If a park and ride facility was setup at the airport for games I'm sure it would help hugely in getting fans from around the province in and out. A 5 euro charge for the bus would be reasonable. Start 2 hours before kick off. Not everyone can make the chartered busses from around the province so this could be an option.
Ideally I would love if all the sports (e.g. Rugby, Soccer & GAA) shared this ground and have a regular Friday or Saturday Night game... Something we could kind of expect a game there on a weekly basis... I think it would be great for the city and the teams involved..
Apark and ride system (which will be here eventually) will do the same thing...
A lot of Connacht fans are there for the night out and enjoy the apres match experience. This includes many away travellers as well...
The Connacht ground is close to the Train & Bus as well as the city bus routes... It is a great location for a ground rather than outside the city... I remember the odd game in Cortintians... There no experience compared to the game experience now... There is no per and post match atmosphere...
In fairness all the provincial rugby grounds share this type of atmosphere... Compare that venues that are in the middle of nowhere...
Fair enough. It will still be a considerable difference due to the draw as it will be around 3k treviso fans even assuming they all sell at €20 rather than the €10 it’s 30k for Connacht. Travel expenses probably takes a reasonable chunk out of that.
Connacht likely would have sold 6k tickets at €32 ish. Not to mention hospitality, local sponsors, enhanced chance reaching quarters, Newcastle away was clearly a very costly error.
Wouldn’t agree with that at all. I’d have no issue with it personally and do think they could do more outreach around the province generally speaking.
The venue is a huge advantage though I think, there’s thousands going to Connacht games who have limited enough interest in rugby (or at least did when they started attending) but enjoy an evening out and a five minute walk to town. I’d be very sceptical about attendances getting anywhere close to same level elsewhere.
There’s still room for growth at the sportsground too, need a proper stand for older people, better facilities generally, that combined with a reasonably competitive team should see considerable growth.
The problem for Connacht as regards extra people at games is the venue. It's very difficult to get parking. Between Galway traffic and difficulty finding parking you are talking about nearly an hour extra for people travelling from outside the City. They need to move out of the City and find a good spot close to the motorways. That'll make it easy for everyone to get to games and I think it'd attract a lot more people. Galway city traffic is awful and difficulty finding parking versus ease of access, parking and no traffic issues. If you were near Oranmore or even a bit further out I think it would attract a lot more people.
Athlone is only about 30 minutes away, Ballinasloe closer, then you've got Gort on the Limerick side and even Kinvara people have an easier way in. A lot of time taken off the journeys of people from Mayo, Sligo and Roscommon.
I know it'd cost a lot of money but there would be huge grants available and I think there'd be serious interest in raising funds for it in every Connacht county.
I've got friends living all over Connacht who are big Rugby fans and go to a couple of games every year but they all tell you they'd be there every week only for how long it takes them to get in.
Very quick Google search delivers this discussing how Munster got boosted money (65% instead of 50%) because they moved last years quarter final to a bigger venue.
I can't find a source about the challenge cup quickly but I'm pretty sure it's the same rules as the champions cup.
It would have been even more as knockouts aren’t included in season tickets so would probably have been 6-7k. That’s assuming I’m reading your comment right and you mean 2k over season tickets.
Do you have a link? I had heard it wasn’t but didn’t know personally. Can’t find it on google. Nonetheless with Treviso averaging around 3k at home at ticket prices of €10-€20 the difference will be substantial. Local sponsors were also pretty unhappy at the outcome as many gain from the games, hotels restaurants bars etc
Remember there's Revenue sharing in European knock outs.
I'd say that having less knockout games (if lack of home advantage means an early exit) will have more of an effect than the difference in attendance between a home and away knockout.
I've never seen anything to suggest that connacht rugby was anything but a tightly run ship. Not to say that they shouldn't look to make any available savings but don't think there is anyone riding the connacht gravy train.
The simple fact is our income is too small and that's not an easy problem to fix.
I've no problems with those areas. Connacht do the best they can with the match day experience in general and I have huge respect for the stewards who do a thankless job. On the flags a large number of them do tend to get thrown on the ground by end of the game and are unusable. Supplying them at multiple matches is a bit of a waste but that's a minor issue.
My issues would be with some of the hangers on for glamorous away trips and as a season ticket holder trudging up College Road for years parting with hard earned money the number of people getting waved into the ground for free driving in at the far gate leaves a bad taste. Some of these people are genuine but a large percentage are not. I do accept this is a blight on all sports and Connacht aren't alone in this regard.
Plus it's obvious that some of the jobs are to reward former players which doesn't necessarily help in getting the most qualified people for certain positions in the organisation.
I wasn’t suggesting Marmion should start ahead of Blade. I was saying he should be in the 23 ahead of Reilly.
They've already gone to digital tickets
The new stand will cover a lot of the other stuff. The main stand is an issue as in it doesn't generate money for the branch, it goes to the dogs. If it wasn't for Connacht rugby the dog track in Galway would be a loss making exercise.
Flags, programs, match day activities, all those things need to stay. Keep engaging young fans and have more than rugby be the reason to go up.
A lot of the on day stuff like stewards etc... Are all volunteers
I'd say Connacht are running as tight a ship as possible.
It's a difficult juggling act between on field performance and getting the right infrastructure in place but sometimes you have to dig deeper into the costs of running the organisation.
I'd be looking at the non playing side of things cost wise. Not to get rid of lots of people or anything but to look at all expenses incurred.
I think it's not too harsh to say that there's a lot of costs that could be looked at and there's a not insignificant amount of money that could be saved by tightening up a few things. I'm sure anyone who has been a supporter of Connacht over the years sees the inefficiencies in many aspects of the organisation.
I can understand why the branch would do that. I've been trudging up to the Sportsground to work on my mindless optimism for 15+ years. I'd far rather take a little short-term pain to get new facilities with minimal debt than risk spending the following decade servicing large interest payments.
You are only thinking about this from a now perspective, you have to consider the future.
If you continue to play Marmion then Blade goes into next season lacking confidence.
It's important to keep the future in mind. This has happened at multiple teams over the years and it's the right move.
Really can’t get over the level of transition happening at Connacht, and the amount of experienced players heading for the exits.
At the moment, it looks like they’re not exactly setting up Wilkins to be a success imo unless there is a good amount of recruitment coming (which I believe is unlikely).
Really? You should have said something on this before!
Carty and Hackshaw are not the answer. How many more years of Carty. It has been a disaster from start to end. If Jack is continued I will cry outright
If we didn't renew I'd reckon that wing is a very competitive position to be looking for a fallback contract in right now, especially if your game isn't built on kicking. The deals available out there right now probably weren't worth delaying his post rugby career plans for. Best of luck to him!
Surprised to read this, not so much that he was leaving but that he is retiring, google tells me he is only 28 aswell so a young man still but best of luck to him.
Wasn't expecting this .
The very best of luck to him.
Anyway, now Connacht needs only simple, fundamental and harder (than any other teams) training. Only practice makes their succsess. Almost guys of them are very young and starve to be strong player. Andy Friend looks a rationalist, and failed making strong team imo. He like athrete-type players like Butler or Oliver. Butler do not fit at 8, and Oliverhas been conceeded meaningless penalty at almost every game. In Dragons game,his conceeded penalty are two. At remaining games, penalty will be fatal.
I mean they weren’t willing to give him minutes. That suggests they had a mindset of sure we will be fifteen or twenty up and give Reilly twenty minutes. A mindset that frankly would go a long way towards explaining Connacht’s consistent struggles in similar games.
Connacht aren’t Leinster talent wise, every opponent needs to be treated with respect. Of course there’s a time to give younger players an opportunity but crucial European and league games aren’t that.
Edit - On “safer” games I certainly wouldn’t be picking an away game during an international period when Edinburgh seconds have put 40/50 plus on Connacht teams twice in the previous two seasons in this exact scenario. That’s in addition to losing games in Wales against second string teams during international periods.
There’s pre season fixtures, home European games, home league games against weaker teams, I even wouldn’t mind throwing a younger player in somewhere where you aren’t expected to get anything. But must win league games away where Connacht are favourites, a type Connacht have struggled badly in for years, have to go with the absolute strongest 23. It’s mind boggling and genuinely worrying that Connacht’s coaching staff were unable to reach that conclusion.
Reilly has looked very promising in his cameos this season but if they don't trust him to come on at the weekend when Blade was clearly struggling it doesn't bode well for him getting many minutes in the remaining games either.
On the other hand, if we know that Marmion is gone next year, then when do you get a 'safer' game to give Reilly some minutes than against the Dragons?
(that's now how it panned, of course)
Dragons were only missing Rio Dyer, their 3 other Six Nations squad players all started.
Compare that with Connacht missing Bealham, Carty, Aki, and Hansen. Connacht full-strength would probably have pulled away with 20 to go.
Connacht should have used more width and stretched them, hopefully it will be something the squad can learn from.
Willie Ruane or someone similar needs to speak with coaches and tell them Marmion has to be considered for selection for remaining games at least until they are meaningless. Freezing him out is a terrible way to treat one of the greatest players in Connacht history who is more or less leaving due to Connacht's decision. Can't be good to inspire loyalty either, certainly if I was a non native in the Connacht dressing room, I would be thinking if this is how they treat a guy with 200+ caps, league winner, 30 Irish caps, I better prioritise myself. Particularly with news leaking of this "locals first" policy whatever the hell that is.
More importantly, it's bad for the team, had Sam Davies slotted that drop goal late on Saturday, the decision to go without Marmion would have played a significant part in effectively ending Connacht's interest in the league. One would think this lesson had been learned with Newcastle away, had Connacht treated that game properly, they would have secured at least one home European knockout and likely more than one, income that would have more than covered Marmion's contract and others.
This is professional sport. Connacht need to be focused on getting the absolute max out of every season. Absolute shambolic management on multiple occasions this season.
Boyle butchered two tries too, though I do think our better capacity to take the gainline was and will be with him at n°8
it's easy to forget that we were extremely unlucky to miss out on two tries
The really frustrating thing about that performance, was that in attack in the first half. Connacht looked really good, they were making meters for fun through the center. Then Dragons lose one of their centres and instead of carrying on the way they were playing. They decided to go tight and keep it in close. I know Dragons also lost a second row but why change what was working. All Connacht had to do, was keep doing what they had been doing. Then they seemed to panic and there was a real lack of leadership. Blade playing so poorly and having a 12 at 10 doesn’t really help I’m sure.
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