Attendance Figures 2017

had a look over on foot.ie of old attendances, and your average in the FD was in and around the same as our average in the FD.

Firstly, I am not so sure that the standard is getting better, Dundalk did exceptionally well in Europe but they were one team with some exceptional players, by the league's standards. Cork City have been reasonably strong too and made a rivalry with Dundalk but after that the gap was quite large. For the most part the standard has probably dipped, I think the period that followed the introduction of summer was probably the peak in terms of overall standard.

As for the reasons behind low attendances, there are so many that it is hard to pinpoint which are the most relevant.

I will get the FAI out of the way first, I don't like laying the blame for everything on their door but I think some clubs do and see them as a get out clause for their own failings. The FAI themselves  don't do enough to change the perception of the league, in fact they often make a mockery of it; see Gabay, Jonathan. 

I do think reducing the CEO of the associations salary and tacking it on to the league's prize money could only improve the perception.

While we are on the subject of the FAI it is worth mentioning that the league seems to lack a coherent marketing strategy for the game in the country. While clubs have to do more themselves, I will come back to that, again I feel the need to mention Mr Gabay, there doesn't seem to be any united focus on improving how the game is viewed. I do understand their difficulties when competing with Rugby and GAA, sports that have all their national heroes playing domestically but more must be done. It certainly isn't an easy task but it must be undertaken and , at the moment, it isn't.

Television is another issue. Most games that are shown on RTE feel as if it is a chore to broadcast them, not to mention the amateurish production of the highlights show shown at unsuitable times. I think the FAI should be using the national team games as a leverage when dealing with the state broadcaster and insist that these things be put right. Eir sports is an amateur outfit so I won't even bother there!

Other personal bugbears with the Irish medi, that are sure to have an affect on the public mindset, are things like news reports listing English and Scottish fixtures before Irish games, the need to over analyse every time some lads in Phibsborough or Tallaght decide to throw some shapes and the difficulty finding a match report in the broadsheets.  

I would also love to see the League covered by a newspaper in the same manner as the Daily Record covers the Scottish game, unfortunately it will never happen.

I think one of the biggest issues, certainly the most difficult to change, is cultural. I don't want to go down the lazy route by saying Ireland is a nation of 'event junkies' but there just isn't the culture of following a team, in any sport, week-in and week-out. It stems from the historical importance of the GAA, of a trip to Anfield/Old Trafford/Ashburton Grove once or twice a year. It is why the Heineken/H/'European' cup took off in rugby. If Cork and Dundalk are battling it out at the top of the table there will be another full house at Turners Cross, no matter what the result the crowd will drop by nearly half for the next home game. Compare that to teams from towns and areas of similar population in England and Scotland where they hold a regular attendance that isn't reliant on success.

For example Leyton Orient, who are in the middle of an awful run on and off the pitch, had a slightly higher  attendance at their last home game than they averaged when chasing the playoff places a division above.

I am still not sure if Friday nights are the best time for matches, although I do understand that this is very much a personal opinion. One reason I feel this is the lack of opportunity for away fans to travel. Larger away followings to places, particularly outside Dublin, would leave everybody in the town know there is a game on and creates free awareness. I am living in a town in England with a population of around 100k, on Saturday there was 1500 away fans about from early in the morning, the whole town knew there was a game without any need for extra promotion. When you follow your team away in the league of Ireland the locals often think you are mad! That is back to the cultural issue above though.

I do think Saturday evenings at 7.30/8.00 are more suited to football. It seems to work relatively well for Sligo Rovers.

Finally I come to the clubs themselves. For too long players wages were put above facilities which has been the ultimate case of putting the cart before the horse. Everything from bad toilets and rubbish food can be thrown at nearly every club over the past decade, taking the regular fan for granted and putting off the casual fan from becoming one. I am not sure how big the impact of this has been but some of the issues were quite easy to put right. The fact that Bohs were sneered at for trying to improve the food and drink options available does show the attitude within the league to this sort of thing! I enjoy crumbling grounds and the smell of boiled burgers and piss but it isn't going to be everybody's cup of tea!

The clubs too have had marketing men and PR men employed for years and it hasn't borne out in attendance or in the public imagination, perhaps someone who works for a club can explain why this is, is there too many barriers? Are their hands tied? Do clubs get the right people in for these roles?

Where I would be most critical is how trite and repetitive a lot of  the PR is from clubs, there seems to be a lack of novel ideas and an acceptance that it is easier to blame the FAI.

No harm at all  Few very good points in yours I hadn't thought of

I know Rovers now have Graham Gartland working in a community role so I'd be hoping that working in schools will help to drive the next generation of fans.

For me, although I would class myself anything but a die-hard, the reason I started following Rovers as a kid was partly because they were successful and on TV a lot I suppose, but more so down to the fact that they used to come to my home town during the annual festival to play a 7-a-side exhibition on the beach so I had some sort of connection. 

Online figures say capacity is 2500? Is that just an estimate?