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Do you support any British sports teams?
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I don't support any teams/not interested in sportWith regards to paragraph one then our opinions differ with regard to supporting a team. You don't have to go to matches to support a team. You can support a team financially, if you so choose, by buying their merchandise. Teams also get money for televised matches and thus by paying to view the games I am supporting them financially along with other clubs.
Going to matches isn't exactly viable if you support a foreign team. Like I've already said, the quality of the football is much poorer over here. I don't get any enjoyment out of that standard of football. Many Irish games are held mid week so even then it wouldn't be viable for me to watch my local team as they rarely play at the weekend. Not that it matters because I have no interest in watching that standard of football as I have said already. I'm sure I'm not alone with that opinion.
With regards to the figures you've quoted I can already tell you that you are way off. Are you incorporating travel expenses to your €140 season ticket? No, you're not. So why are you including both travel expenses and accommodation in the one premiership match ticket? My friends often go to games in England and the price typically ranges from ~€90-200 depending on the match/venue. I'm not saying that it's cheaper to go to the games though am I?
How many LOI matches are televised for a full 90 minutes? Or first division games? Very few. The likes of United/Arsenal/Liverpool/City/Chelsea are on every weekend on sky. That is my point. If I wanted to watch Monaghan play how could I without going to the match? I couldn't. So in that respect, yes it is cheaper to support the English teams.
League of Ireland clubs rarely compete in Europe. They compete in the qualifiers with the minnows of Europe without making it to the tournament proper. Unless you're lucky enough to be a Shamrock Rovers fan then yet again everyone else in the country has missed out. This year was the first year an Irish club actually got into Europe and even so it's just the Europa League. A great achievement for an Irish club but we all know they are merely a filler team for that competition and won't make a dent on the group that they've been put in as much as I'd like them to do well.
I have little or no interest in going to Irish football matches solely due to the standard of football. I've been to a few but I've no intention on returning. I gave it a fair go and can't say I miss it all that much since I've stopped going (for now it would be impossible for me to go due to my schedule clashing with most kick offs). I'm not doubting that the atmosphere may be great in some stadiums around the country and I'm not doubting the passion. But for me, and many others, it isn't worth travelling to and paying to see. Many people go and many people love it but they are a minority in comparison to those who watch English teams every weekend.
I understand a lot of what you said apart from the inaccurate ticket prices you've stated. I understand where you're coming from but as someone who doesn't enjoy Irish football we'll have to agree a difference of opinion.
PS. I already mentioned the fact that it was a summer league because I knew someone would pick up on me saying Irish winter. That was more of a stab at Irish weather. The difference between England and here is that English stadiums are all stands, you can't say the same for here unfortunately.
Firstly thanks for the reply but our opinions differ vastly. I have to say it bugs me that people just continue to demiss the League of Ireland and use any excuse to why they don’t support Irish teams.
Okay you can actively support your team by not going to matches by buying merchandise and so on. But the best way to show your support is actually go to a match. Football is a spectator sport and if all fans decided to just watch the match on TV then it would a very boring game. The point you made about not being able to attend matches because you support a foreign team is what this whole debate is about. You see that’s the point if you support a local club then it’s actually possible to go to matches.
The point that some Irish matches are on mid-week is invalid. The English clubs would have at least the same or if not more week day fixtures. There is two months left in the current season and Dundalk has only one more weekday fixture. The league could have more coverage aswell, but last Saturday had two matches on TV – Sligo vs. Derry and the Dundalk vs. Shamrock Rovers matches. To be honest it doesn’t bother me because I will be supporting my team at the match. I actually think if more matches where showing them due to the Irish barstooling mentality less people would attend the games.
Personally I have no problems with the standard of football. A lot of the Premier division teams like Derry, Sligo and Dundalk play a good brand of football. Okay some play hoofball but you get this in the Premier League aswell (e.g. Stoke, Blackburn, and Bolton). Admittedly the standard is never going to be the same, but it’s still enjoyable and without doubt attending games is more fun than watching it via a TV screen or by internet streams. If it’s all about the standard why don’t we all support Barcelona and we may aswell stop supporting the national team because the current standard is excruciating to watch. Spain our currently world champions so we should all support them instead. Okay maybe we aren’t the most successful in Europe, but only a fraction of teams compete in Europe. Getting into Europe is only for the elite teams in each league and by the knock stages it mainly consists of teams from the big leagues. Believe or believe not, clubs who do not make into the latter stages of Europe still have fans – Championship clubs in England never compete, Danish, Swedish leagues (list goes on). Liverpool and Celtic are not in Europe this year, so will all their Irish fans stop supporting them?
The price of €884.64 I quoted is from an article in the Irish Times and I can’t see them being to far wrong- http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/travel/2011/0903/1224303401548.html . A quick Google search will show other articles with similar prices. I’m sure many get if for cheaper, but there is still a cost and I can’t see how anyone could get it at under €3-400. The figures below are guesses but I’d imagine they are not to far off what it would cost to attend a Premier league home match.
-Transport to/from airport; flight; to/from Stadium etc ...200 euro
-1 night's accommodation ...100euro
-Match ticket???... 50 euro
-Programme?? … €4
-Beer/food/hookers 150 euro?
.....So I'm guessing around €500.
Now here’s my cost in going to a home LOI match:
-Transport – €0
-Accommodation - €0
-Match Ticket – season ticket for year €140 - €7.78 per match.
-Match programme - €3
-Beer/food … €5
-Supporting your local team … priceless
....€15.78. Most of the time I wouldn’t have a drink or something to eat during the game. I’m lucky enough to live around the corner from Oriel Park, but transport to a home match shouldn’t be much of a cost to many of the fans as in most cases its your local team and in all cases its going to be minimal compared to getting to England to support your team.
Whatever way you look at it, to attend a match (i.e. supporting your team) is going to be a lot cheaper if you support a League of Ireland team. In my opinion the majority of the Irish football fans (the barstooler) has forgotten what it actually means to ‘support’ their favourite team in the true sense of the meaning. We have a reputation of being a nation of great football fans especially when the World Cup comes around, but in my opinion this is false. The true fact is most Irish football fans jump on the bandwagon. When a team is doing well we all become passionate diehard supporters, when a team is struggling we drop out like flies. As many mentioned on this forum, why is it that Irish fans support the more successful English clubs the Man Utds, the Liverpool’s, and more recently the Chelsea’s and Man Cities, and not so long ago Leeds. This is no coincidence. For the most part its easy to support these teams, they compete for titles, they spend big, and more importantly you can do it in the comfort of your home or local pub. But any sheep could support these teams.
Even though as a Dundalk fan I have no choice but to hate our Louth neighbours Drogheda or Dublin teams like Shamrock Rovers or Bohs, I still have more respect for them than any barstooler in terms of being a football fan.0 -
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I don't support any teams/not interested in sportwell to be fair if you are talking about loi there is a team in nearlly every county in the country, starting with dublin, the wicklow, wexford, waterford, cork, limerick, galway, sligo, donegal, derry, monaghan, longford, westmeath/roscommon(athlone town, with one half of the town being in westmeath, the other half being in roscommon), louth? am i missing any?!
Tralee Dynamos and FC Carlow There is a some counties without major teams, most have something. But the main reason would but these counties are big GAA counties (Mayo, Kilkenny & Tipp) or largely rural areas which in most areas don't have large football teams. 0 -
I don't support any teams/not interested in sportTralee Dynamos and FC Carlow There is a some counties without major teams, most have something. But the main reason would but these counties are big GAA counties (Mayo, Kilkenny & Tipp) or largely rural areas which in most areas don't have large football teams.
ha, with the A league on the way out i didnt know whether to include them or not, are castlebar celtic still in that? think they bowed out few years ago?!0 -
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The point that some Irish matches are on mid-week is invalid. The English clubs would have at least the same or if not more week day fixtures. There is two months left in the current season and Dundalk has only one more weekday fixture.
If it’s all about the standard why don’t we all support Barcelona and we may aswell stop supporting the national team because the current standard is excruciating to watch.
Believe or believe not, clubs who do not make into the latter stages of Europe still have fans – Championship clubs in England never compete, Danish, Swedish leagues (list goes on). Liverpool and Celtic are not in Europe this year, so will all their Irish fans stop supporting them?
The price of €884.64 I quoted is from an article in the Irish Times and I can’t see them being to far wrong- http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/travel/2011/0903/1224303401548.html . A quick Google search will show other articles with similar prices. I’m sure many get if for cheaper, but there is still a cost and I can’t see how anyone could get it at under €3-400. The figures below are guesses but I’d imagine they are not to far off what it would cost to attend a Premier league home match.
-Transport to/from airport; flight; to/from Stadium etc ...200 euro
-1 night's accommodation ...100euro
-Match ticket???... 50 euro
-Programme?? … €4
-Beer/food/hookers 150 euro?
.....So I'm guessing around €500.
Now here’s my cost in going to a home LOI match:
-Transport – €0
-Accommodation - €0
-Match Ticket – season ticket for year €140 - €7.78 per match.
-Match programme - €3
-Beer/food … €5
-Supporting your local team … priceless
....€15.78. Most of the time I wouldn’t have a drink or something to eat during the game. I’m lucky enough to live around the corner from Oriel Park, but transport to a home match shouldn’t be much of a cost to many of the fans as in most cases its your local team and in all cases its going to be minimal compared to getting to England to support your team.
Whatever way you look at it, to attend a match (i.e. supporting your team) is going to be a lot cheaper if you support a League of Ireland team.
There are a lot of mid week games in the Irish league. Most of them are played on Friday afaik. Most English league games are Sat/Sun and usually one on Monday night.
It's not about supporting a team of Barcelona's standard. It's about a certain standard actually being enjoyable and another standard not being enjoyable. I get much more enjoyment out of watching the top clubs play as it is a much higher standard, much quicker and more skillful. That's just how I enjoy my football. You don't want to know my opinion on Ireland's national team parking the bus recently cause I'll be here all day :P
Birmingham are a championship team competing in Europe :P The championship is also a much higher standard than the LOI though. All clubs have supporters otherwise they wouldn't exist. What LOI fans fail to realise is that not everyone has a local club to the extent that Dublin have. You are an exception to the rule in that you live next to Oriel park. It would cost me to travel to a game. Europe is just a factor in why many Irish fans support these teams.
That Irish Times article is very inaccurate. You can go on a day trip (i.e. cutting out the cost of accomodation) for easily between €100-200.
Again your definition of supporting a team is different to mine. I'm not arguing the fact that it's cheaper to go to LOI games than premiership games or other foreign games. Obviously it's cheaper to go to LOI games.
Many Ireland fans chop and change the teams they support as you've already said with regards to Leeds. There are many glory supporters but there are lots of reasons for supporting successful clubs. With success comes more coverage, european competition etc. etc. Leeds don't have that anymore so even if they're fans wanted to watch them they would find it difficult, they might be shown once a month on sky sports tops these days. Anyway I respect your opinion but we'll have to agree to disagree on this one!0 -
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NoDespite the recent poor showings in Europe for scottish clubs id say its laughable to compare the SPL to LOI.. has a LOI team ever won the European Cup or any european trophies as 3 scottish teams have.
On your second point you say you dont support a LOI team because theres none locally..so you support an English team that are so far away you have never made it to a home game??
When you see all the money poured into English football teams from here through going to games and merchandise ..if that money was paid into your local teams instead then we might have a league over here we can be proud off.-
regarding the SPL teams both celtic and rangers failed in their attempts to qualify for the europa lge (celtic may get a reprieve)
the other teams in the SPL , i.e. hearts and dundee utd failed to make any impression in the europa league. my point being is that the LOI is certainly improving, shamrock rovers qualifying for the europa shows this so if you take out the old firm (regardless of what celtic and rangers have achieved in the past, rangers winning a uefa in 71 and celtic the european cup in 68) then the rest of the SPL is very very mediocre really and the likes of shamrock rovers, derry , sligo would more than compete with dundee utd, hearts, kilmarnock , motherwell etc.
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