Munster Team Talk Thread - Beirne After Reading

I mean a split model in terms of something close to 50% of the big games in Cork. Having Zebre and the Scarlets once a year over isn’t really a split model.

It's a split model relevant to the capacity and facilites we have in each location. That's the reality, unfortunately.

I do like the idea of one-off games in PuC, tho. Adding games to an already squeezed calendar is going to be tough, but I wonder if the AI's the year before a RWC will see an increase in teams looking to schedule mid-week games, like SA have done here (and Ireland did during the Summer).

We all know its only a matter of time before munster rugby moves to westh cork.

Dismissive is just writing something off with no argument or taking one conclusion out of context and choosing to rubbish that with no discussion of anything else:

Predicting 10+ years out is tough going. In my opinion the shift of the players in the squad towards Cork and the difference in demographics and economics between Cork and Limerick will start to force the hand of Munster over the medium term and into the long term. Which will probably look like 4 to 5 games in Musgrave and 2 to 3 games in PUC every year. A stadium name rights deal which locks out PUC, would in my opinion be a major error, particularly if it stops Munster trying ideas like a Saturday night PUC game against Ulster in the run up to Christmas, or knockout URC games.

this might be the most sensible post ive seen on here in a while

well when i was involved with ucc i know there was very bad feeling about everything moving to limerick so i dunno about that. the mardyke being in the city centre would limit the amount of space for expansion and the plan has been to sell the farm for years so i think it was more that they werent in the position rather than that they didnt want to know. cant speak of CIT though

a late kick off in limerick would be similarly unsuitable for any travelling fans too?

at least give your argument as to why it doesnt make sense

Looking at the populations of just counties Limerick and Cork is too simplistic too.

Even more broadly, population isn't everything, if you look at Leinster's comparative attendances for example.

To be fair on the Charleville thing I think that's a disingenuous argument. For 95% of people in Cork, Cork City will be the closest major urban centre. Charleville and the few tiny villages around it are the exception.

However you are right that there is a significant portion of the population of Cork that is quite far from the city. The OECD look at functional Urban Areas and based on their assessment 75% of the population of Cork (408k out of 543k at the time) was within a commutable distance of the city or as they more eloquently define it : FUA consists of a densely inhabited city and of a surrounding area (commuting zone) whose labour market is highly integrated with the city (OECD 2012)https://www.oecd.org/cfe/regionaldevelopment/Ireland.pdf So yes I do think you can shave off a fairly a signifiant portion of the total crude population from the Cork numbers, however I don't really think that makes a difference to the growth statistics, in fact narrowing down the population to within the commutable distance of the city would probably actually exacerbate the difference. Unfortunately the CAO don't update based on FUA and both the city council areas of Cork and Limerick have changed in the last decade so using the total county numbers is the easiest. I think the point holds and the demographics are moving towards Cork in Munster.

yes that obviously must be the case when theyre looking at bringing this game to PuC and they have talked about bringing euro knockout games there previously.......

when there are only 2/3 urc games and maybe a pre-season game in cork, even one more game counts as 'many' tbh

and i'd definitely consider one more game over a few seasons to be 'many'

The kick off in limerick is the same for a venue thats half the size and half the problem of reaching a full house.

if they want to maximize ticket sales the kick off time needs careful consideration

compared to 10+ games a season then it wouldnt be, but compared to 3/4 then it is tbh

Ah ya, Limerick native here, but if I was in your shoes, I'd be loving the idea of 1 additional game, particularly if it was to be a big knock-out game.

I'd say that that financial intangibles are more likely to be considered than rugby related intangibles.

Having a showpiece for sponsors in Cork could be very valuable. If Munster draw 40,000 to PUC its a valuable statement to potential sponsors and existing sponsors about the support available to Munster Rugby.

i think the toulouse game worked so well due to fantastic efforts by the mrsc to mitigate the cock up of booking ed sheeran. i wouldnt expect the same pricing/ travel options etc to always be available for aviva based games

A game that rarely if ever attracted 20k to Thomond is not going to get anywhere near PuCs capacity. Especially if it was a regular occurance - when cork hasnt had a big game in years how can you know that? the novelty factor alone would bring it close. and contrary to popular belief, there is actually a somewhat decent rugby following in cork