to the final. If you are going to win the final, you've got to win those early matches too.

ShagNastii

Flukey wrote: »

Coming back to the Offaly and Laois game again: It's funny how if the two play in May people won't drive the 40 minutes to see them and say they are too busy anyway and have to run the farm. If the same two teams were meeting in September, they'd have absolutely no problem in driving the 2 hours to Dublin and getting the farm minded for the whole weekend, never mind just a few hours. The first round of the championship is just as much a part of it as the final and although the qualifier system has removed the chance of them being out after one day, those games are just as important as they are on the run to the final. If you are going to win the final, you've got to win those early matches too.

Quite a weak argument, really don't see the colossal deal many have on here about the fair weather supporter!

By the above means, your offered an all ireland ticket or a first round ticket and both hold equal merit? Yeah right

Flukey

I am not saying the tickets would be of equal merit. When it was pure knockout though, in order to win the thing outright, it was as important to win that first match as any. If you lost that first match you could not be All-Ireland champions. So in that sense, the first round match was equally as important as the final. In a pure knockout competition, all matches are as important if you want to win the whole thing. With the qualifiers that is postponed a bit, but you will still come to a match before the final where if you don't win, your chance of being champions is gone. You won't fill Croke Park with a match early on in the season, barring a Dubs match, but they are as important. The amount of people you get at a match is not so much determined by who's playing but by what stage of the competition it is. As I said, if it is an Offaly v Laois All-Ireland final, you'll get a lot more Laois and Offaly people there than you did last Sunday and the excuses given will be left behind and all the impracticalities of going last Sunday will have solutions for what is even more impractical. A 40 minute drive and a few hours away from the farm just isn't possible, but for the same people a 2 hour drive and a whole weekend away from the farm is.

MrsJohnMurphy

Most Irish people are very fickle when it comes to attending fixtures, be they football, rugby or gaa games.

There is very little culture in Ireland of proper support, going every second week, through thick and thin for months on end compared to England and lots of other places. Take a random example that Ive just picked in the UK and checked on wikipedia, Coventry, population 300,000ish, the average attendence for 2006-2007 in Championship was 20,342. Approx 6.6% of the local population going to a game every second week.

Lets roughly say that theres 1,000,000 people living in Dublin who grew up in the county. Would Dublin get 65,000 people out a league game during the winter every second week? Not a hope!

In most cases in most sports Irish "supporters" are not real hardcore supporers just blow-ins who jump on the bandwagon for 3-4 games a season and then thats it for another year.

MJM

Killme00

MrsJohnMurphy wrote: »

Lets roughly say that theres 1,000,000 people living in Dublin who grew up in the county. Would Dublin get 65,000 people out a league game during the winter every second week? Not a hope!

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No, not a hope but that is more down to marketing than anything else. Alot of people arent aware of the league fixtures. However when the championship comes around they are falling over themselves for tickets.

Parnell Park is full for every league game and even the attendance at the Hurling fixtures has been picking up.

Also your figures are entertaining, you should work for the statistics office.

MrsJohnMurphy

Killme00 wrote: »

No, not a hope but that is more down to marketing than anything else. Alot of people arent aware of the league fixtures.

Be realistic, the league games will never come close to the all Ireland games in terms of regular attendences and its not because of marketing issues!
Its because most GAA "supporters" are only interested in jumping on the bandwagon for a few weekends during the summer. Sure look at Kilkenny e.g., tens of thousands come out for a final, but then when they play the charity homecoming game a few days after the all Ireland only a few thousand ever turn out.

Killme00 wrote: »

However when the championship comes around they are falling over themselves for tickets.

Exactly, you've made my point!

MJM