2015 Interprovincials

Green_Tae

feargale wrote: »

Here's another idea. Play it a week before the All-Stars are selected, and make it a bit, though not entirely relevant to the selection

Yeah, I feel tying it to the All-Stars is the best course of action to take - a pair of finals acting as a prelude to the awards ceremony makes a lot sense and whatever has been said about the lack of public interest in this competition, the inter-provincials still retain more cultural appeal than the actual All-Star matches do.

Also worth pointing out that the international rules series was a dead duck until it was taken seriously by both associations and marketed properly. You would imagine that the same applies to the Inter-Pros.

CrabRevolution

When was the international rules ever a dead duck? The lowest ever attendance at a Croke Park match for the IR series was 29'000 in 2013, and that could be partly put down to the fact Ireland had a big score already racked up from the first game of the series that year, and the AFL had only sent an indigenous side of lesser quality.

Even after it was skipped for a year after all the fights in 2006, the attendences (in both Ireland and Australia) were north of 50'000 when it returned in 2008/2010.

Interprovincial games struggle to get 200 fans, its far far more moribund than the IR ever was.

Boom__Boom

CrabRevolution wrote: »

When was the international rules ever a dead duck? The lowest ever attendance at a Croke Park match for the IR series was 29'000 in 2013, and that could be partly put down to the fact Ireland had a big score already racked up from the first game of the series that year, and the AFL had only sent an indigenous side of lesser quality.

For this the attendance is a bit misleading given how cheap the tickets are and the extremely high percentage of the attendance that is made up of kids tickets plus the whole issue of how many are sold versus given away. There were a number of years where the international rules has been run at a loss.

CrabRevolution

Still not comparable really, the "lowest" ebb of the international rules was nearly 30'000 people showing up to watch a second rate match. In comparison, I attended an interprovincial hurling semi final held near me a year or 2 ago and there were more players than spectators.

Even then, I don't know why people always bring the IR into the argument when the Interpros are discussed. What connection have they to each other? Why are they painted as opposite sides of an argument? If the IR was scrapped, people still wouldnt care about the Interpros, I'm not sure what makes anyone think otherwise.

Boom__Boom

CrabRevolution wrote: »

Still not comparable really, the "lowest" ebb of the international rules was nearly 30'000 people showing up to watch a second rate match. In comparison, I attended an interprovincial hurling semi final held near me a year or 2 ago and there were more players than spectators.

Even then, I don't know why people always bring the IR into the argument when the Interpros are discussed. What connection have they to each other? Why are they painted as opposite sides of an argument? If the IR was scrapped, people still wouldnt care about the Interpros, I'm not sure what makes anyone think otherwise.

Well with the international rules, there was a lot of talk about scrapping them because they were losing money and there didn't seem to be that much interest in them - the games in Croke Park don't cost a high amount but sending a panel off to OZ for a 2/3 weeks is a fairly costly proposition.

Overall for me there is a world of difference between the interprovincals and the international rules in my eyes - the interprovincals are a corpse at this stage, whereas the international rules have some bit of life in them . The way I see it is for both competitions those playing or watching aren't that all massively concerned about the result once the game is over - they fall into the category of nice to win but no-ones going to lose any sleep over losing them. This is a structural issue and I don't think there's any way to overcome it - with the international rules there is no really sense of rivalry as the squads change so much from year to year on both sides. For the interprovincials, county and club are always and ever going to mean much much more for players.

feargale

I see the 2016 Interprovincials, semi-finals and finals, have been fixed for the weekend of 10/11th December. ( GAA Diary 2016. ) Two things give me an enormous pain in the erse:
1. Hurling in December.
2. Christmas carols in October.

Al Monds

The football could be played under International rules in preparation for Australia.
The hurling could be played as Shinty games in preparation for Scotland.
This might make them novel and curious attractions and draw better attendances.
They could be played in August which is relatively quiet and most players are no longer involved in the AI.

HanaleiJ5N

Was the 2015 series just cancelled completely? I don't recall hearing anything about rescheduling?

feargale

Al Monds wrote: »

The football could be played under International rules in preparation for Australia.
The hurling could be played as Shinty games in preparation for Scotland.
This might make them novel and curious attractions and draw better attendances.
They could be played in August which is relatively quiet and most players are no longer involved in the AI.

Like participants in an experiment or exhibits in a freak show? Thanks but no thanks.
I think they deserve the same treatment as any other competition.
I hear only journalists advocating abolition, not the players themselves.

dastardly00

HanaleiJ5N wrote: »

Was the 2015 series just cancelled completely? I don't recall hearing anything about rescheduling?

This is from Páraic Duffy's Annual Report that was published today:

"Maybe now is the time to accept the inevitable: our crowded playing calendar and a lack of interest among players and the public tell us that the competitions have no viable future. "The 2013 competitions [six games] attracted total gate receipts of €12,220, a figure that fell to €7,126 in 2014.
"Both competitions were scheduled for December 2015. Weather conditions led to their postponement. But, in any case, given the number of elite players who had already indicated their non-availability, the signs for a renewal of public interest were not good."

Boom__Boom

dastardly00 wrote: »

This is from Páraic Duffy's Annual Report that was published today:

€7,126 divided by 6 games works out at €1,187.67 a game.
Assuming a ticket price of only a €5 a head, that works out to an attendance of 238 for each game.

Combine that with this bit of his statement

But, in any case, given the number of elite players who had already indicated their non-availability, the signs for a renewal of public interest were not good."

means that it's time for it to be put to rest.

CrabRevolution

Think the ticket prices were a tenner when I went to the 2014 ones, with the student/OAP being €5. Either way that's less than 200 people per match.

feargale

Boom__Boom wrote: »

€7,126 divided by 6 games works out at €1,187.67 a game.
Assuming a ticket price of only a €5 a head, that works out to an attendance of 238 for each game.

Combine that with this bit of his statement
means that it's time for it to be put to rest.

Apply that logic ( re attendances and gate receipts ) to most other sports in Ireland, e.g. hockey, water polo, judo etc. and the conclusion would be to get rid of them in their entirety. The GAA used to be a great national movement, based mainly on voluntary effort. When did it evolve into a business? And as regards this stuff about players not supporting the interprovincials, when was the last time a player from Leitrim or Carlow turned up his nose at the interpros?

CrabRevolution

feargale wrote: »

Apply that logic ( re attendances and gate receipts ) to most other sports in Ireland, e.g. hockey, water polo, judo etc. and the conclusion would be to get rid of them in their entirety. The GAA used to be a great national movement, based mainly on voluntary effort. When did it evolve into a business? And as regards this stuff about players not supporting the interprovincials, when was the last time a player from Leitrim or Carlow turned up his nose at the interpros?

Nobody would ever suggest disbanding minority sports because of low attendances and gate receipts. That would just be wiping those sports from the country.

A big hockey game would interest all of Ireland's hockey fans, an interprovincial series interests about 600 people across 6 games. The interpros are well down the pecking order in terms of prestige or importance in the GAA. They're definitely the least important championship, between club or county, and the attendance numbers reflect that.

Boom__Boom

feargale wrote: »

Apply that logic ( re attendances and gate receipts ) to most other sports in Ireland, e.g. hockey, water polo, judo etc. and the conclusion would be to get rid of them in their entirety. The GAA used to be a great national movement, based mainly on voluntary effort. When did it evolve into a business? And as regards this stuff about players not supporting the interprovincials, when was the last time a player from Leitrim or Carlow turned up his nose at the interpros?

Expect no-one is suggesting getting rid of the sports of football and hurling entirely - just 3 glorified challenge games across 2 codes for county players who already are taken away from their clubs enough, for games which the vast vast majority of the GAA public isn't interested in going to see.