Viability of professional sport in Ireland

[myboyblue]

@Bandage

The GPA seems to have abandoned any ambition of the GAA ever being professional at inter-county level.

Discuss.

Has Sean Óg confirmed this?

[anon95599269]

the GGA players get paid by the state -they are professional

[Pikeman]

@The All Seeing Eye

in regards to the stadium being half empty- thats not true- the free seats would relate to one stand behind the goal- ticket sales were higher than the amount of people that turned up- the 18.00 kick off & spurs fans not showing up led to people buying tickets but not going- if the capacity is 8k the ticket sales were at least 7500. the two permanent stands were full

i dont even know why i bother to be honest- ive been posting here for a few years now & all i see is the same inane cliches from the likes of pikeman & fisty- what do these cunts get from posting here? pleasure from thinking their inane opinions & quips add some value to peoples lives or do they snigger to themselves that they might annoy some faceless person they dont even know-what exactly is pikemans games & what have I done to deserve his dribble - Uuuuuuuuhgh

:rolleyes: :guns:

[caoimhaoin]

@twiceasnice97

irish sports fans are event junkies and you cant build a professional organisation on that basis.

in soccers case there is also the incedible laziness of fans who support a side by shouting at the tv in pubs that are regularly no more than a few miles from places that the game is being played at a very decent standard

Have you gone to alot of LOI Tan? Serious question.

[anon95599269]

@twiceasnice97

irish sports fans are event junkies and you cant build a professional organisation on that basis.

in soccers case there is also the incedible laziness of fans who support a side by shouting at the tv in pubs that are regularly no more than a few miles from places that the game is being played at a very decent standard

good point TAN - sure look at all the players that have played there recently- super striker kevin doyle , pat mccourt- best young player in the EPL Seamus Coleman,EPL targetman Connor Sammon, Wolves Captain Stephen Ward,Irish playmaker Keith Fahey,the list is endless & all these players on your doorstep

[Piles_Hussain]

@The All Seeing Eye

the GGA players get paid by the state -they are professional

It’s at times like this I wish there were a gigantic yawn smiley on this board.

[anon95599269]

@Piles Hussain

It’s at times like this I wish there were a gigantic yawn smiley on this board.

:rolleyes:

[Piles_Hussain]

@The All Seeing Eye

:rolleyes:

That one just isn’t expressive enough.

[Bandage]

@Piles Hussain

It’s at times like this I wish there were a gigantic yawn smiley on this board.

http://gifsforum.com/images/gif/disgusted/grand/tumb.gif

[Watch_The_Break]

@twiceasnice97

irish sports fans are event junkies and you cant build a professional organisation on that basis.

in soccers case there is also the incedible laziness of fans who support a side by shouting at the tv in pubs that are regularly no more than a few miles from places that the game is being played at a very decent standard

A lot of truth in that. People tend to follow sports teams for three main reasons though:

1. There’s a strong history or tradition they’re brought up being part of, or there’s a great story behind them that people can buy into

2. They’re successful and high profile

3. They love the sport and enjoy just watching it or supporting it

The history and tradition element applies to pretty much every GAA club team, and for a much smaller percentage to inter-county teams. I imagine it applies to the majority of LOI supporters as well. To some extent, this is where a lot of the support for EPL teams comes from as well, although this is much more attributable to the second factor. The Premiership is the Number 1 marketed sport in Ireland and that’s why it has such a big following.

The success of rugby is very much down to its combination of factors one and two. If the Irish teams weren’t successful they would have very little support, because there isn’t any real tradition of the game there that the majority of the population would have been part of, certainly not in these provincial teams. However, rugby has been brilliantly marketed. The great ‘rivalry’ between Munster and Leinster, stretching back almost a full five years has been established as the premier sporting rivalry in the country.

The problem for football clubs in this country is that as much as they may have traditions and histories and great stories of their own, they have no glamour. The rugby teams can win on the international stage, creating the aura of success. The football teams generally can’t, with the exception of the international team itself. They struggle to generate a profile as a result, and people aren’t interested in learning about their histories. So all they’re left with are the people who are part of their hardcore following and always have been, and those people who just want to support the game. There isn’t enough of either unfortunately.

[Sidney]

@KIB man

As well as the taxpayer.

If the LOI was a decent product people would go. Rovers qualify for Europe and still people won’t go to their games.

The League of Ireland is a good product but cannot compete against the EPL - it’s like the local street with a specialist greengrocer, butcher, hardware shop etc - they sell good products and are good for the community, but then Tesco moves in just up the road and swamps them, funnelling profits out of the community and destroying the smaller shops. Tesco deliberately undercuts the small shops with its massive buying power to put them out of business, the EPL swamps its competitors with its saturation media coverage. It’s impossible to compete against that.

[Bandage]

@sid waddell

The League of Ireland is a good product but cannot compete against the EPL - it’s like the local street with a specialist greengrocer, butcher, hardware shop etc - they sell good products and are good for the community, but then Tesco moves in just up the road and swamps them, funnelling profits out of the community and destroying the smaller shops. Tesco deliberately undercuts the small shops with its massive buying power to put them out of business, the EPL swamps its competitors with its saturation media coverage. It’s impossible to compete against that.

Good analogy sid. And that’s the primary reason complete and utter tards won’t support Irish teams like Wexford Youths or Celtic but will row in behind Norwich or someone.

[fenwaypark]

@Watch The Break

A lot of truth in that. People tend to follow sports teams for three main reasons though:

1. There’s a strong history or tradition they’re brought up being part of, or there’s a great story behind them that people can buy into

2. They’re successful and high profile

3. They love the sport and enjoy just watching it or supporting it

The history and tradition element applies to pretty much every GAA club team, and for a much smaller percentage to inter-county teams. I imagine it applies to the majority of LOI supporters as well. To some extent, this is where a lot of the support for EPL teams comes from as well, although this is much more attributable to the second factor. The Premiership is the Number 1 marketed sport in Ireland and that’s why it has such a big following.

The success of rugby is very much down to its combination of factors one and two. If the Irish teams weren’t successful they would have very little support, because there isn’t any real tradition of the game there that the majority of the population would have been part of, certainly not in these provincial teams. However, rugby has been brilliantly marketed. The great ‘rivalry’ between Munster and Leinster, stretching back almost a full five years has been established as the premier sporting rivalry in the country.

The problem for football clubs in this country is that as much as they may have traditions and histories and great stories of their own, they have no glamour. The rugby teams can win on the international stage, creating the aura of success. The football teams generally can’t, with the exception of the international team itself. They struggle to generate a profile as a result, and people aren’t interested in learning about their histories. So all they’re left with are the people who are part of their hardcore following and always have been, and those people who just want to support the game. There isn’t enough of either unfortunately.

Thats a great post.

[fenwaypark]

@Bandage

Good analogy sid. And that’s the primary reason complete and utter tards won’t support Irish teams like Wexford Youths or Celtic but will row in behind Norwich or someone.

Outfuckingstanding analogy.

[anon95599269]

the counter argument against the EPL though is that the joy in watching football is watching live - people who only watch it on TV miss out on what its about -The Irish football fans experience differs from the english & european football fan experiences

[Mullach_Ide]

@The All Seeing Eye

the counter argument against the EPL though is that the joy in watching football is watching live - people who only watch it on TV miss out on what its about -The Irish football fans experience differs from the english & european football fan experiences

I believe The Runt has positive proof of this…

[The_Runt]

@Mullach Ide

I believe The Runt has positive proof of this…

True I have never been assualted on visits to football grounds outside Ireland.

[Mullach_Ide]

@The Runt

True I have never been assualted on visits to football grounds outside Ireland.

I meant the free can of Dutch Gold you got on a visit to a LOI match…

[Sidney]

The LOI and Irish League have also been unfortunate simply due to geographical and cultural factors. Ireland is the only other English speaking country in Europe, an island of four million people for most of the last century. An island of four million people which was a complete backwater in European and world terms versus a country of 50 million people just sixty miles away and which was one of the two most influential countries in world terms, which had a highly developed media even going back as far as the 40s and 50s, and to which which half of Ireland had emigrated to. The migration of footballers to Britain was a natural extension of the migration of the rest of the population. There was also the small matter of the Free State being their colony in the recent past and they still colonise part of the island.

Other smaller leagues thoughout Europe didn’t suffer from those factors. Those countries weren’t colonies of Britain and didn’t speak the same language. Most countries have their own language and also had a bigger population. They didn’t have the same culture of emigration. The big continental leagues also had rules against outside players. Players stayed in their native countries for a combination of all of these reasons. Association football in those countries also didn’t have to compete against the GAA and rugby.

So you got the emergence of big clubs in small countries which still sustains the smaller leagues to an extent although they are clearly beginning to struggle more and more in the Champions League era as the concentration of money in the hands of the rich becomes more and more acute. The likes of Ajax, PSV and Feyenoord in Holland, Benfica and Porto in Portugal, Anderlecht in Belgium, IFK Gothenburg in Sweden, Brondby in Denmark. Even if those leagues are struggling now they can still boast respected traditional European names. The League of Ireland can’t and unfortunately, as the monetary and media power of the EPL and the other major European Leagues grows and grows the whole thing is an increasingly self reinforcing cycle. The rich get richer, the poor get poorer.

[Whiplash]

I have been most impressed with Sid’s analysis of this thread.He has hit the nail on the head on numerous occasions.It really is quite annoying to listen to some people be it in a pub or in work and discuss English football teams in terms of “we”.If “we” could just sign Mario Goetze From Dortmund or “we” dropped a vital 2 points against Swansea.It is fucking sickening to listen to.How do Irish people reduce themselves to this.And as Bandage alluded to why don’t they get involved with Wexford youths or Bray Wanderers or whoever.These people don’t have any emotional or tangible links to these foreign PLC’s and have probably never darkened the door of any of the stadia over there.It is incredible the marketing that Sky carry out.They make watching an event like Wolves and Sunderland on “Super Sunday” as some clash of giants.And it is everywhere.In Ireland we have an angry fans section in the newspapers,fantasy premier league,the premiership,talk sport,Newstalk live broadcasting of EPL games,Michael McMullen on Today FM for about 4 hours on a Saturday.Tony Cascarino and Mark Lawrenson every day on the last word, not to mention junkmail every week in the door asking us to upgrade to Sky Sports and have the first 3 months free.How could anything compete with that?