FAI to unveil €863m wish-list to transform footb

Eh yes hence me saying other teams are in the region of 2-4 thousand. Whats your crowd for UCD, Drogs, Cork etc etc?? Apart from the big Dublin derbies ye would not have too much bother. Did you even read my overall point.

Pats have averaged 4350 with a max of 5000

Bohs have averaged 4250 with a max of 4400

There’s 3 teams clearly held back by their grounds. People questioned Rovers building on when averaging 2k or 3.5k but look at them now. 

And all 4 teams mentioned are doing excellent work in their communities to grow their numbers, obviously people laugh at Bohs ideas & thinking outside the box but it clearly works, the ticket sales and more-so kit sales clearly show the appetite  

Then look at the way the sports treated and spoken about, probably about 4th behind GAA codes and Rugby. There is a pitfall here, and thats to compare. No sports can or should be compared and its and easy debate to get dragged in to which will have no conclusion. Also I think the FAI got it wrong with their recent report. Dont get the Racing community offside, they are intertwined in irish community life up and down the country and to be seen to have a go is to make football look bitter. They should have just stuck to the Positives football contributes and ask for cut of gambling tax. To me the PR backfired. There was also a blatant hypocracy in their approach. They both undermined the ethics and gambling and asked for the cut of it.

Theres a good interview with angus o rioridan on LOI weekly recently. Really paints a picture of Football in the country. Just to take one point, Its far easier for a local politician to back the GAA club than the local Football table, based simply on catchment size. Theres more football clubs within the same catchment size as 1 GAA club. 

I dont propose a solution. I do think Football has to fend for itself unfortunately as the country is sewn up otherwise. Its a shame it hasnt considering the level of interest in the support. And without a doubt the FAI have been brutal costodians of the game previously which have done more damage than any rival organisation could have ever done to the sport.

Officially launched this morning. 

55% of clubs in Ireland do not own their ground. That sounds ridiculously high and I wonder what that would look like benchmarked against other EU nations of similar size.

Also, of the top 40 largest stadia in Ireland by capacity, only 3 host football. Crazy stat for a country that lists Football as its No.1 participation sport.

Well the FAI could look to purchase a number of them and then enter in to a single contract with one provider to refurb/expand those that are suitable. They can then lease them back to the clubs at very low rates. Would you trust the FAI to properly spend/allocate significant funding equitably across the country though? I wouldnt.