Why is Lansdowne Road so dead?

Biffa Bacon

People talk about Old Trafford having no atmosphere but Lansdowne Road is worse. Why is it that 40,000 people can be drowned out by Mick McCarthy shouting from the dugout? It's pathetic. You can practically hear individual conversations going on in the crowd. And the only time these slack-jawed troglodytes could work themselves up was to boo someone who played for Rangers.

frankly

I was there last night as I have been to almost every home international in the last 30 years (yes I am that old) and I can remember the "Dalymount Roar".
Real fans cannot get tickets and Lansdowne Road is always, always full of suits. By "suits" is generally the ones who never have to pay for a ticket. How many free tickets where given out by the likes of Eircom, Esat, FAI, Smurfit, Cadburys etc, etc and other large companies?
So to answer your question, Many real fans cannot tickets but then again "Friendlies" do tend to generate a poor athmosphere.
End of Rant.

suppafly

this kind of thing is becoming increasinly common that you won't get a ticket unless you know someone or somehting like that. its the same in rugby. all the companies get most of the tickets!

Neil3030

Go to an Ireland Rugby game in Lansdowne. You will find true support there. The buzz around the stands anytime woody, drico or hickey gets the ball is fantastic. The reason for that is the fact that people are there to support Ireland out of choice and also the presence of away fans.

I'd say a good lot of the crowd last night were competition winners and people with nothing better to do of a Wednesday evening. Don't get me wrong, I amn't saying everyone there flipped a coin and decided either to go to the match or watch Who Wants to be a Millionaire. After all it was only a friendly (which is an ironic term when considering the reaction Madsen got). The atmosphere is always much better at an important game eg qualifiers etc.

The reason for this is largly due to the lack of away support. At an Ireland match in the 6 nations you can rest assured that at least 20% of the crowd (with the exception maybe of the Italy game) would be away supporters who always make their voices heard and as a result of this the home fans raise their noise levels aswell.

Remeber the atmosphere for the Holland game? Largely due to the away support and the fact that the result meant something. That 1-0 will go down in the Irish football supporter's memory but i doubt last night's result will.

But another dissapointing factor is the shammers who heve very little interest in the match itself but head along anyway in their Celtic jerseys (which is also a contradiction seeing as they are a Brittish club) and then use their attendance to hurl racist abuse at "that proddy c*nt" who plays for Rangers. They then can brag to their mates about how they were there at the match and how they caused trouble. It's a shame.

It is really dissapointing for the Irish soccer fan in how the sport is heading down the pan. I amn't old enough to have experienced the Dailymount atmosphere for an international but I was there once for a Shels - Pats cup final once and it was electric. It's hard to see a solution. Maybe stadium Ireland might acheive summat.

TwoShedsJackson

You can hear Mick McCarthy because A) he can shout very loudly, and there's always an RTE microphone in the ground in front of him

ReefBreak

The most ironic thing about most of the Celtic-shirt-wearing, abuse-shouting, skangers is that watching the Rep. of Ireland is the only time they ever bother to support an Irish team.

Neil3030

lol true! AND it's an english sport!

Bottle_of_Smoke

Through not going to soccer matches no one knows how to sing for the internationals

dobdobdo

I too remember the Dalymount Roar, twas there when Don Givens got a hat-trick against Russia and many others.

I think Lansdowne is dead because genuine football fans dont/cant/wont go.
I've "blocked booked" my tickets for every home international for maybe the last 15 years, certainly since you could block book. Go with the old man and some of his buds and some of mine, theres nine of us and for last nights game in the crappy East Upper Stand we paid 30EURO EACH. 270EURO!!!

Sitting beside me at this game and every game (was over in the West Stand for the qualifiers) are "Freebees". Some have an intrest but alot dont and it's these ones that lack vocal support, there's no banter cos they have'nt got the passion and this leads to Lansdowne being dead.

Originally by Neil3030
Remeber the atmosphere for the Holland game? Largely due to the away support and the fact that the result meant something. That 1-0 will go down in the Irish football supporter's memory but i doubt last night's result will.

Easily the best at Lansdowne, it had everything the Result, the way we played, Dutch manager loosing the run of himself by taking Overmars off and yes the athmosphere, ELECTRIC which the Dutch support played the major factor.

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

-oRnein9-

Lansdowne road is so dead because it is an ancient rugby stadium.

apiou

The Landsdown problem is an international one - I have been trying to get tickets for the Ireland / France match here in Paris but the only tickets available are the ones that the suits do not want. If we are lucky we will find out from friends who has tickets available in their offices that """clients""" do not want and that selected employees (can not tell them all) do not want either. and the others will be seen by the empty places on the stands - I am still hopefull for some friends coming over for the weekend - Pain in the neck - :mad: