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Only Half A Percent of the Irish Population Attend Games Regularly

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Comments

  • Closed Accounts Posts: 5,949 ✭✭✭Samich


    How many go to GAA and rugby though?

    Can't expect people to go to everything?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 34,079 ✭✭✭✭CSF


    Samich wrote: »
    How many go to GAA and rugby though?

    Can't expect people to go to everything?
    Well I think the figure is more staggering considering how many people call themselves football fans compared to the amount I'd say would say the same of the 2 above.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,283 ✭✭✭Glico Man


    Samich wrote: »
    How many go to GAA and rugby though?

    Can't expect people to go to everything?

    Because no other nation has other sports...


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,591 ✭✭✭ambid


    SantryRed wrote: »
    http://www.sportingintelligence.com/2012/04/02/revealed-the-most-dedicated-football-nations-the-faroes-iceland-cyprus-scotland-and-england-020403/

    Really is damning of our footballing population that so many play the game but only 0.5% go to LOI games regularly. 34% of the average total attendance is made up of Cork and Rover's gate.

    That's true, but I wonder if the FAI do as much as they could do in reaching out to bring new fans to games.

    In rugby, Leinster constantly organise open training sessions, run a lot of PR initiatives, and provide good facilities for fans. I'm not sure the FAI are as active as they could be to attract new fans.

    It's no surprise Rovers and Cork account for such a high proportion of the total fans as their facilities are good, but in many stadiums the facilities are very poor.

    I think the FAI could do a little more to attract new fans.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 15,116 ✭✭✭✭RasTa


    Every country is low according to that article.

    England 2.7%
    Spain 1.5%


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,597 ✭✭✭dan1895


    What do the FAI currently do to attract fans apart from have a select eleven get hockeyed by the giants of the game once a year. In the past they've even gotten the name of their own league wrong calling the Irish League. The FAI don't give a sh*t.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 5,949 ✭✭✭Samich


    aaronh007 wrote: »
    Because no other nation has other sports...

    Low population ;)


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,181 ✭✭✭Iang87


    aaronh007 wrote: »
    Because no other nation has other sports...

    they also have bigger populations in fairness.

    What in the name of god is a country with barely 5 million people doing going to a european championship in Football,

    consistently one of the best sides in world rugby for almost 10 years now,

    Have our own amateur sports that can draw up to 80,000 people a couple of times a year,

    Somehow have a cricket team that can qualify for international tournaments, heres the kicker I've never met or seen anyone play cricket in Ireland.


    So ya other countries dont have that to contend with for the most part


  • Moderators, Regional East Moderators Posts: 23,239 Mod ✭✭✭✭GLaDOS


    Samich wrote: »
    Low population ;)
    Iang87 wrote: »
    they also have bigger populations in fairness.
    Population percentage attending games would not be effected by the size of the population.

    Cake, and grief counseling, will be available at the conclusion of the test



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,181 ✭✭✭Iang87


    Really you dont think so, I do given people here tend to support across sports whereas in England you might follow football and never ever go to a rugby match. That doesn't happen here for the most part


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,565 ✭✭✭losthorizon


    SantryRed wrote: »
    http://www.sportingintelligence.com/2012/04/02/revealed-the-most-dedicated-football-nations-the-faroes-iceland-cyprus-scotland-and-england-020403/

    Really is damning of our footballing population that so many play the game but only 0.5% go to LOI games regularly. 34% of the average total attendance is made up of Cork and Rover's gate.


    We are the 26th best in the world - hardly damning!

    Actually a few years back we were slighly higher and in front of England but have fallen back in the last season or two due to some big clubs getting relegated or doing badly.

    We are higher than Mexico, Chile and Russia.! I wish people would read things.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 5,949 ✭✭✭Samich


    Population percentage attending games would not be effected by the size of the population.

    Oh yes it does ;)

    The population affects crowd size, which means Ireland can't have large attendances, which means less income which means less wages which means can't get great players.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 13,224 ✭✭✭✭SantryRed


    Samich wrote: »
    Oh yes it does ;)

    The population affects crowd size, which means Ireland can't have large attendances, which means less income which means less wages which means can't get great players.

    Did you even read what he said? Jesus Christ


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,181 ✭✭✭Iang87


    Samich wrote: »
    Oh yes it does ;)

    The population affects crowd size, which means Ireland can't have large attendances, which means less income which means less wages which means can't get great players.

    what he said :cool:


    or she


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,565 ✭✭✭losthorizon


    Samich wrote: »
    Oh yes it does ;)

    The population affects crowd size, which means Ireland can't have large attendances, which means less income which means less wages which means can't get great players.


    as in the Faroe Isles and Iceland?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,591 ✭✭✭ambid


    RasTa wrote: »
    Every country is low according to that article.

    England 2.7%
    Spain 1.5%

    I just had a look at those numbers. Excluding USA and China, the average football attendance as a % of population across the other 32 countries in this study is 0.8%. In Ireland, attendance is 0.5% of population.

    If Ireland increased attendance to the 0.8% average produced across other countries, this would generate an extra €7.8 million for the domestic game in Ireland each year.

    This calculation is based on an extra 14,362 fans (the difference between 0.8% and 0.5% of our population) paying a ticket price of €15 each week for 36 rounds of the championship.

    So the numbers may be relatively low; but €7.8 million potential extra income every year for the domestic game - is a pretty big number.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,181 ✭✭✭Iang87


    as in the Faroe Isles and Iceland?

    I haven't heard of them in any other mainstream sports


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 11,128 ✭✭✭✭Oranage2


    Expensive and boring, surprised its that high.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,181 ✭✭✭Iang87


    Oranage2 wrote: »
    Expensive and boring, surprised its that high.

    No. I disagree completely. Since you didnt expand, I wont


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 5,949 ✭✭✭Samich


    SantryRed wrote: »
    Did you even read what he said? Jesus Christ

    Did you read who I quoted? Jeez Christ


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 6,300 ✭✭✭CiaranC


    You might as well just entitled this thread 'Please list reasons why you dont go to football matches regularly" SantryRed


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 13,224 ✭✭✭✭SantryRed


    Samich wrote: »
    Did you read who I quoted? Jeez Christ

    Yes and you still make absolutely no sense.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,314 ✭✭✭BOHtox


    Oranage2 wrote: »
    Expensive and boring, surprised its that high.

    Ironic that that is your excuse yet you support Liverpool :confused:


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 5,949 ✭✭✭Samich


    SantryRed wrote: »
    Yes and you still make absolutely no sense.

    He said "Population percentage attending games would not be effected by the size of the population."

    I said it does in a round about way.

    because of Englands higher population, they could have 1% attendance yet still have high numbers attending. Which means more money to pay wages of good players, and good players means more people go to see them.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 6,300 ✭✭✭CiaranC


    Samich wrote: »
    because of Englands higher population, they could have 1% attendance yet still have high numbers attending. Which means more money to pay wages of good players, and good players means more people go to see them.
    English clubs got huge crowds when they were paying players a hundred pounds a week, thats irrelevant.

    The fact is that they get over five times the amount of people attending their games per head of population as we do. If we got those numbers we would have far better football infrastructure.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 3,761 ✭✭✭AgileMyth


    Oranage2 wrote: »
    Expensive and boring, surprised its that high.
    You can throw a lot of criticism at the league (as I'm sure you do) but expensive and boring it is not.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 5,949 ✭✭✭Samich


    CiaranC wrote: »
    English clubs got huge crowds when they were paying players a hundred pounds a week, thats irrelevant.

    The fact is that they get over five times the amount of people attending their games per head of population as we do. If we got those numbers we would have far better football infrastructure.

    a few hundred back then? Some of Irelands teams aren't even professional :rolleyes:


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 34,916 ✭✭✭✭NIMAN


    I am a season ticket holder at Derry City and many friends I know who you would describe as 'football nuts' don't go to watch them. Many have said that they "wouldn't go if it was free".

    That is a mentality of many I'm afraid. They are fans of foreign teams, and indeed there has even been fights outside pubs in Derry between Liverpool and Man Utd fans after matches. 2 sets of Derry men fighting over English football teams. If you seen that in a sketch show you'd think it was stupid:rolleyes:

    Perfect example has been James McClean at Sunderland. Once he started getting rave reviews in the EPL, you'd hear your work colleagues saying "jez that McClean guy is great, looking forward to seeing him next week, Sunderland are on live". He was playing brilliantly live a couple of miles away from you for 3 years and you couldn't been arsed to go watch him. Idiots.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 6,300 ✭✭✭CiaranC


    Samich wrote: »
    a few hundred back then? Some of Irelands teams aren't even professional :rolleyes:
    What are you talking about. Football players were low paid right up until the 1980s in England, and they attracted huge crowds well before then. Traditionally football fans went to football before there was huge money in it. The crowds went first, then the money came into the game, not the other way round like you are suggesting.


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 10,148 ✭✭✭✭Raskolnikov


    NIMAN wrote: »
    That is a mentality of many I'm afraid. They are fans of foreign teams, and indeed there has even been fights outside pubs in Derry between Liverpool and Man Utd fans after matches. 2 sets of Derry men fighting over English football teams. If you seen that in a sketch show you'd think it was stupid:rolleyes:
    But it's ok when our very own homegrown Bohs and Rovers thugs stage pitched battles with each other next to Luas stops :pac:

    At least they're not supporting a dirty English team, huh?


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 501 ✭✭✭Adolf Hipster


    Public transport is a major factor here aswell.


    I'd go watch limerick if there was a decent public transport system from the country, but alas, there isn't, we don't all live in dublin, as some of the moaning LOI fans would have you think.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 5,949 ✭✭✭Samich


    CiaranC wrote: »
    What are you talking about. Football players were low paid right up until the 1980s in England, and they attracted huge crowds well before then. Traditionally football fans went to football before there was huge money in it. The crowds went first, then the money came into the game, not the other way round like you are suggesting.

    Actually quality players came first.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 3,761 ✭✭✭AgileMyth


    Samich wrote: »
    Actually quality players came first.
    There are a lot of quality players in the League of Ireland. I'm sure you'll notice them in a year or so when they move across the water..


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 5,949 ✭✭✭Samich


    AgileMyth wrote: »
    There are a lot of quality players in the League of Ireland. I'm sure you'll notice them in a year or so when they move across the water..

    Nah probably not as they'll be in some conference team.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,256 ✭✭✭closeline


    No disrespect to any League of Ireland team but the standard is absoultly shocking. I only live 20 minutes away from Turners Cross yet I havent been to a City match. There is plenty of these games on tv yet I never watch them. The most I can watch is 5 minutes max at a time. The standard is appaling.


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 21,712 ✭✭✭✭Mushy


    closeline wrote: »
    No disrespect to any League of Ireland team but the standard is absoultly shocking. I only live 20 minutes away from Turners Cross yet I havent been to a City match. There is plenty of these games on tv yet I never watch them. The most I can watch is 5 minutes max at a time. The standard is appaling.

    Screw that, I saw UCD play better football than the utter dross served up by Leeds this weekend. And sure the standard is only shocking cos people say it is so don't go.

    For every bit of "shocking" play in the LOI, there are also great moments of play, but these are conveniently forgotten. Other conveniently forgotten moments in football are the shocking standards in some moments of matches across the water. People seem adverse to the fact that great goals, great tackles are made at all levels.

    There are ways for the league to make a much better wffort at getting crowds in. The first I can see is advertising. From a Bray perspective, I used to have to get the bus to the matches. They should have a poster advertising the matches on the buses which go down as far as Wicklow (massive catchment area). Same as Greystones and the dart. And more local advertising would be great.

    Another one would be deals/initiatives to get people in. Like €5 if accompanied with a season ticket holder for example. Advertise these around the place, a stronger use of social media towards a younger crowd can easily get a crowd in.

    If people don't have easy access to public transport (very easy here), entice a neighbour/family member who drives to go. Make a night of it, go to the football, onto the pub/wherever. There can be a great social element to it if people made the effort. People need to realise this and clubs need to exploit it.

    Stovelids weekly threads are great for finding info and trying to get people to go. Look into it this week. Tis better than sitting in watching Ryan Tubridy anyway.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,256 ✭✭✭closeline


    Mushy wrote: »
    Screw that, I saw UCD play better football than the utter dross served up by Leeds this weekend. And sure the standard is only shocking cos people say it is so don't go.

    For every bit of "shocking" play in the LOI, there are also great moments of play, but these are conveniently forgotten. Other conveniently forgotten moments in football are the shocking standards in some moments of matches across the water. People seem adverse to the fact that great goals, great tackles are made at all levels.

    There are ways for the league to make a much better wffort at getting crowds in. The first I can see is advertising. From a Bray perspective, I used to have to get the bus to the matches. They should have a poster advertising the matches on the buses which go down as far as Wicklow (massive catchment area). Same as Greystones and the dart. And more local advertising would be great.

    Another one would be deals/initiatives to get people in. Like €5 if accompanied with a season ticket holder for example. Advertise these around the place, a stronger use of social media towards a younger crowd can easily get a crowd in.

    If people don't have easy access to public transport (very easy here), entice a neighbour/family member who drives to go. Make a night of it, go to the football, onto the pub/wherever. There can be a great social element to it if people made the effort. People need to realise this and clubs need to exploit it.

    Stovelids weekly threads are great for finding info and trying to get people to go. Look into it this week. Tis better than sitting in watching Ryan Tubridy anyway.

    No the standard is awful, absolutly attrocious. No disrespect to anyone playing in the league or involved but that is the facts of the game in Ireland at the moment.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,643 ✭✭✭Father Damo


    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UEFA_Euro_2012_qualifying#Attendances

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_FIFA_World_Cup_qualification_%E2%80%93_UEFA_Group_8

    For our population size we probably have the best international attendance in Europe. When you consider most fans at midweek games are within commuting distance of Dublin, alot higher a percentage of people are going than folks in London, Paris etc. Said it before and say it again, the LOI teams do absoloutely sod all to raise awareness of their existance with kids. FFS I didnt even know we had a domestic league until I was about 10 or 11. With little tv coverage, no jerseys on sale in most retailers, no teams in large swathes of the country, few teams that can complete in Europe.....loads of reasons they remain unknown really.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 34,916 ✭✭✭✭NIMAN


    closeline wrote: »
    No disrespect to any League of Ireland team but the standard is absoultly shocking. I only live 20 minutes away from Turners Cross yet I havent been to a City match. There is plenty of these games on tv yet I never watch them. The most I can watch is 5 minutes max at a time. The standard is appaling.

    You don't go to games and you never watch them on TV, yet you know the standard is shocking? :rolleyes:

    How do you know this? You obviously have a blinkered view and you are sticking to it.

    Its stupid quotes like yours that I, as a spectator at LoI games, find annoying. You watch 5mins of a game on TV and say "bugger that, thats rubbish". No doubt you are one of the Sky generation who thinks that everything in the EPL is fantastic because you have been told it is. I have watched many many shocking games between the top teams in England yet we are told its the best league in the world.

    You are comparing guys on anything from €50 a week to maybe €2k max, to guys on €200,000 per week, and expect the standard to be the same? Idiotic.

    The LoI has produced some quality footballers over the last decade or so since the standard went up and full time training came in. Our teams now compete at a decent level in Europe and our best players are picked off for cheap prices by the vultures in the EPL. Having said that, the EPL now look to Ireland as the place to get all the young talent. It used to be Scotland, now its us as the league has plenty of good players in it.

    Have you seen any of the LoI players who left in recent times play in the EPL/SPL? I'm thinking of James McClean, Wes Hoolahan, Paddy McCourt, Kevin Doyle, Keith Fahey, Darron Gibson etc.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,206 ✭✭✭shanec1928


    closeline wrote: »
    No disrespect to any League of Ireland team but the standard is absolutely shocking. I only live 20 minutes away from Turners Cross yet I haven't been to a City match. There is plenty of these games on tv yet I never watch them. The most I can watch is 5 minutes max at a time. The standard is appalling.
    how can you have an opinion on something you never been to?:confused:


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,597 ✭✭✭dan1895


    Can't wait for the summer and people going on about the Irish being the best fans in the world. I'll happily tell them that we're nearly the worst.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 501 ✭✭✭Adolf Hipster


    dan1895 wrote: »
    Can't wait for the summer and people going on about the Irish being the best fans in the world. I'll happily tell them that we're nearly the worst.
    That post is idiotic on many levels.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 41,926 ✭✭✭✭_blank_


    "Irish people don't like the LoI" shocker.

    :rolleyes:

    Irish people are, in the main, event junkies.

    One or two off "big" games in the gah attract huge crowds (provincial finals, AI Quarter/Semi/Final, the national league is poorly attended in coparison to the Summer "days out").

    The number of people at the FAI Cup final last year compared to the Premier Division game between Shelbourne and Sligo Rovers a month ago also points to this.

    the two or three "six nations" games a year.

    H Cup games have a better attendance than Celtic League or whatever it's called, because it's more "glamourous".

    Shels vs Depor
    Shamrock in the Europa League, or a damn friendly against Real Madrid.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 9,828 ✭✭✭gosplan


    There's a local Indian takeaway just around the corner from me. I got food there once or twice but it was pretty bad. Everything tasted pretty bland and it actually would put you off the food. The saving grace is that there's a brilliant Indian a bit further away. It costs more and it's a bit of a trek but it's well worth it. They also deliver right to my living room.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 21,712 ✭✭✭✭Mushy


    closeline wrote: »
    No the standard is awful, absolutly attrocious. No disrespect to anyone playing in the league or involved but that is the facts of the game in Ireland at the moment.

    The standard of football played by our international team is simply atrocious for large parts, but sure those matches are able to draw big crowds.

    Besides, its not as if you can't go to a LOI match and then watch an EPL match then ext day.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 437 ✭✭tororosso


    gosplan wrote: »
    There's a local Indian takeaway just around the corner from me. I got food there once or twice but it was pretty bad. Everything tasted pretty bland and it actually would put you off the food. The saving grace is that there's a brilliant Indian a bit further away. It costs more and it's a bit of a trek but it's well worth it. They also deliver right to my living room.

    Except in this case the brilliant local Indian is an Irish restaurant while the one further away is in fact an English restaurant requiring a trek across land and water but delivered to your living room by a satellite tv station :pac:


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 27,252 ✭✭✭✭stovelid


    Overconsumption of Indian makes you prone to producing a lot of shit too.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,986 ✭✭✭WesternZulu


    gosplan wrote: »
    There's a local Indian takeaway just around the corner from me. I got food there once or twice but it was pretty bad. Everything tasted pretty bland and it actually would put you off the food. The saving grace is that there's a brilliant Indian a bit further away. It costs more and it's a bit of a trek but it's well worth it. They also deliver right to my living room.

    I trust that you'll be supporting Spain in the summer then...after all Ireland can be compared to a local Indian takeaway where the food bland.

    Why would you eat there when there is a brilliant Indian (Spain) a bit further away?

    It costs more and it's a bit of a trek but it's well worth it. They also deliver right to your living room.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 579 ✭✭✭Dub XV


    gosplan wrote: »
    There's a local Indian takeaway just around the corner from me. I got food there once or twice but it was pretty bad. Everything tasted pretty bland and it actually would put you off the food. The saving grace is that there's a brilliant Indian a bit further away. It costs more and it's a bit of a trek but it's well worth it. They also deliver right to my living room.

    Yeah but.........did you get to eat it or just stare at it on your plate?


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 41,926 ✭✭✭✭_blank_


    The house speciality of that Indian actually turns out to be a bit crap when compared to the house specialities of the Indians from the other towns.

    didn't even make it past the first round of judges.

    And a lot of people seem to just eat the chicken balls and chips anyway.


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