Are there any potential expansion teams?

David McWilliams wrote: PanteirA wrote: J89 wrote: Cabra Hoop wrote: The only "possibly" viable new team would be a team on the north side of Cork City although it would mean diluting Cork City FCs current support base somewhat, it would create a good local rivalry. But for the foreseeable future I cannot see it being a runner. Where would they get money? Who'd support them? Any business that has money will be given it to Cork City and why would anyone whose supported a club all their life suddenly decide to follow a new club. There's no viable expansions in this country unless money is pumped into the league, can barely keep the clubs that are already there a float never mind bringing in more teams to a basket case of a league.  Spot on. Sometime in the future if prize money for a club entering the league outweighed the costs of participating in the LOI, then clubs who have ambition will apply to enter. Club facilities , support base , location , income and all that should be strictly managed by the FAI and it should be made clear whats expected of clubs who wish to enter.   Then hopefully a league which supports the 1st division will be proposed in which relegation and promotion to 1st division will apply. By this stage every Junior and Intermediate club will want to get on the ladder of progression to the LOI. All this wont happen under the current FAI and if the LOI was a more attractive place for clubs to join it would be over a long period of time before thing pan out like id imagine One of the reasons I'm against a proper pyramid structure is because it greatly reduces the size of the teams that can get promoted.  Suppose we go for a pyramid system and Killarney Celtic and Westport United get promoted. Killarney won't get support from the wider Kerry area. Someone from Tralee won't support Killarney Celtic. Similarly, someone in Castlebar or Ballina won't get behind a Westport team. Let's say Westport get 1% of population of Westport at their games. That's 60 people. Suppose Mayo FC can get 1% of the county to go that's 1,300.  Similar let's look at Killarney. Killarney has a population of 14,000, Kerry has a population of 140,000. So I think going for the wider team name opens up potential for much more support. I think Bray should explore the option of Renaming themselves Wicklow Wanderers. Are Crumlin, Tralee Dynamos or Tullamore Town going to add any more to the first division than Athlone, Cobh or Cabo? Or should we look at building county-wide entities that at least have the potential to be reasonably well supported? I think the latter. If Bohs we called Phibsboro or Pat's called Inchicore they'd both be in the LSL. At least here we can try get a few thousand through the gates

I know what you mean but there has being a few county team failures and id give a Killarney team ( especially if the 2 biggest Killarney teams united for a LOI team) a much better chance for long term sustainability. After all they have 70 odd years of rivalry between them as opposed to a newly formed Kerry senior team. A Killarney team would get support from outside Killarney and pull more supporters than a Tralee based Kerry team .

J89 wrote: PanteirA wrote: J89 wrote: Cabra Hoop wrote: The only "possibly" viable new team would be a team on the north side of Cork City although it would mean diluting Cork City FCs current support base somewhat, it would create a good local rivalry. But for the foreseeable future I cannot see it being a runner. Where would they get money? Who'd support them? Any business that has money will be given it to Cork City and why would anyone whose supported a club all their life suddenly decide to follow a new club. There's no viable expansions in this country unless money is pumped into the league, can barely keep the clubs that are already there a float never mind bringing in more teams to a basket case of a league.  Spot on. Sometime in the future if prize money for a club entering the league outweighed the costs of participating in the LOI, then clubs who have ambition will apply to enter. Club facilities , support base , location , income and all that should be strictly managed by the FAI and it should be made clear whats expected of clubs who wish to enter.   Then hopefully a league which supports the 1st division will be proposed in which relegation and promotion to 1st division will apply. By this stage every Junior and Intermediate club will want to get on the ladder of progression to the LOI. All this wont happen under the current FAI and if the LOI was a more attractive place for clubs to join it would be over a long period of time before thing pan out like id imagine They're looking into setting up a new company to run the league, could be a combination of the club's and FAI coming togethe under a new banner to run it but hopefully that leads to people coming in and getting proper tv money for clubs and increasing prize money but any increase in money given to the club's needs to closely watched in that its not all blown in players but used instead to upgrade facilites first and foremost. Unfortunately I think the first Divison will always be looked at as the redheaded step child that nobody wants, think they should look at regionalising it like in England once you drop out of the football league. The National League which is the top level of non league in England and below that you have National League North and South, think that's the best way to go especially with the cost of travel.

The cost of travel over the course of a season is a big issue so something more regionalized is preferred but id think it would have to lead into a division , be it 1st or 2nd that teams want to be in for financial rewards. It does all come down to money as an incentive if you want to expand LOI football , which is quiet damming if you look at the state of some of the clubs there. If you are a stable and successful junior / intermediate club there is little appetite to be in the graveyard of the current system

PanteirA wrote: J89 wrote: Cabra Hoop wrote: The only "possibly" viable new team would be a team on the north side of Cork City although it would mean diluting Cork City FCs current support base somewhat, it would create a good local rivalry. But for the foreseeable future I cannot see it being a runner. Where would they get money? Who'd support them? Any business that has money will be given it to Cork City and why would anyone whose supported a club all their life suddenly decide to follow a new club. There's no viable expansions in this country unless money is pumped into the league, can barely keep the clubs that are already there a float never mind bringing in more teams to a basket case of a league.  Spot on. Sometime in the future if prize money for a club entering the league outweighed the costs of participating in the LOI, then clubs who have ambition will apply to enter. Club facilities , support base , location , income and all that should be strictly managed by the FAI and it should be made clear whats expected of clubs who wish to enter.   Then hopefully a league which supports the 1st division will be proposed in which relegation and promotion to 1st division will apply. By this stage every Junior and Intermediate club will want to get on the ladder of progression to the LOI. All this wont happen under the current FAI and if the LOI was a more attractive place for clubs to join it would be over a long period of time before thing pan out like id imagine

J89 wrote: Cabra Hoop wrote: The only "possibly" viable new team would be a team on the north side of Cork City although it would mean diluting Cork City FCs current support base somewhat, it would create a good local rivalry. But for the foreseeable future I cannot see it being a runner. Where would they get money? Who'd support them? Any business that has money will be given it to Cork City and why would anyone whose supported a club all their life suddenly decide to follow a new club. There's no viable expansions in this country unless money is pumped into the league, can barely keep the clubs that are already there a float never mind bringing in more teams to a basket case of a league.

Spot on. Sometime in the future if prize money for a club entering the league outweighed the costs of participating in the LOI, then clubs who have ambition will apply to enter. Club facilities , support base , location , income and all that should be strictly managed by the FAI and it should be made clear whats expected of clubs who wish to enter. Then hopefully a league which supports the 1st division will be proposed in which relegation and promotion to 1st division will apply. By this stage every Junior and Intermediate club will want to get on the ladder of progression to the LOI. All this wont happen under the current FAI and if the LOI was a more attractive place for clubs to join it would be over a long period of time before thing pan out like id imagine

Twoinarow wrote: adineen98 wrote: Twoinarow wrote: AnCearrbhach wrote: gufct wrote: Cork cant sustain 2 teams absolute madness . Cork City account for almost 1 in every 5 LOI fans across both divisions. I don't want to see a third team in Cork but it's certainly not madness given some of the other locations being mentioned.  Hopefully any potential start-ups agree with you though.  Cork cant even keep 1 club alive without going bust every so often never mind 2 teams! I know yeah, sure City have only been existence for the last 34 years... More clubs than Tiger Woods down there ffs

Twoinarow wrote: AnCearrbhach wrote: gufct wrote: Cork cant sustain 2 teams absolute madness . Cork City account for almost 1 in every 5 LOI fans across both divisions. I don't want to see a third team in Cork but it's certainly not madness given some of the other locations being mentioned.  Hopefully any potential start-ups agree with you though.  Cork cant even keep 1 club alive without going bust every so often never mind 2 teams!

gufct wrote: Cork cant sustain 2 teams absolute madness .

Edited by Cabra Hoop - 05 Jul 2018 at 12:11pm

Cork cant sustain 2 teams absolute madness .

What about Killarney Celtic ?? I hear they are a bit of a big deal !!