What would you do to improve the LOI?

LuckyLloyd

Most of the clubs who are there have little or no links with youth / amateur football. Establish one, divert resources from first team squads to youth coaching and facilities, suck up the short term fall in quality of your first team and reap long term rewards both in terms of players and support / involvement in / with the local community.

NTMK

There is no youth/amateur system which is the problem. In galway there are 3 teams in the LOI and the 1st div yet if i wanted to play with an amateur team i have to travel 40 minutes.

I played with my school but there is no system there wasnt even a team when i started in the school.

The main problem is people have no connection to teams esp outside the citys because teams are so few and far between

The FAI should work on the amateur side of things if the want the LOI to grow

PHB

I think the youth system needs to be heavily looked at. Countless players go over to England and don't make it. Lots even turn them down because of the massive risk involved. 2 or 3 proper youth academics run professionally would revolutionize the game in Ireland imo.

However, real change needs to start at the top, and the FAI needs to be cleared out imo.

Fr Tod Umptious

PHB wrote: »

However, real change needs to start at the top, and the FAI needs to be cleared out imo.

But the league was only taken over by the FAI a few years ago and it had the same problems before that as it has now so how would getting rid of the FAI help the league ?

major bill

Fr Tod Umptious wrote: »

But the league was only taken over by the FAI a few years ago and it had the same problems before that as it has now so how would getting rid of the FAI help the league ?

The crowds believe it or not were better before the FAI took over and the league was a much better spectacle to watch.
What the FAI did do however was bring the league to a wider audience by getting TV deals with setanta/RTE and TG4 to show live games.
The Problem with the clubs taking back the league is they are too selfish when it comes to their club so the love of the game is not considered just whats best for MY club Olly byrne(god rest his soul) was an example of this.

doc_17

It's an awful product. I used to go to Finn Harps matches all the time but eventually I had to stop. Rubbish stuff altogether. I wish it wasn't but it was.

major bill

doc_17 wrote: »

It's an awful product. I used to go to Finn Harps matches all the time but eventually I had to stop. Rubbish stuff altogether. I wish it wasn't but it was.

great contribution to the thread well done take a bow.

doc_17

Well what I meant was that it's too boring to watch. people, especially the irish, like excitement all the way through. In soccer absolutely nothing can happen for 20 mins. In gaelic or Rugby there is always something going on, even in a low scoring game. Soccer suffers from cheats too much, diving like they'd been shot, conning refs etc. I think from an Irish perspective that stuff goes down terribly. So stop all that crap and you've got a better product right away

What point is there in having the wonderful new stadium and increased revenue streams if the clubs see very little of it? The FAI should be setting up centres of excellance in every county in Ireland. Bring on the young players, too many clubs sign lads released from 2nd and 3rd division english teams.

Get more local players into local clubs and then that gets more local attention.

Decrease the price of admission as well. Bigger crowds makes for a better atmosphere.

UpTheSlashers

DB10 wrote: »

Where I am there is a GAA club when you go 5 minutes in any direction. 40 in total in the county and it isn't even that big (Cavan).

Yet there is no LOI or even lower league soccer club. The GAA clubs are the heart and soul of the community, most of the lads I know are into it because it is the local thing, you represent your area and don't have far to go, play with friends etc.

Yet as I said no LOI club or even lower league one. The closest one is in Monaghan, basically a different world.

This. There are too many counties with no connection to the league. Tipperary is a massive county with no representation in Premier, First or even "A" division. Thats 150,000 people with no local LOI club and very few people are going follow teams in Cork, Galway or Waterford just for the sake of it unless they have some connection through family or college.
Big counties like Kerry, Clare, Kilkenny and Tipp need to be represented in the league

major bill

doc_17 wrote: »

Well what I meant was that it's too boring to watch. people, especially the irish, like excitement all the way through. In soccer absolutely nothing can happen for 20 mins. In gaelic or Rugby there is always something going on, even in a low scoring game. Soccer suffers from cheats too much, diving like they'd been shot, conning refs etc. I think from an Irish perspective that stuff goes down terribly. So stop all that crap and you've got a better product right away

What point is there in having the wonderful new stadium and increased revenue streams if the clubs see very little of it? The FAI should be setting up centres of excellance in every county in Ireland. Bring on the young players, too many clubs sign lads released from 2nd and 3rd division english teams.

Get more local players into local clubs and then that gets more local attention.

Decrease the price of admission as well. Bigger crowds makes for a better atmosphere.

rugby can be just as boring though. admission prices need to drop i agree with that but then professional football wont/cant work so that brings us back to the Part-time league which is probably the sensible thing to do but this will not do anything for attracting new fans.

Paul Tergat

For me the bottom line is people need to start going to games for any long term improvement to take place. Even investment at youth level requires money and the only way that will happen is with people going to the games. I would watch a few games a year but would tend to watch more games on tv on friday nights than actually going.

eagle eye

Everybody seems to be talking about the quality of football in the league which is not the problem.

Its quite simple really, the clubs have to come up with a plan to attract customers. The ideal way to do this is to make it family friendly because you are not only building for today but into the future as well as a lot of the kids that are brought along when they are young will become fans as they grow older. Basically there needs to be a package thats attractive to everybody.

Can anybody who goes to games right now tell me if the league is currently attractive for a family day out? I honestly don't know because I haven't been at a game in years. Are there thugs at games? Is there food, confectionary, even ice cream available at games? Whats the situation with parking at grounds? Have all the grounds got good stands where kids are not going to get soaked on a wet night?

Its not something that can happen overnight. Its not about one club doing it and succeeding because that will most likely lead to other clubs being destroyed. What is really needed is a nationally run league with a cap system to make it competitive. The MLS system is something that should be looked at, the A-league in Australia too. I'm sure there are other leagues in similar sized countries too that might be doing better than the LOI.

Anyways thats my 2 cents fwiw.

pablomakaveli

DB10 wrote: »

Where I am there is a GAA club when you go 5 minutes in any direction. 40 in total in the county and it isn't even that big (Cavan).

Yet there is no LOI or even lower league soccer club. The GAA clubs are the heart and soul of the community, most of the lads I know are into it because it is the local thing, you represent your area and don't have far to go, play with friends etc.

Yet as I said no LOI club or even lower league one. The closest one is in Monaghan, basically a different world.

It's all very well people blaming GAA and people supporting the English sides, which is the norm here, but there is nothing else...

There needs to be heavy investment and later, clubs in at least every major town.

You cant really blame the league for that though. There is a route for clubs to enter the LOI through the A championship now. So it's more a question of why cant those local teams in counties with no LOI representation not make the step up.

DerekDGoldfish

eagle eye wrote: »

Can anybody who goes to games right now tell me if the league is currently attractive for a family day out?

I honestly don't know because I haven't been at a game in years.

1.Are there thugs at games?

2.Is there food, confectionary, even ice cream available at games?

3.Whats the situation with parking at grounds?

4Have all the grounds got good stands where kids are not going to get soaked on a wet night?

.

1. some but not many ive been going to games for 15 years, and never been involed in any trouble and seen very little. Most clubs will have a family section where the older fans the the familys sit and a seperate area where the hardcore and teenagers congreate

2. Pretty much every club has a shop with bars, drinks and the likes no ice cream though

3. Im a pats fan and parking at richmond park isnt great, rovers have the square to park in but many clubs have issues with parking but you should be able to get a spot thats not more than 5 mins walk from the ground.

4. While many fans myself included prefer to stand on the terrace all clubs will have a stand with a roof.


For Pats games its 15 for an adult 10 for a student/oap and 5 for a kid when bought with an adult ticket. I think those prices are reasonable enough

Pauleta

I disagree with making the Premier Division 16 teams. Its just gonna weaken the top league.

I think the professional players really need a kick up the arse in terms of fitness, working out and diets. They have no excuse to being inferior to players in other leagues in this department. The likes of Ronaldo and Drogba are not naturally supreme athletes, they work their balls off to be in great shape. I dont see why Professional LOI players are not supreme athletes. They are just bone idol lazy.Ronaldo claims to do 3000 sit ups a day. I dont really believe that must do a ridiculous amount of working out to look the way he is and be as strong as he is. LOI players must just wake up, eat whatever for the day, hit the bookies, go training then get a take away and few beers.

Another thing is set pieces. They have no excuses with this either. How many really good free kick takers are there in the league. I cant think of many and thats because nobody is putting in the extra training.

Until the players want to suceed and accept that they are athletes then we have no hope.

DerekDGoldfish

I dont see why Professional LOI players are not supreme athletes

there are only a handful of fully pro players left, most have other jobs so dont have the time to do 3,000 sit ups.

Altough I do agree in general with your point there are a lot of players who dont take fittness seriously enough.

UpTheSlashers

What about a system where the teams play each other twice and then each of the teams in the other divisions. That would give the Premier teams 9 home games against other Premier teams, 9 away games against the same, and then each of the first division teams once. Thats 30 games without excessive repetition.

bohsman

1.Are there thugs at games?

Not many, majority of trouble is planned and happens well away from grounds, with us most are banned anyway.

2.Is there food, confectionary, even ice cream available at games?

Burdocks, shop and 3 bars. Candyfloss seemed to fail.

3.Whats the situation with parking at grounds?

Not too difficult to get parking in Phibsboro afaik? Easy to get to with public transport tho.

4Have all the grounds got good stands where kids are not going to get soaked on a wet night?

Most do.

Also a hell of a lot of marketing incentives have been tried, we do fiver off coupons in the Mirror in exchange for ad hoardings, kids go free has been tried etc etc etc.

stovelid

eagle eye wrote: »

Can anybody who goes to games right now tell me if the league is currently attractive for a family day out?

I honestly don't know because I haven't been at a game in years.

1.Are there thugs at games?

2.Is there food, confectionary, even ice cream available at games?

3.Whats the situation with parking at grounds?

4Have all the grounds got good stands where kids are not going to get soaked on a wet night? .

1: Same as others. The 'problem' is vastly overstated in the media. The few incidents that do occur happen away from the grounds. One trip to Tallaght for a match will disabuse anybody of the notion that it's not a family night out for hundreds of people, especially the West Stand. The Luas runs up to the ground.

2. Everything you mention is there, even a Pizza stand. Even a modern club shop that sells (male, female, boys and girls) Rovers, Ireland and other football gear

3. Parking in the Square works out about 3 quid for a game or for free in nearby estates. I use the latter option most weeks.

4. The whole capacity of Tallaght is split between two stands.

pablomakaveli

The whole thugs at games is completely blown out of proportion in regards to the LOI. I blame the media in this country for that. *cough*tv3*cough*

Also the picture of the Linfield fan who was bloodied in a scuffle with the Gard's in that game against pat's was on the first page of the irish indo the next day.

I remeber seeing it on their website and some guy posted a comment saying he'd never take his kids to a LOI match.

I think trying to get a better image of the league out in the media might help especially in relation to the thuggery.

dreamers75

Disagree with the we need to train young players to stay in the league, we actually need them to come back from england to paid football.

So it should work like this:
7 year old kid joins his local team.
Hes is now 10 and Crumlin United steal him from his local club.
Hes now 15 and going on trial with Man City, crumlin get paid.
Hes now 17 having signed for Walsall, crumlin get paid again.
Hes 19 and a pain in his hole in england.
Signs for LOI club.
Hes now 23 and after 4 season is either a decent LOI player or good enough to go back.
Hes now 27 and never made it back, his LOI club fans have his nickname on their jerseys.


Hes gets paid to play football, hes better than me. We need this system as much as england needs our kids.

curry-muff

I know this might sound like an outlandish statement, but what about ditching the club idea and adapting to a gaa like county based system, Ive always wondered what it would be like, would certainly make me care a bit more about Irish football.

pablomakaveli

curry-muff wrote: »

I know this might sound like an outlandish statement, but what about ditching the club idea and adapting to a gaa like county based system, Ive always wondered what it would be like, would certainly make me care a bit more about Irish football.

Again that kind of ****s over the many fans who've invested time and money into supporting the current clubs.

dreamers75

curry-muff wrote: »

I know this might sound like an outlandish statement, but what about ditching the club idea and adapting to a gaa like county based system, Ive always wondered what it would be like, would certainly make me care a bit more about Irish football.

Brilliant post.

stovelid

curry-muff wrote: »

I know this might sound like an outlandish statement, but what about ditching the club idea and adapting to a gaa like county based system, Ive always wondered what it would be like, would certainly make me care a bit more about Irish football.

Would you be OK with Donegal and Sligo GAA merging to become Sligodon?

dreamers75

pablomakaveli wrote: »

Again that kind of ****s over the many fans who've invested time and money into supporting the current clubs.

In fairness his brilliant post is a good idea, how many corks have you supported? Imagine if there was a new cork just for the people of cork?

And say for Dublin we split it into regions, Bohs and say Shels on the north side inner city. Pats and rovers for the southside.Then for North county Dublin we create Fingal? For South county dublin we use UCD and futher afield Bray.

So we have Dublin sorted lets move onto Louth we need a north and south style derby so maybe Dundalk and Drogheda?

Then we regionalise by counties that can put forward a team into this new LOI. We have Sligo, Waterford, Derry, galway, Limerick, Monaghan etc:

Galway ruining it for us atm, mervue salthill et all but otherwise brilliant idea.

flahavaj

I think things like having 16 teams in the league as opposed to 10 will make little or no difference. Having more teams might make it a little less tedious for existing fans but won't really help get new ones in. Its not a deciding factor in people attending games IMO. Even things like facilities will only help up until a very limited point as well.

The problem is getting people to care about the team. Getting them involved with their local team from an early age. Getting into schools, summer camps and getting kids in at an early age. The GAA are brilliant at marketing themselves to young people. More and more top players are being employed by them to work as development oficers for the game. Kids get to be trained by their heroes and they're hooked for life.

As LuckyLloyd said, take the hit for a few years on not investing in the first team and redeploy the money into training facilities for young players, youth set ups. Think long term for once. The LOI's biggest problem is thateveryone has a short term plan - no one thinks 10 years down the line.

dreamers75

flahavaj wrote: »

The problem is getting people to care about the team. Getting them involved with their local team from an early age. Getting into schools, summer camps and getting kids in at an early age. The GAA are brilliant at marketing themselves to young people. More and more top players are being employed by them to work as development oficers for the game. Kids get to be trained by their heroes and they're hooked for life.

No they are not in Dublin anyway may explain a few things. A lot people up in the big smoke wont let their kids play GAA (myself included) some will thats their choice but for arguments sake my kids u10s and other kids u7s none of the kids play GAA. Get the odd weirdo who does tho.

Mr. Presentable

It all boils down to money. With more money you can get better facilities, better players. The best way to generate income is by getting people through the door.

So, the clubs need to actively go after punters, and for me the best way to do this is to grab the interest of the children.

Go into the schools, talk to the children, inspire them to be interested. Give them an incentive to go to the ground - meet the players, have a kickabout with them - raffle a fecking bike. Whatever it takes.

The clubs need to ingrain themselves into the psyche of their community, and the best and easiest route is through the impressionable children. When they start going to games the facilities will naturally improve over time.

Make it cool to go to a game. A big advantage the LOI has over the English clubs is the summer season when kids are at a loose end. Use that advantage and get them in the habit of going to the game. Clubs need to be responsible for their own survival by being active, not passively hoping for a good gate. Even half-price or gratis seats will provide some peripheral income.

stovelid

I should point out that while I'll simultaneously hare the GAA but greatly admire their formidable community organisation, we also have to qualify a few things:

They don't pay wages and they don't compete with bigger, better GAAs in other countries: they are, obviously, the most attractive contestant in a race of one.

And as somebody from a family (both sides and my in-laws) steeped in GAA, the normal league attendances don't sound much better than the LOI.