What you and your mates got up to after a match is not relevant as the discussion was about why rugby gets higher attendances than association football.
You said that the general drinking culture surrounding rugby helps in attracting these attendances.
The point is that in terms of the people who attend association football matches, there is just as much of a drinking culture involved.
Yet it doesnāt attract the same attendances in this country as rugby does.
Thatās your point, not the point. Itās not mine. I donāt agree with it.
Very few people go to a LOI game for the drinking involved. Rugby is different - a provincial game, a club game or a national team game is all about the drinking for a huge number of attendees.
Most of the boys on here are in their 30s and only knew of the FAI soccer team being well supported when they were younger. They didnāt realise that it was only because they were decent at the time and the plastics would piss off elsewhere eventually. Their souls were destroyed by years of watching Steve Stauntonās āmanagementā and Trapattoniās vile football, with the plastic seats built on top of the rugby ground growing gradually more empty.
They were left seething. Why can this be?
Rugby was that quiet sport in the 90s that people only cared about for a couple of weeks a year and who lost nearly all the time. When the Irish rugby team won a few times in the 00s they might even have enjoyed it, sure who doesnāt like beating the English?
But more than a few plucky results, Rugby football turned itself around, building from their grassroots a commercial animal that the FAI could only dream about. The FAIās years of incompetence finally came home to roost in the mid 00s as the well of foreign born players in England dried up. Sure the FAI got lucky a couple of more times, that crook Bertie forced Irish rugby to sign over a share of Lansdowne Road for a few years and rugby man Denis OāBrien gave them a few quid, but the cracks were there. The national team got worse and the plastics looked elsewhere - to rugby.
Grassroots sport is not a bunch of 30 somethings sitting around watching English football on a Saturday. Itās not even a bunch of pot bellied men running around playing astro. And thatās the weakness of Association football in this country. They have no grassroots animal. They have no commercial animal. The kids of today donāt want to be Irish footballers, sure they might still want to be Messi or Ronaldo but not FAI players. GAA players and rugby players are now the heroes.
And what the fuck is wrong about that?
Anybody want to buy a thousand inflatable green shamrocks off me?
People no more attend club rugby matches for the drinking than they do League of Ireland matches for the drinking.
On the rare occasions that the Eire association football team attracts comparable attendances to those that the Ireland rugby team routinely pulls in, there is every bit as much of a drinking culture. The Eire-Scotland game back in June, for instance, had as much drunkenness surrounding the occasion as any rugby match Iāve been to.
Iād also wager that Eireās away support has a bigger drinking culture amongst its ranks than the equivalent away support for the rugby team.
Going to association football games used to be about drinking until they got too pissed up to be allowed to. Nowadays itās just pretending to be in a Tribe and acting like Feral children.
None of these lads have any interest in the actual game, so much so that they turn their backs on it. Atmosphere
Incorrect again. Iām not sure youāve been to as many club rugby matches as I have. Itās all about the drinking.
[quote=āSidney, post:4568, topic:12546ā]On the rare occasions that the Eire association football team attracts comparable attendances to those that the Ireland rugby team routinely pulls in, there is every bit as much of a drinking culture. The Eire-Scotland game back in June, for instance, had as much drunkenness surrounding the occasion as any rugby match Iāve been to.
Iād also wager that Eireās away support has a bigger drinking culture amongst its ranks than the equivalent away support for the rugby team.[/quote]
Youāre not reading anything Iāve written.
When the soccer team gets the big attendances, like in Poland, then itās very like a rugby crowd - plenty of booze, lads on trips, songs for joe.ie all that sort of shite.
But the international soccer team usually gets a lower attendance than the international rugby team. A factor in this is that the rugby team attracts a big drinking crowd more often. Rugby clubs on tour - all playing hilarious drinking games and getting pissed for the weekend. Iām not interested in debating how worthwhile that is an activity - Iām just pointing out that rugby attracts bigger crowds for internationals because of the social aspects.
Lads we know we win the drinking competition hands down. The question is why are we so shite at these two international sports. Not just poor but play the most awful boring conservative shite completely at odds with our free for all, cavalier approach when it comes to other aspects of life.
Good post pal. One point, how can you think letting the fai into lansdowne for just a few years while they overpay for the privilege is a bad thing, I thought that was a master stroke by the irfu happily acceded to by Delaney who could sell it as a win and be long gone by the time the irfu boot them back to dalyer.
I think a factor is that most of the soccer crowd is Dublin based, and can head back to their locals for a few after and be there in no time, Iād say at least half the rugby crowd comes from down the country or norn iron, much more potential seeing as they have to make the trip up anyway to then go n the lash. I only know one group of lads from Galway who go to every soccer international and they stay up with lads in Dublin and drink themselves senseless before and after every game. I think youāre overstating the stag element etc, for one thing the rugby games are crazily priced and not always easy to get tickets too, not conducive to a harmless mid stag activity.
In a business and commercial sense youāre right and that is where the priorities should.
From the heartās perspective though, I liked the old Lansdowne Road. The oldest Test football ground in the world and something built by rugby members for rugby members. Secondly, having to be business partners with the incompetents that are the Football Association of Ireland.
Rugby has always sold more tickets to its members i.e. schools and clubs. That is where the majority of rugby tickets always went, it changed with the new stadium a bit but is still there.
If it was all about the drinking then the crowds at club rugby wouldnāt have fallen away so dramatically. They fell away when the standard of club rugby dropped. If it was all about the drinking culture they would have stayed.
I know lots of lads involved with Galway United, hardcore supporters, and thereās a pretty big drinking culture involved.
The popularity of association football in this country is hugely based on a drinking culture. The Premier League fills pubs all around the country every weekend with supporters. The pub trade in this country would be on its knees, if it isnāt already, if the Premier League didnāt exist. Irish people go on booze ups or stag dos to Premier League or Celtic matches all the time. The popularity of the Premier League, which association football fans are only too happy to fall back on in their tiresome arguments about which sport is the most popular in this country, is hugely intertwined with a drinking culture. Itās then hypocritical to disassociate association football in Ireland from the popularity of that league and its associated culture when reality doesnāt suit. The reason people donāt go on stag dos to League of ireland matches is because both the football and the event are third rate. Same reason as you donāt get organised stag dos to club rugby matches.
If you want to just say that rugby attracts people because of the social class aspirational factor, then fair enough, but there isnāt a noticeable difference in the drinking culture. The drinking culture is something that cuts across all classes in this country to a more or less equal degree. Rugby has it, association football has it, GAA has it, all to a more or less equal degree.
Shut up! Didnāt Canning pass to Maloney for the point that beat Tipp. And I can thin of at least 2 or 3 other passes in that game. WUM!
Well said pal. These young ones will soon start popping kids out and letās see them make it out for Autumn friendlies and World Cup games then.
Plus if you were heading off to a soccer game in Europe in your 20s, your bird would have zero interest in going. Now, if it was a rugby gameā¦
Rugby bandwagoneering appeals to women more than soccerās equivalent.
Once again, ANYONE who is born in the 32 is entitled to play for Ireland, ANYONE.
Why do you keep you ignoring this fact?
Itās not, the majority of players in the Premiership and are only there for the money and couldnāt give a shit - theyāre dialling it in. The Premiership has been a failure and lags well behind the Bundesliga, Serie A and La Liga at this present point in time despite all its wealth.
Ireland has not always supported its soccer team and it was very much the 88 qualification that changed things.