The "atmosphere" in the Aviva Stadium

Bobson Dugnutt

I was at one of the warmup games last year. There was this guy behind us chatting insistently to a fairly disinterested looking chap. He was even talking about his favourite horror movies. Eventually a very irate man in a Connaught jacket beside us turned around and told your man to “shut the fück up”.

EmmetSpiceland

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121909300#Comment_121909300

If you go to an England or France home 6 Nations game you hardly see any kids. Same goes for a big team visiting outside the 6N. Go to a Scotland or Italy one, particularly on Sunday, and there’s loads. Wales will go the same way if they continue to dip.

If I were an Ulster fan I’d be querying their ticket allocations because for all of the games against teams like that I’m surrounded by Ulster fans but when it’s against a “big name” team they’re either replaced by away fans or ones not from Ulster.

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121903350#Comment_121903350

20e for the hurling and no one going in or out every few minutes to get pissed. 12e for League of Ireland and same score.

Don't write off all sports.

The 6 Nations and some other big pro rugby matches have stopped becoming sport and have started becoming "and event" much like the way the English go loopy for Pimm's and strawberries every summer for a sport they don't give a fuk about for 11 months of the year.

downtheroad

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121909309#Comment_121909309

Every game is full of muppets like this.

I went to Ireland Scotland in Paris during the RWC. A family 2 rows in front of me spent most of the game taking selfies, with their backs to the field.

4 lads in the row behind me were like a parody of Ross O Carroll Kelly, and one asked "when the fock will Conor Murray come on" with 5 minutes to go in the game. He was shocked when I turned around to tell him that Murray came on for Lowe at half time, and Gibson-Park had spent the entire half playing on the wing.

Going to the rugby is a day out now for many. Bizarre how they manage to get the tickets.

csirl

Aviva ticketing strategies are all about the corporates and the secondary ticket market. These are far too lucrative to allow for those who volunteer or play at their local soccer/rugby club to have much chance of getting a ticket.

pixelburp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121909040#Comment_121909040

I think it's a pavlovian thing, oh drink drink I'll have a drink; coupled with a pretty mundane failing to plan. You see same at, say, the Zoo. We pack sandwiches and drinks for everyone, and there's lots of sitting space ... yet you'll see the queues snake around and out from the various restaurants and food booths.

The Nal

A lot of people just want to get involved in the whole D4 rugby thing. Few drinks in a pub on Haddington Rd before the game, take a few selfies.

We've been an abysmal watch this 6 Nations though and the football is a national embarrassment.

Bobson Dugnutt

You can order 4 at a time. So have 4 pints before the game, 4 during it, and 4 somewhere afterwards. Going in and out during the match is rude.

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121909504#Comment_121909504

If most people have 4 before and 4 during then thats about 10 trips to the toilet during 🤣

pgj2015

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121909500#Comment_121909500

The worst ones are the Culchies who try to act D4 going to watch the Irish rugby team, far from chinos, posh D4 accents and brunch they were reared, posers, and im saying that as a Culchie myself.

Buddy Bubs

Rugby clubs selling their allocations to sponsors doesn't help a huge amount. I get why they do it is to pay the bills and keep the gates open and showers hot, my own club does it but doesn't really admit it.

EmmetSpiceland

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121909500#Comment_121909500

To be fair, that’s more of a Leinster “thing” than an international one.

Hyperbollix

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121904578#Comment_121904578

This.

Have a relative who married into a rugby family. She wouldn't know the difference between a sliotar and a basketball and never paid the slightest attention to rugby before she met the husband, but now practically a season ticket holder at the Aviva. Would never miss an opportunity like that for Insta content.

This is a big part of why so many big events now are overpriced and demand is crazy. People who aren't fans, just going to boost the socials.

breezy1985

Funny that the OP and practically everyone here criticising bandwagoners is talking about "The Aviva".

Its still Lansdowne to "real fans" round my way.

Buddy Bubs

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121910758#Comment_121910758

I'm a member of a club and I haven't heard it called Lansdowne much at all in years. I do like it being called Lansdowne but it's dying away for sure

RockOrBog

It's in a bit of a swamp, in between the Dodder and the canal. Maybe that's the problem...

When they demolished it a few years back they should have left it that way and built a bigger stadium somewhere else. They wouldn't have had to pay all the posh residents the lump sums then.

The Nal

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121909631#Comment_121909631

Absolutely. Doesn't happen in Thomand.

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121911750#Comment_121911750

It's Thomond Park and it most certainly does happen. Plenty there for the pss up too.

Declan05

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121909612#Comment_121909612

Maybe they were just tired of talking about the prices of store cattle and Nathan Carter's latest single and just wanted to cosplay the R.O'C.K rugby stereotype but had a good laugh afterwards over a pint of stout and a plate of salted pig's arse and cabbage.

pgj2015

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121912204#Comment_121912204

Nothing worse than a Culchie who tries to act posh. they are always the biggest snobs as well. up to their eyeballs in debt but think its worth it so they can show off the 2024 BMW to all the Culchies back home.

ToweringPerformance

I'm old enough to remember going to football games in the 70's at Lansdowne Road. Yeah it was an awful kip even back then but the atmosphere especially when Jack took over was electric. I've been to a few games at the Aviva but everything just seems contrived and forced and the crowd seems to spend more time on their phones than enjoying the game and supporting the team. Probably doesn't help that we are absolutely gash now compared to other international teams. Can't speak for rugby zero interest in it.

TagoMago

Lots of the former players are involved in management consultancy/business relationship management/other corporate jargon firms, and I'd imagine these places are awash with 6 Nations tickets, turning it into a big corporate piss up. Great for the coffers and managers in at Teneo and the likes, not so great for your average club member, province season ticket holder, et al.

As Jamie Heaslip said himself; "Ireland's rugby journey isn't just about sport".

MangleBadger

I think it is mostly the average age. It is very old. I've no issue with pints back to the seats. You could do that at World Cup in France and everybody commented about how good the atmosphere was. And those stadiums sold out. It is not the pints thats the problem. Drink usually helps the atmosphere. It is the OAPs who don't want to shout.

I'm well capable of shouting and drinking a pint.

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121912436#Comment_121912436

The problem usually quoted when it comes to the drink is spending the whole game having to get up for people passing in and out to the bar. Not that you can't cheer and have a pint.

I'm sure the IRFU solution will be more flamethrowers and louder music after every score and maybe add some for every lineout and scrum won too.

pgj2015

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121912436#Comment_121912436

I doubt its just OAPs who don't shout, I would never shout at a game, I just watch it.

artanevilla

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121909352#Comment_121909352

What LOI club is 12 beans for a ticket?

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121916153#Comment_121916153

Treaty United.

Ted222

Drink has always been a factor in rugby. In fact, the day was planned around it. Pubs like Scruffy Murphys were packed from early in the day. Jury’s hotel was packed with punters queuing to piss in the wash basins. Banter!!

The only difference now is drinking in the stadium itself.

Fr Tod Umptious

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121912245#Comment_121912245

the atmosphere especially when Jack took over was electric

I never had a opportunity to go then but the atmosphere looked electric.

I did however go to a lot of soccer games in the old Lansdowne between 2002 and 2006.

And to be honest it was fairly dead, I can't remember a single memorable atmosphere there.

I recall in about 2003 Fran Rooney was appointed CEO or something of the FAI.

On the back of Glasgow Celtics success in getting to a Uefa Cup Final that year and the energy of Celtic Park, Rooney tried to recreate it in Lansdowne by handing out coloured sheets that were to be held up at a certain time to make a great big Irish flag in the east stand.

None of us in the west stand got them because we would not have been visible for the TV cameras.

On the other side of these coloured sheets were the lyrics to chants that people could sing like.

"Ireland 'till I die"

"You'll never beat the Irish"

"Come on you boys in green "

Needless to say neither the sheets nor Rooney lasted that long.

So the moral of the story is, regardless of the name of the place or the price of a ticket, the atmosphere has always been pretty poor for soccer anyway, with the exception of the Charlton era

RoyalCelt

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121903350#Comment_121903350

Exactly this. Most tickets don't go to rugby club members around the country and they're ridiculously expensive too.