they show what they can get cheaply I think. Women’s rugby must be cheap as chips to show.
I am seething no worlds athletics coverage this summer. A national broadcaster should show that.
The European indoors yesterday was great TV. Jerry Kiernan needs his own chat show.
It was a gentle intrusion, mate … I was’n’t involved in the original argument, I think. We all know LOI has a problem - There was FA Cup, CL and Europa cup football on Mon to Thursday last week and then the premiership every other day/weekend. It’s up against a much higher product and football is over saturated on our screens anyway. Rugby doesn’t have such complaints and i’d imagine the average fans lap up what they can get… I’d nearly argue UEFA and FIFA are killing the game to some degree, it’s nearly on 24/7. I’d just about watch 1 game a week myself and might catch bits and pieces of others… but then, I have a life and plenty of other lads on here don’t so i’m sure they only love it 7 days a week.
RTE has huge problems.
Seems very little in terms of drama or comedy coming from RTE now. Numbers don’t add up. Schedule is awful most of the time. A home improvement slot in Sunday prime time. Late Late Show is unwatchable most of the year. Little investigative journalism.
RTE will lose the AI championship soon enough. Then it will have women’s rugby and under 20 rugby.
How long can they afford to pay D’Arcy 500k a year?
The last home under 20s match had 4.5k at it. What would the ROI under 21s get? I wouldn’t like to jump to conclusions and say a lot less, just like the senior men’s team gets versus the Irish international rugby team.
The facts are that the Oirish football fan has little interest in the grassroots. What rates is Premier League football and the major tournament finals for the ROI national team.
The average gate at the LOI last year was 1,100. The Leinster Schools Senior Cup probably gets higher. But we’ll have thousands lads weekly getting boats and Ryanair flights over to post industrial revolution shithole cities in the UK and then you’ll all be telling us that football isn’t a bandwagon in this country. 
No they don’t have those properties anymore. TV3 have them with their exclusive contract from next year.
The GGA won’t move all of the AI off them. They would be crazy to do it. Selling out to Sky was a low point for them but they aren’t giving up the prestige of the national broadcaster. They have it locked in until 2022 anyhow.
What protects RTÉ from losing ROI home games is the Bertie clause he inserted years ago onto the sports rights list, which is very unfair on the FAI I have to say.
This is the low point for RTÉ. They will eventually get some licence fee increase and will be back bidding again for things. There is no demand in Ireland for the destruction of public service broadcasting like there is in the UK. The Tories have despised the BBC since Thatcher.
I thought the ruling is the ROI competitive games must be shown on free to air terrestrial TV .
Leinster schools - Yeah they force the students from both schools to attend, ya bollox. I’m not going to disagree with large chunks of that, the LOI has major problems, always had. It’s amateur football up against one of the biggest leagues in the world on its doorstep. The FAI does nothing to counter this in the slightest - have said as much before and i’m not going to get into it again, but the FAI are a farce. As for attendances - If the soccer team only played 6 games all year against the top teams in the game you and I both know the games would be a sell out. Playing Gibraltar on a Tuesday night is hardly going to be a sellout and midweek games are tough on the working man outside Dublin… Rugby have no such worries, they don’t have to qualify for any tournament and can select prime time events against top teams in their game… That’s what international rugby largely is really, an event … The soccer boys have to go through long sustained campaigns before they can get to the event.
The vast majority of sport in Ireland is an event TBH . Real fans attend LOI in soccer , AIL in rugby , National League in GAA, etc. Also local club games . We are a bandwagon nation .
Club rugby in Ireland has a pathetic support. The last final at Lansdowne Road last year had a paltry crowd of about 4,000 at it. Here’s a pic from the game…
The FAI cup final in contrast had 26,400 at it.
Club rugby was sacrificed on the altar of professional rugby.
Club rugby’s soccer comparator is the FAI junior cup TBH .
The provincial game killed club rugby — two men and a dog used to watch the provinces until sky sports took over — the rugby lads are no different to the thousands of lads weekly getting boats and Ryanair flights over to post industrial revolution shithole cities in the UK - @Tim_Riggins then will be telling us that rugby isn’t a bandwagon in this country.
That’s probably why they need a load of South Africans to make them competitive.
It was the right thing to do though, in fairness.
The GAA just need to have that moral courage of their rugby brethren. Joe Brolly is full of praise for how rugby folk do their business.
Why have the FAI not looked into going down the same road ? Have some North Atlantic league and give us away days to Norway, Sweden and Scotland - The brave and the faithful scrambling by raft to Norway to watch Munster football.
I was talking to a pal who was at recent League Cup Final and said a sizeable number of people were inside watching the rugby on TV.
Even in Croke Park you see lads watching the game, that is available to view live a few feet away,on the screens.
Availability of beer may be a factor.
There’s no ruling, it’s on the list drafted by the Government.
It is completely unfair on the FAI.
They have by far the most games restricted on the Cat A list of any of the major bodies in Ireland.
There is at least 1000 people there at every game not currently attending the school. Look at Donnybrook here.
Ireland v Canada (second tier nation) in November got 43,000.
Last few home games for the ROI national team;
Shocking attendances.
I assume there is some agreement that FAI funding from the state is conditional on qualifiers being shown free to air .
Also didn’t the UEFA do some consolidated rights deal for its associations . I think Mr Delaney was a key player at UEFA level .